THE HISTORY OF MALDEN 



THE 



History of Malden 



ittaftsacljusfettjs 



1633-1785 



BY 



DELORAINE PENDRE COREY 



Lift we the twilight curtains of the Past, 

And turning from familiar sight and sound, 

Sadly and full of reverence let us cast 

A glance upon Tradition's shadowy ground. 

Whittier 




MALDEN 

PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR 

1899 









Copyright, 1S9S, 
By Deloraixe Pexdre Corey. 



DEC22ir 



Stnttoersitjj Press: 
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A. 



U \ L era 



ISABELLA HOLD EN 

AND TO 

E\)t iSlcmorg of our .Son 
ARTHUR DELORAINE COREY, Ph.D. 

THESE PAGES ARE INSCRIBED 



PREFACE. 



THIS volume is the result of a careful collection and 
verification of facts and traditions extending over 
a period of more than forty-five years. It embraces the 
history of a New England town to the close of the 
Revolution — to a time when old customs and systems 
were disappearing and new forces in political, ecclesi- 
astical, educational, and social affairs were springing into 
life. It is the story of an elder day and of a life in 
which much appears that is strange to a later age. If 
we read it aright we shall better understand our in- 
debtedness to those generations whose labors and trials 
made possible the freedom and prosperity of the present ; 
and we shall avoid that effusive worship of the fathers 
which is a fashion rather than the result of a knowledge 
of the true character of the past in its weaknesses and 
strength. 

Materials for a history of the town during the suc- 
ceeding period of transition and growth have been 
brought together and are abundant for the preparation 
of a companion volume, which, with a genealogical ac- 
count of the old families of Maiden, the present writer 
has in contemplation. In the meantime a regard to the 
uncertainties of life and a desire to place beyond the 
possibility of loss that which has been gathered of 
the earlier history have prompted the issue of the 
present volume. 

I am especially indebted to the Massachusetts Histor- 
ical Society and to the New England Historic Genea- 



viii PREFACE. 

logical Society for the use of manuscript matter of much 
interest, particularly of material relating to the Wiggles- 
worths. 

Collections of papers made by the late James D. 
Green of Cambridge and the late Artemas Barrett of 
Melrose, the former of which is now in the library of 
the New England Historic Genealogical Society, have 
added much to my knowledge of important affairs, 
which would otherwise have been imperfect. 

My acknowledgments are due to Albion H. Bicknell, 
Frank A. Bicknell, and Henry L. Moody for the pen- 
and-ink sketches of old houses and bits of scenery which 
are here reproduced. 

I have indicated authorities with care, a practice the 
absence of which in most local, and many general, his- 
tories is to be deplored. Where the sources of infor- 
mation are obvious, as in extracts from the town and 
parish or church records, references have not been 
given. 

The difference between Old Style and New Style is 
so generally understood that an explanation here is 
needless. The chronology followed is always that of 
the records, which is Old Style to September 13, 1752, 
inclusive. 

It may be understood from a statement made on 

page 80 that a settlement on Mystic Side before the 

close of 1640 is conjectural. That is not correct, as 

John Greenland had " halfe built his house " during 

that year, and others appear with him. The statement 

should be made to apply before the beginning of the 

year and not before its close. 

D. P. C. 

October, 1898. 



CONTENTS, 



CHAPTER I. 
Old Maldon. 

Page 
Cymbeline — Camelot — Camalodunum — Boadicea — Maeldune — Maldon — 
Rebuilt by Edward the Elder— Battle of Maldon — " Byrhtnoth's Death " — 
Saint Mary's — All Saints — John Pratt— Saint Peter's — Abbey of Beleigh 
— Hospital of Saint Giles — Maldon in the seventeenth century — Maldon 
in the nineteenth century — Its charters and government — Joseph Hills and 
John Wayte ..... I 



CHAPTER II. 

Discoverers and Indians. 

Early Explorations — The Council for New England and its grants — The 
Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay — The first comers. — 
Naumkeag — The Spragues pass over Mystic Side — Early reports of the 
condition of the country — Indians — The plague — Nanepashemet — 
Squa Sachem — Y. onohaquaham — Montowampate — Wenepoykin — Indian 
claims — Philip's War 13 

CHAPTER III. 

Allotments and Settlement. 

"Winthrop's visit to Spot Pond — Mystic Side granted to Charlestown — 
Grants to Wilson and Nowell — First allotments at Mystic Side — Division 
of 1638 — Special grants and division of reserved land — Charlestown 
bounds determined — First inhabitants — Coytmore's mill — Early highways 54 

CHAPTER IV. 
Church and Town. 

Early settlers — Gathering of the church — Agreement with Charlestown — 
Incorporation of the town — Early records — Early inns — Quarrels and 
misdemeanors 101 



x CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER V, 

Marmaduke Matthews. 



Page 



Church and State — Early life of Matthews — Ordained at Maiden — Accused 
of errors — His answer — The church called to answer for its offence — 
Petition of the women — Answer of the church — The church fined — An 
ecclesiastical council — Matthews returns to England — A portion of the 
fine of the church abated 126 



CHAPTER VI. 

Joseph Hills and John Wayte. 

Arrival in New England — The Laws of Massachusetts Bay — Edward John- 
son — The "Body of Liberties" — Committee to draw a body of laws — 
The work completed — The laws of 164S printed — Subsequent supple- 
ments and editions — Petition of Joseph Hills — His public services — His 
later petition — John Wayte — His public services 165 

CHAPTER VII. 

A Teacher and a New Meeting House. 

Forlorn condition of the church — Michael Wigglesworth — His early life — 
Called to Maiden — His trials and uncertainties — The ministry house and 
lands — The first meeting house — The second meeting house 186 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Michael Wigglesworth. 

Dissatisfaction — False beliefs of Joseph Hills — Death of Mrs. Wigglesworth — 
"The Day of Doom" — "God's Controversy with New England" — Vovage 
to Bermuda — Benjamin Bunker — Mr. Wigglesworth as a physician — 
"Meat out of the Eater" — Benjamin Blakeman 217 

CHAPTER IX. 

Cheever and Wigglesworth. 

Thomas Cheever — Wigglesworth marries Martha Mudge — Charges against 
Cheever — Council at Maiden — Cheever removes to Rumney Marsh — He 
gathers a church there — A committee orders the support of Wigglesworth 
— He marries Sybil (Sparhawk) Avery — He recovers his health and the 
confidence of his people — Death of Wigglesworth 257 



CONTENTS. xi 

CHAPTER X. 

Pioneers, Soldiers, and Witchcraft. 

Page 
Character and condition of the settlers — Petition for land at Pennacook — 
Grant of one thousand acres for the use of the ministry — Settlement at 
Quansigamug — Troubles with the Indians — Military company at Maiden 

— The three County Troop — Philip's War — Soldiers from Maiden and 
Mystic Side — The Witchcraft Delusion — Wigglesworth's testimony. . 296 

CHAPTER XI. 

Town Officers and Common Lands. 

Annual town meetings — Patriotism of the people — Selectmen — Tithing- 
men — Constables — Town clerks — Town treasurers — Assessors — Minor 
officers — Sextons and grave-diggers — Country and town rates — Town 
charges — The common lands — Highways in the common lands — Divi- 
sion of the commons — Charlestown's rights in common lands — Common 
lands in later years 339 

CHAPTER XII. 

Poverty and Slavery. 

The first pauper — George Felt — John Bucknam — Bethiah Wilkinson — 
Later cases — The Teeles and Hallowells — Jack Welcome and Black Ann 

— John Ramsdell — A work house hired — Thomas Manser's house — 
Town vote against inmates — Cautions and notices — Deb Saco — Hannah 
Shiner — Moll Grusli — Slavery — Sale of slaves by deed — Gradual ex- 
tinction of slavery — Simon and Lydia Knights — Records of blacks in . 
Maiden 384 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Highways and Bridges. 

Highways at Mystic Side — Landing place at Wormwood Point — Highways 
in Maiden — Stony Lane and Hutchinson's Lane — Other roads — Land- 
ing place at Moulton's Island — The bridge at Medford — Bridge at Black 
Ann's Corner — Lewis's Bridge — Charges for roads and bridges — Gates 
across highways 428 

CHAPTER XIV. 
David Parsons and Joseph Emerson. 

Church troubles after the death of Wigglesworth — Candidates and supplies 

— David Parsons — A committee of the church prosecutes the town — 
Parsons removes to Leicester — His ministry and life there — Joseph 
Emerson — His character and life — Burning of the ministry house — 
Building of a new parsonage 463 



xi l CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XV. 

Charlestown Neighbors and Trouble. 



Page 



Mystic Side — Wilson's Point — Families at Mystic Sidq — Mystic Side 
annexed to Maiden — Maiden at its largest extent — Northern portion set 
off to Reading — New meeting house proposed — Division and strife — 
The General Court interposes — The new house finished — Quarrel be- 
tween the upper and lower branches of the General Court — The new 
house described 486 



CHAPTER XVI. 

The South Precinct. 

The strife renewed — Meeting house on Sargeant's Hill — Petition for a 
division — The South Church organized — Joseph Stimpson — Emerson 
reviews the situation — Petition for a division renewed — The town divided 
into two precincts — The ministerial lands a source of strife — The condi- 
tion of the new church and precinct — Continued strife — The Shrewsbury 
lands 526 



CHAPTER XVII. 



The South Precinct Decadent. 

Trouble with Stimpson and his dismissal — Reunion proposed — Aaron 
Cleaveland — Eliakim Willis — Confession of Faith — Disintegration — 
Scheme of settlement proposed by the South Precinct — The Shrewsbury 
lands — Legal difficulties and their settlement — The ministerial fund — 
Suits for a division of the ministerial fund — Willis threatened with fire 
and death — The parsonage — Low condition of the church and precinct 
until their extinction 561 



CHAPTER XVIII. 
The Town School. 

William Godden and his bequest — Maiden presented — Succession of mas- 
ters — Families that bore public charges in 1710 — Samuel Wigglesworth 

— His funeral song — A school house built — Masters for short terms — 
Samuel Dexter — School house in the South Precinct — Nathaniel Jenkins 

— School house built near the meeting house — School house built at 

Ian — Masters after Jenkins — Condition of public schools at the close 
of the century 600 



CONTENTS. xiu 

CHAPTER XIX 
Before the Revolution. 

Page 
The Greens set off to Stoneham — Medford bounds — The throat distemper 
— Low state of religion — George Whitefield — The north meeting house — 
Death of Emerson — Peter Thacher — Membership of the First Church in 
1772 — Renewed prosperity of the church followed by a reaction — Con- 
dition of the town before the Revolution — Emerson and his shay — Hill's 
Tavern — Kettell's and Foster's Tavern — The old town well — Newhall's 
Tavern — Waite's Tavern — Other inns — Retailers of spirits 632 



CHAPTER XX. 

Military Affairs and the French Neutrals. 

The wars of King William and Queen Anne — Edmund Chamberlain — Con- 
troversy with Gov. Belcher — King George's War — Expedition to Nova 
Scotia — Removal of the Acadians — The Neutrals in Maiden — Their 
condition and petitions for relief — Their departure — The Seven Years' 
War — Soldiers in the French War — The town militia after Philip's War 

— Benjamin Blaney — John Dexter — Bayonet men in 1758 — Officers 
before the Revolution 683 

CHAPTER XXI. 
The Opening of the Revolution. 

Public feeling before the Revolution — The Stamp Act — Instructions to 
Ebenezer Harnden — The Boston Massacre — Address to the inhabitants 
of Boston — Renewed instructions to Ebenezer Harnden — The Tea Party 

— Long town meetings — More instructions to Ebenezer Harnden — The 
Provincial Congress — Military matters — The Lexington Alarm — The 
minute men — The affair at Menotomy — Two companies raised for 
the defence of Maiden and Chelsea — Battle of Noddle's Island — Battle 
of Bunker Hill — Events along Mystic River — The British land at Penny 
Ferry — Estimate of damages received during the siege 721 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Malden in the Revolution. 

Instructions to Ezra Sargeant in relation to Independence — British driven 
from Boston Harbor — Calls for troops — Thacher's letter to the Maiden 
men at Ticonderoga — More men called — Town bounties offered — Ser- 
vice in Rhode Island — Dr. Jonathan Porter accused — A state constitution 
proposed — A committee to procure men — Beacon on Wayte's Mount — 
A company for coast defence — Men hired to avert a draft — The small- 
pox — The dark day — A state constitution adopted — First election of 
state officers — Quota of three years' men filled — The last recruit sent . 761 



xiv CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
Malden in the Navy of the Revolution. 

Page 
Early naval history involved in obscurity — Daniel Waters — Given a com- 
mand by Washington — Operations in Massachusetts Bay — Secures 
Mugford's prize — Capture of ships at Nantasket — Waters receives a 
commission from Congress — Captured in the frigate "Fox" — The expe- 
dition to the Penobscot — Fight with the brigs "Sir William Erskine " and 
" Tryon " — The brig " Sparlin " taken — Jonathan Oakes — The " Hawke " 

— Isaac Smith — Dr. John Sprague — Dr. Ezra Green — With Paul Jones 

— Loss of the brigantine " Massachusetts " 784 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

Soldiers and Sailors. 

Alphabetical list of soldiers and sailors in service during the Revolution . . S06 

Appendix. 

Rose Hills not Rose Dunster 833 

The Plan of Malden 8 34 



Index 837 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Maldon, Co. Essex, England, 1830 Frontispiece 

From an old print. Page 

D'Arcy Tower, Maldon, England 1 

Erected before 1440. The Moot or Town Hall. 

Heraldry of Maldon 11 

The Borough Seal and the Admiralty Seal. 

On Wayte's Mount, 1859 j ! 3 

Spot Pond, 1885 54 

The Joseph Lynde House, 1873 74 

Now standing on Main Street, near Pine Banks Park. 

The Barnes-Pratt House, 1862 91 

Also known as Leggett's in its latter days. Formerly standing in the woods near 
Green's Hole. 

The Carrington-Paine House, 1883 101 

Built before 1700. Now standing on Main Street. Everett. 

The Paine House, 1883 103 

Also known as the Simon Tufts House. Recently standing near Main and 
Winthrop Streets, Everett. 

The Micah Waite House, 1885 165 

Also known as the Peter Waite House. Formerly standing at the corner of Main 
and Clifton Streets. 

The Bell Rock Meeting House 186 

As suggested by the contract and the known features of such buildings at that 
period. 

Edgeworth Bridge, 1886 296 

The Blaney House, 1883 339 

Now standing near the corner of Ferry and Chelsea Streets, Everett. 

The Howard-Pratt House, 1858 358 

Also known as the Lydia Pratt House. Now standing, but remodelled, on Fo»est 
Street, near Forest Dale Cemetery. 

The Blaney House, 1883 361 

As seen from Ferry Street. 

The John Pratt Farm, 1885 369 

Also known as the Hall Farm. Now a portion of Forest Dale Cemetery. 

The Boardman House, 1885 379 

In Saugus, near the Melrose line. 

The Parsonage, 1883 463 

Built 1724. Now standing on Main Street, near Bell Rock. 



xvi ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Page 

John Pratt's plan of the Meeting House of 1730 .... 523 

Old House on Grover Street, Linden, 1886 526 

The Bryant House, 1884 561 

On Cross Street. Rear view. 

Plan of Malden Farm, 1735 587 

From a copy in the possession of Charles E. Clark, M. D., Lynn. 

The Jenkins-Rand House, 1882 630 

Home of Master Jenkins. Formerly standing on the Old Road near the corner 
of Salem Street and Broadway. 

The John Pratt Farm, 18S5 632 

Also known as the Hall Farm. Now a portion of Forest Dale Cemetery. 

Hill's Tavern, 1850 669 

Then standing on the site of the City Hall. Removed to Irving Street in 1857. 

Waite's Tavern, 1S85 680 

Formerly standing on Salem Street, opposite Webster Street. 

The Waite-Ireson House, 1885 683 

Now standing on Swain's Pond Avenue. 

The Samuel Waite House, 1861 721 

Sold by Tabitha Newhall to John Clewly in 1758. Formerly standing on the site 
of the Faulkner School, Salem Street. 

Old Houses on Cross Street, 1884 761 

In the John Waite House, on the right, Methodism was preached about 1800. 
It was demolished in 1896. The house in the centre was built by Benjamin 
Faulkner after his marriage with Huldah Hallowell in 1761. A portion of the 
Bryant House, on the left, is said to be older; 

The Floyd-Fisher House, 1S86 784 

Formerly standing on the westerly corner of Pleasant and Dartmouth Streets. 

Plan of Malden, 1795 834 

From a copy in the possession of Clarence D. Richardson. 



FACSIMILES OF TITLE PAGES. 

WlGGLESWORTH, " DAY OF DOOM,'" 1 673 223 

From a copy in the Prince Library. 

WlGGLESWORTH, "MEAT OUT OF THE EATER," 1717 247 

From a copy in the possession of D. P. Corey. 

Mather, "A Faithful Man," 1705 292 

From a copy in the Prince Library. 

Emerson, " Meat Out of the Eater," 1735 537 

From a copy in the possession of D. P. Corey. 

Emerson, "Early Piety Encouraged," 1738 639 

From a copy in the Prince Library. 

Emerson "A Word to those that are afflicted," 1738 . . 640 

From a copy in the Prince Library. 

Emerson, "An Extract from a late Sermon," 1767 .... 647 

From a copy in the possession of D. P. Corey. 



ILL US TR A TIONS. 



xvii 



AUTOGRAPHS. 



Benjamin Blakeman, 1675 
Samuel Brackenbury, 1675 
William Brackenbury, 1653 
Benjamin Bunker, 1659 
Thomas Cheever, 1693. 
Aaron Cleaveland, 1727 
Joseph Emerson, 1724 . 
William Godden, 1663 
John Gould, 1778 . . . 
Bernard Green, 17S9 . 
Fzra Green, 1766 . . . 
Jin in Greenland, 1700 . 
Ebenezer Harnden, 1773 
Charles Hill, 17S7 . . 
Joseph Hills, 1650 . . 



Page 

252 
261 

102 

23S 

277 

56S 

477 
600 

40S 
720 

349 
74i 
670 
168 



Nathaniel Jenkins, Jr., 1757 
John Martin, 1786 . . 
Jonathan Oakes, 1806 . 
Nicholas Paige, 1702 . 
David Parsons, 171 2. . 
Joseph Perkins, 1780 . 
William Sargeant, 1650 
John Shute, 1750 . . . 
John Sprague, 1779 . . 
Phineas Upham, 1675 • 
Daniel Waters, 1777 . 
John Wayte, 1657 . . 
Michael Wigglesworth, 
Eliakim Willis, 1800 . 
Jacob W t inslad, 1700 



1696 



Page 
625 

357 
798 
207 

47i 
782 
105 

723 
801 
320 

735 
1S4 
199 
574 

345 




CHAPTER I. 



OLD MALDON. 



ON the eastern coast of England, where the rivers Chelmer 
and Blackwater unite, a narrow inlet of the German Sea 
enters the land. In the early British days, along its shores was 
the land of the Trinobantes, now the modern county of Essex; 
and upon a pleasant sloping acclivity on its southern bank a 
British chief, called by the courtesy of history a king, had fixed 
his seat. The unfamiliar name of Cynobelin, son of Tenuan- 
tius, is only one in a roll of barbarian kings; but the life-giving 
touch of Shakspere has brightened it with eternal youth as 
Cymbeline, the father of Imogen. 

The tide of the invasion of Julius Caesar had left in its reflux, 
as drift upon the shore, many remains of the arts and manners 



2 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

of Latin civilization; and the use of coined money and the 
worship of the god Camulus — the Italian Mars — attested the 
enlightenment and progress of the British king. From this 
god the royal city of the Trinobantes took, in a Roman form, 
the name of Camalodunum — the hill of Camulus — which was 
modified in the British tongue to that of Camelot. How the 
blossoms and fragrance of poetry and romance gather around 
that name ! All the tenderness, and bravery, and glory of the 
old Arthurian legends cling to it; for here, with all the state of 
one whose existence was half unreal and all romantic, King 
Arthur, in the unfixed and shadowy time of his realm, held his 
mystic court. The picture that we all know in our hearts so 
well, and which is all English, is as real to-day, though the 
many towers have passed away, as when Lancelot loved and 
Guinevere was fair. 

On either side the river lie 
Long fields of barley and of rye, 
That clothe the wold and meet the sky ; 
And through the field the road runs by 

To many-towered Camelot ; 
And up and down the people go, 
Gazing where the lilies blow 
Round an island there below, 

The island of Shalott. 1 

When Cymbeline had passed away, the Emperor Claudius in 
completing the reduction of Britain, which his generals had 
nearly achieved, placed a strong colony of his veterans in 
Camelot; and thenceforth the south-eastern portion of the 
island, dominated by the garrison of Camalodunum, became 
a province of the Roman empire. 2 

Less than ten years of prosperity, of fancied security, and of 
cruel tyranny over the Britons did the first and chief colony of 
Rome enjoy; for in the year A.D. 62, 

The image of the Goddess of Victory at Camalodunum, without any 
visible cause, dropped down, and in the fall turned downward, as if it 
yielded to the enemy. Several women in ecstasies of frenzy foretold 
impending ruin. Strange noises were heard in the court ; and a wild' 
howling in the theatre, and a strange apparition in the arm of the sea r 

1 Tennyson, Lady of Shalott. ' l Tacitus, Annals, xii. (32). 



OLD MALDON. 3 

plainly signified the subversion of that colony. Moreover the sea 
looked bloody ; and in the ebb dead men's bodies were left upon the 
shore. 3 

These signs were the precursors of evil ; and in a short time 
after, the Britons under Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, who 
had in her own person endured the insults and cruelty of the 
Romans, fell upon the colony and routed with a great slaughter 
the ninth legion, which had come to its assistance. The town 
was destroyed and seventy thousand Romans and allies were 
killed in the general insurrection which followed. 4 

Although the place was rebuilt, its consequence was lost; and 
for a period of more than eight hundred years its name cannot 
be found. We only know that, passing from Camelot through 
its Roman form of Camalodunum, it came to be called, in the 
tongue of the Saxons, Maeldune, from a cross, say some, which 
stood upon the hill — Mael y a cross, and dune, a hill. Some 
writers, however, see in the new name only a Saxon shortening 
of the Latin word ; as Camden, that rare old antiquary of the 
seventeenth century, who, taking away the first and last sylla- 
bles of Camalodunum, found Malodun — Maeldune, Maldon, 
like the statue in the rough rock, waiting to spring into 
existence. 

Near by, on the banks of the Blackwater, formerly the Panta 
and afterwards the Froshwell, stood the Saxon town of Ithan- 
cester, where in 653 Saint Ceada baptized the pagans of Essex 
into the religion of Christ. Not more completely than the town 
itself have saint and converts passed away. So utterly has 
it disappeared that an old writer supposed it to have been 
"swallowed up in the river Pant." 5 

Hitherto all is vague and uncertain that relates to the Maldon 
which now began to emerge from the obscurity of remote time. 
Even its existence as a British and Roman town has been 
denied ; and to a rival colony, the modern Colchester, its 
honors have been transferred. However, good and true men, 
both of the elder and later generations of antiquaries, hold fast 

3 Tacitus, Annals, xiv. (32). 5 Ralph Niger, quoted in Camden, 

4 Ibid. Britannia (1695), 344. 



4 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

to the Camclot of the Britons and the Roman Camalodunum as 
the predecessors of the Saxon Maeldune and the Maldon of 
to-day. Henceforward, both among Saxons and Normans, it 
becomes a material thing; and, though romance and poetry 
may still cling to it, no veil of doubt can be thrown over its 
entity. 

The first fact in the established history of Maldon is that 
Edward the Elder, while in the field against the Danes, who 
had subdued and occupied East Anglia and the surrounding 
districts, encamped there in 913, " whilst the fortress at 
Witham was wrought and built, and a good part of the people 
who were before under the dominion of the Danishmen submitted 
to him." 6 Four years later he rebuilt the town, and, raising a 
castle, furnished it with a garrison of soldiers. 7 In 918 the 
Danes besieged it, and Edward came again " and drove them 
from before that town, and slew many thousands of them as 
they fled." 8 

Once more did the spirit of poetry invest with its beauty the 
shores of Maldon ; and the death of a Saxon hero gave birth to 
a contemporary poem which, imperfect and mutilated as it has 
come to us, is one of the pearls of Old English poetry. In this 
old song of ByrJitnotJC s Death the story of the battle of Maldon 
and the defeat of the Saxons is told with great dramatic force 
and deep earnestness. 

Under the brothers Justin and Guthmund the Northmen in 
991 made another victorious descent upon the shores of East 
Anglia. This band, which appears to have been composed of 
followers of the celebrated Christian sea-king Olaf Tryggvesson 
of Norway, who seems to have accompanied them, attacked 
and destroyed Gipeswic (Ipswich) and overran the coast of 
Essex to Maldon. Here their ships lay in the river and their 
troops were gathered together on the promontory between the 
Blackwater and the Chelmer. Opposed to them upon the 
northern shore was the Earldorman Byrhtnoth with his East 
Saxons ; and a bridge which crossed the river between them, 

6 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in loco. 8 Matthew of Westminster, Flowers 

7 Rn.L't .t of WYnclover, Flowers of His- of History (Bohn), i. 464. 
tory (Bohn), i. 242. 



OLD MALDON. 5 

the mediaeval successor of which still remains, was defended by 
three Saxon champions, whose feat recalls the story of the 
Roman Horatius and his companions. " We will give you for 
tribute," shouted the old Earldorman, " our weapons for gifts, 
the poisoned points of our spears, our old swords, and the 
weight of our descending arms." He dared the vikings to 
meet the Saxons hand to hand, and gave them space upon the 
shore that they might cross the river and form without opposi- 
tion. In the battle which followed, the Saxons were defeated 
with a great slaughter. As the old hero lay dying, surrounded 
by his hearth-company, who fought around him as the Greeks 
over the body of Patroklos, he prayed: "Thanks, Thou Ruler 
of Men, for the joys of the world and my life. Now need I, 
Maker of All, that Thou makest my spirit to pass to Thee, into 
Thy kingdom, O King of Souls." Said his old companion, 
Byrhtwold, as he fought above him : " My days have been 
many. By my Earl, the loved warrior, will I lay me down and 
go away no more." 9 Under the great tower of Ely, England's 
most stately cathedral, the headless body of Byrhtnoth rested 
nearly eight hundred years; and the loving hand of his wife 
yEthelflaed wrought the story of his death on a tapestry which 
rivalled the famous work of Queen Matilda at Bayeux. 

In vain was the death of Byrhtnoth, and in vain did others 
like him stand against the arms of the Northmen. Retreating to 
their ships when hard pressed, the invaders quickly transferred 
themselves to unprotected points and soon overcame the eastern 
coasts. /Ethelred the Unready sat in the seat of /Elfred and 
Edward ; and a heavy tribute, paid by the advice of Sigeric, 
Archbishop of Canterbury, stayed for a while the course of the 
victorious vikings, and encouraged them to greater ravages a 
year or two later. From this unfortunate tribute sprang the 
Dane-geld, or Dane-money, a burdensome tax which oppressed 
the nation many years until it was finally abolished by Stephen 
in 1 1 36, long after the Danes had retired or been absorbed into 

9 Cf. Ten Brink, Early English Lit- Saxonica, 131 ; and a modern English 

erat//re,g^-g6. The original Old-English translation is given in Conybeare, Illns- 

text of the fragment which survives is trations of Anglo-Saxon Poetry, xc. 
printed in Thorpe, Analecta Anglo- 



6 HISTORY OF MALDEIV. 

the English people. Near Maldon, on its western side, are 
traces of a fortification or camp which has been considered as 
Roman, Saxon, or Danish, as authorities differed. It covered 
about twenty-two acres. In the middle of the last century 
three sides were still visible; but already it had begun to be 
defaced. 10 The traces which still exist are growing less distinct 
and will finally be obliterated. 

After so many varied seasons of peace and war under the 
conflicting rule of the four nations which successively occupied 
it, Maldon found a long period of repose ; and its people built 
churches and abbeys, founded a public library and schools, 
lived by trade and the fisheries, which extended twenty miles 
along the coast, and in their prosperity enjoyed their famous 
Wallfleet oysters, which were found in profusion in the waters 
of their bay. 

Before the Norman Conquest the Saxon Ingelric, the father 
of William the Conqueror's beautiful Ingelrica de Peverell, 
founded Saint Mary's Church, now known from its situation as 
the Lower Church. The building of the Saxons has dis- 
appeared, but much remains of that of the Normans in the 
heavy buttresses and the chancel arch, which still keep their 
places amid later work. The massive Norman tower fell in the 
seventeenth century. It was rebuilt of red brick at a time when 
from the neighborhood was taking place that removal which 
carried the name of Maldon into the wilderness of New Eng- 
land. An hexagonal lantern which remains upon the tower was 
for many years a beacon for sailors. The church itself was 
restored in 1886 at a cost of about fifteen thousand dollars. Of 
several ancient brasses and slabs which formerly existed in this 
church, but one, that of John Fenne, i486, now remains. 

In 1056 — ten years before the coming of William the Con- 
queror, at which time Maldon contained " one hundred and 
eighty houses, held by the Burgesses, and eighteen mansions 
laid waste," 11 — was built the church of All Saints, with its 
chancel, nave, and aisles, and a curious triangular tower. It 

10 Morant, History of Essex (1768). n Domesday, cited by Camden, Bri- 

tannia (1695), 349. 



OLD MALDON. 



was carefully restored in 1867, and some recent additions have 
been made. 12 Time and the deeds of men have fallen heavily 
upon this church, which still shows many traces of its former 
beauty. It is said that a "lamentable destruction of monuments 
has taken place in this once magnificent church, since the 
beginning of the seventeenth century." Numerous ancient 
brasses have entirely disappeared ; and of all the costly monu- 
ments which filled the spacious D'Arcy chapel but one remains. 

In All Saints might formerly be read this inscription : " Here- 
under lieth the Body of John Pratt, late one of the Aldermen of 
this Borough Town of Maldon. Ob. 30 July, 1619." 13 This has 
a familiar sound ; and not only in name, but by the closer tie of 
relationship may this John Pratt of Essex have been connected 
with the Maldon in Massachusetts Bay; for Richard Pratt, who 
became an early settler at Mystic Side, was, it is said, the 
youngest son of John Pratt of Maldon, where he was baptized, 
June 29, 1615. 14 

Besides the churches named there was another — that of 
Saint Peter's, an ancient house, of which the tower alone 



12 Edward Bright, a shopkeeper, was 
buried in this church in 1750. His case 
was so remarkable that it was thought 
to deserve a place in the Philosophical 
Transactions, xlvii. 18S ; and a print was 
taken of him which may sometimes be 
found in the collections of antiquaries. 
" The body was drawn to the church in 
a carriage upon rollers, and lowered 
into the vault by means of a triangle 
and pulleys. 

" He was a man so extremely fat, and 
of such an uncommon bulk and weight, 
that there are very few, if any, such in- 
stances to be found in any country or 
upon record in any books, At the age 
of 12 years and a half he weighed 10 
stones and 4 pounds horseman's weight, 
i. e. 144 pounds. He increased in bulk 
as he grew up, so that in seven years 
more he weighed 336 pounds. He went 
on increasing, and probably in pretty 
near the same proportion : For the last 
time he was weighed, which was about 
thirteen months before he dyed, his neat 
weight was 41 stones and ten pounds, 
or 584 pounds, At the time of his death 



as he was manifestly grown bigger since 
the last weighing, if we take the same 
proportion by which he had increased 
for many years upon an average, viz. of 
about 2 stones a year, and only allow 
four pounds addition for last year, on 
account of his moving about but very 
little, this will bring him to 44 stones 
or 616 pounds neat weight. — As to his 
measure he was 5 feet 9 inches and a 
half high. His body round the chest 
just under the arms measured 5 feet 
6 inches, and round the belly 6 feet 1 1 
inches. His arm in the middle of it 
was 2 feet 2 inches about, and his leg 
2 feet S inches. After his death seven 
men were buttoned in his westcoat with- 
out breaking a stitch or straining a 
button. He dyed 10 November 1750, 
aged 29." Morant, History of Essex, i. 

33S. 

13 Salmon, History of Essex, 424. 

14 Savage, Genealogical Dictionary, 
iii. 475; YVyman, Genealogies and Es- 
tates of Charlestown, 770. The authority 
for this statement has as yet escaped 
my search. 



8 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

remains. The building itself, being in a ruinous condition, was 
demolished many years ago. The parish once connected with 
it still exists, being joined with that of All Saints. 

Near the town stood the Abbey of Beleigh, a foundation of 
the monks of the Premonstratensian Order. Of the house built 
by Robert Mantell in 1180 no traces remain; but a few rooms 
of a later house still exist in a picturesque cluster of mediaeval 
buildings which stands upon the bank of the Chelmer, the only 
monument of its monks, who were suppressed, and whose lands 
were taken away at the dissolution of the monasteries in the 
sixteenth century. A portion of these remains is supposed to 
date from the first quarter of the thirteenth century. 

South-west of the town was the Hospital of Saint Giles, a 
royal foundation for lepers of an ancient and obscure date. 
The materials of its building show traces of a Roman origin. 
In the last century, in common with many monuments of the 
olden time, it descended to base uses and became a barn, for 
the purposes of which it was still used in 1894, although it had 
become somewhat dilapidated. There was also in Maldon a 
Priory of Carmelite Friars, dating from 1292. The building 
has disappeared as utterly as its inmates ; but the garden wall 
remained a few years ago — perhaps remains to-day. Of this 
convent the learned Thomas Maldon, a native of this town, who 
had been Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, was prior at the 
time of his death in 1404. 

On the site of the fallen nave of Saint Peter's, Dr. Thomas 
Plume, a native of Maldon and a learned man, built a brick 
building just before his death in 1704, which he presented to 
the town for the purposes of a free grammar school. In this 
building, from which the school has been removed within a few 
years, is preserved his library, which he gave to the town at his 
death, with a fund for its support and enlargement. 

Writing in the opening years of the seventeenth century, 
Camden, the father of antiquaries, says of Maldon: — 

At present, for largeness and store of inhabitants, it is justly reckoned 
among the chief towns of this county, and is called by the lawyers the 
Borough of Maldon. It is a pretty convenient station, and for its 



OLD MALDON. 9 

bigness populous enough ; being one long street, reaching for a mile 
together. 15 

It appears that the abbey was already in ruins, and Saint 
Peter's had disappeared by the middle of that century; for Dr. 
Holland, who visited Maldon about that time, and who seems 
to have taken a peevish dislike to the place, wrote as follows : 

Upon the ridge of an hill answerable to the termination of Dunum, 
which signified an hilly and high situation, wherein I saw nothing 
memorable, unless I should mention two silly Churches, a desolate 
place of White-Friers, and a small pile of Brick, built not long since by 
R. Darcy, which name hath been respective hereabout. 16 

In its present aspect, Maldon retains many of the features 
which were familiar to that little band of pilgrims who, about 
the first of April, 1638, sailed down the river in an " Ipswich 
Hye." 17 Its single main street, running about a mile east and 
west, and now intersected by several cross streets, its venerable 
churches and halls, the ebbing and flowing river washing its 
ancient wharves, the green fields around, and all those kindly 
influences which have made Essex the garden of England, were 
often remembered by wistful hearts in New England. 

Formerly the houses in Maldon were generally ancient; but 
in the early part of this century a considerable change in the 
appearance of the town was effected by the erection of many 
modern buildings ; and the more recent growth of the place has 
tended still farther to destroy or hide the Maldon of the seven- 
teenth century. 

Besides the established churches already named, there are 
several places of worship belonging to Dissenters. The Maldon 
Congregational Church was founded in 1688, and had in 1894 a 
house with sittings for nine hundred and fifty persons. Beside 
this, there are chapels of Baptists, Brethren, Primitive Method- 
ists, Wesleyan Methodists, and Catholics, a Society of Friends, 
and a meeting of Christadelphians. 

15 Camden, Britannia (ed. 1695), 349- Ipsw ch Hye." Deposition of Joseph 

16 Holland in additions to Camden, Hills, Lechford, Note Book, 91. A hoy 
Britannia (1695), 349- is a small sloop-rigged vessel used for 

11 " Transported from Maiden in the carrying passengers and goods along 
County of Essex to London in an the sea-coast. 



10 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Quite a growth in the population and trade of Maldon has 
taken place within the century, at the beginning of which 
the three parishes comprising the borough contained twenty- 
four hundred and twenty-eight persons. In 1881 the popula- 
tion had increased to fifty-four hundred and sixty-eight; but it 
has since shown a slight reduction to fifty-three hundred and 
eighty-three in 1894. The trade of Maldon is principally con- 
nected with its manufactures of crystallized salt, iron, bricks, 
and beer. There is a custom-house, and shipping is carried on 
to some extent. Eleven hundred and thirty-nine vessels, of 
sixty-seven thousand one hundred and sixty-one tons, entered 
the port in 1872. 

Not far from All Saints is the ancient D'Arcy Tower, which 
was given to the town, in 1440, by Sir Robert D'Arcy for a 
Moot or Town Hall. Here has been the centre of the political 
life of the borough for more than four hundred and fifty years ; 
and upon the walls of the Council Chamber hang the fourteen 
charters which remain to attest to the independence of the 
Borough of Maldon, the oldest of which — an Inspeximus — 
bears the date of 1290. The older charter of Henry the 
Second has disappeared, although it was in the chest of the 
corporation in 18 16. 

Maldon was a borough at the time of the Conquest and its 
corporate existence must have begun under Saxon rule; but 
it received its first recorded charter from Henry the Second, 
1154-89. This charter was obtained by the petition of William 
de Mandeville, Earl of Essex, who owned lands at Maldon ; and 
it confirmed, if it did not create, a free borough, free from all 
service except that of finding one ship for the royal use, when 
necessary, for the space of forty days. The burgesses were 
empowered to hold " for ever free and quiet with sac and soc, 
tol and team, nam and infangthef, graff, hamsoc and blowyte, 
fythwyte and grethbreg, ordell and orestall and flemenesfret, . . . 
by the service of free burgage; " and they were granted to " be 
quit of murder, of danegelt, of carriage, of summage, of scutage, 
of tallage, of stallage, of lastage and of all toll." 

Queen Mary, of bloody memory, gave a second charter in 



OLD MALDON. 



II 



1553, which was forfeited in 1768; and the borough remained 
in abeyance until 18 10, when the present charter was granted. 
The corporation now consists of a mayor, deputy mayor, four 
aldermen, and twelve councillors. The deputy mayor is a 
councillor. 

The ancient and somewhat singular custom of Borough Eng- 
lish, by which the youngest son — instead of the eldest as in 
other parts of England — inherits lands held in socage and 
other burghal rights at the death of the father, prevails here. 
Socage, or the holding of lands by certain and determinate 
service, was originally peculiar to the Anglo-Danish districts, 
but became the tenure by which realty is generally held in 
England. 

Besides its municipal capacity as a borough, Maldon, with an 
additional area and an increased population from its immediate 




vicinity, is a parliamentary borough, having from 1329 to 1867 
returned two members to Parliament. In the latter year the 
representation was reduced to one; and in 1884, the borough, 
by a readjustment, was included for parliamentary purposes in 
the Eastern or Maldon Division of Essex. Formerly, the elec- 
tions in this borough were hotly contested. That of 1826, it 
is said, lasted fifteen days, and nearly two hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars were expended by the opposing parties. My 
authority says: " In later days the elections have been shorter, 
often sharper, and hardly less expensive." 1S 

The ancient shield of the borough — azure, three lions pas- 

18 Fitch, Maldon and the River am indebted for several interesting 
Blaekzvater, 17. To this authority I particulars. 



12 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

sant reguardant, or — appears upon the town and city seals of 
the Massachusetts Maiden. 

Out of this ancient Maldon came in 1638 Joseph Hills, a 
woollen-draper, and with him, or a little later, John Wayte, 
who married his daughter Mary. In the same year and in the 
same month of April came Thomas Ruck, going like Hills to 
London from Maldon in " an Ipswich Hye," but sailing to New 
England, where he arrived in July, in a different ship, — the 
" Castle." These men became early holders of land in the 
vicinity of Wayte's Mount on Mystic Side, and Richard Pratt 
settled in the vicinity of the South River. It is probable that 
they brought to New England the later name of the Camelot of 
the Britons. The misuse of many years, by substituting Maiden 
for Maldon, has permanently fixed the incorrect form of the 
name which we now use. 




CHAPTER II. 



DISCOVERERS AND INDIANS. 

ON June 24, 1497, John and Sebastian Cabot, Venetian 
adventurers holding a patent from Henry the Seventh of 
England, discovered the continent of America; and during the 
succeeding year the latter sailed along its shores from Labrador 
to Virginia. On this early discovery, the English government, 
in a vague way, founded its claim to the North American coast 
from the Gulf of Mexico to the icy cliffs of the northern sea, — 
although nearly a century elapsed before Sir Humphrey Gilbert 
asserted, at Newfoundland, its authority over a motley gathering 
of fishermen and adventurers of all nations. In the meanwhile, 
the French, Spanish, and Portuguese had explored, fished, and 
traded along the coast at many points, and the former had made 
actual settlements. After the early death of Gilbert, his half- 
brother, Sir Walter Ralegh, sought and obtained a patent from 
Elizabeth and established an unfortunate and short-lived colony 
upon the island of Roanoke. 



14 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

At the beginning of the seventeenth century, with the excep- 
tion of the fishing station at Newfoundland, which had now con- 
tinued more than three-quarters of a century, " not a single 
European family " existed north of the Spanish settlements in 
Mexico; l and a recent writer remarks that " Colonization had 
been virtually abandoned in despair." 2 A brief attempt at settle- 
ment, which deserved success, was soon after made at Cutty- 
hunk, the westernmost of the Elizabeth Islands, by Bartholomew 
Gosnold, with the approval of Ralegh and under the patronage 
of Shakspere's friend, the Earl of Southampton ; and though it 
early proved a failure, it doubtless had a strong influence in 
the formation of the London and Plymouth Companies, to 
whom was granted, in 1606, the country between the thirty- 
fourth and forty-fifth degrees of north latitude. To the latter 
was allotted the northern portion of this territory from the 
forty-first to the forty-fifth degrees, covering the coasts of New 
England and Nova Scotia, with a right in common with its sister 
company extending to the southern line of Maryland. While 
the southern company met with some success upon the banks 
of the James River, the operations of the Plymouth Company 
produced no result of importance. A feeble colony on the 
Kennebec merits little notice either from the character of its 
members or the work which they accomplished ; but its failure 
retarded English colonization for more than twelve years. 
Meanwhile, the French made fresh settlements upon the coast 
of Nova Scotia and Maine and took formal possession of the 
country, to which they gave the name of Acadie, from the 
fortieth to the forty-sixth degrees of latitude ; and the Dutch 
founded the dynasty of the Knickerbockers at the mouth of the 
Hudson. These rival settlements were hindrances and annoy- 
ances to the English for many years ; and those of the French 
were sources of almost ceaseless negotiations and a series of 
disastrous wars which lasted more than one hundred and fifty 
years. 

At length, in 1620, the old charter having passed into desue- 
tude, a new company was formed, of which the Earl of Warwick 

1 Holmes, Annals of America, i. 123. - Haven, in Early History of Massa- 

chusetts, 140. 



DISCOVERERS AND INDIANS. 15 

and Sir Ferdinando Gorges were the most prominent members. 
This company, which was styled " The Council established at 
Plymouth, in the County of Devon, for the planting, ruling, 
ordering, and governing of New England in America," was 
vested with absolute authority over the regions extending from 
Delaware Bay to Newfoundland and westward over unknown 
countries to the great South Sea. From beginning to end its 
efforts were a series of failures, and it finally disappeared in a 
cloud of obscurity. It made numerous grants of its lands, of 
which those only which relate to our own immediate territory 
need be mentioned here. 

The first of these was made to Robert Gorges, son of Sir 
Ferdinando Gorges, and conveyed " All that part of the main- 
land commonly called Messachusiac, on the north-east side of 
the Bay known by the name of Massachuset, together with all 
the shores along the sea for ten English miles in a strait line 
towards the north-east, and thirty miles into the mainland 
through all the breadth aforesaid." 3 This grant revived the 
old feudal tenure of personal service ; for, while the lands 
were held by the earlier company " in free and common soc- 
cage," they were now conveyed to be held by the sword, " per 
Gladium Comitatus, that is to say, by finding four able men, 
conveniently armed or arrayed for the wars, to attend upon the 
Governor for any service within fourteen days after warning." 4 
The grantee came to Massachusetts Bay to take possession of 
his land and seated himself for a while where Thomas Weston 
had previously attempted a settlement, at Wessagusset (Wey- 
mouth). This was a good way out of his proper bounds, but in 
a location which probably suited him better at the time. The 
Gorges family, father and sons, were not over-scrupulous at any 
time in helping themselves in season and out; and had Robert 
lived his occupancy might have become the foundation of a 
claim as lasting as that of his illustrious father. While he had 
settled outside of the limits of his patent, he by no means aban- 
doned his claim thereto, for he leased or granted to John Old- 
ham and John Dorrell 

3 Gorges, Briefe A T arration, in Maine 4 Ibid., ii. 45. 

Historical Cull., ii. 46. 



1 6 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

All the lands vv th in Mattachusetts Bay betvveene Charles River and 
Abousett [Saugus] River, Contain d in lengt by a streight lyne 5 Myles 
vp the said Charles River into the maine land north west from the bor- 
der of the s d Bay including all Creekes and points by the way and 3 
Myles in length from the mouth of the foresaid river of Abousett vp 
into the maine land vpon a streight lyne S : W : including all Creeks and 
points, and all the land in bredth and length betweene the foresaid 
Rivers, w th all p r rogatives Ryall Mynes excepted. 

This grant covered the lands of Mystic Side and was held to 
be valid by Oldham in 1629. How his claim was finally quieted 
is not known; but Governor Cradock suggested that he might 
be " p'"vented " by " causing some to take possession of the 
cheife pt thereof." 5 

The settlement at Wessagusset was of short duration. Gorges 
returned to England, where he soon after died ; and his terri- 
torial rights finally passed by purchase and descent into the 
hands of Mary Lenthall, who married " Mr. Levett of the Inner 
Temple." 6 Her claim was also, in time, brought forward and 
disappeared like that of Oldham. Some of the members of 
the company of Gorges returned with their leader to England ; 
and others removed to better locations around Massachusetts 
Bay, where we shall meet them again. 

Under the date of March 24, 162//^, the Council for New 
England granted to a company of Dorsetshire gentlemen a 
patent, the origin of which, as well as the limits of the territory 
which it was intended to convey, is involved in some uncer- 
tainty. If the bounds recited in the later charter are to be con- 
sidered as those of this grant it extended from three miles south 
" of any or every part" of Charles River to a line three miles 
north of the river " called Monomack alias Merrymack, or to 
the northward of any and every part thereof," and stretched 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. It covered the land 
which had been granted to Robert Gorges, portions of which 
were evidently occupied by his assigns or by some of those who 
had been with him at Wessagusset. There are indications that 

6 Suffolk Deeds, i. xiii. son, History of Massachusetts-Bay, i. 6. 

6 This was in 1691. while the new Ed. 1760. 
charter was being prepared, Hutchin- 



DISCOVERERS AND INDIANS. 1 7 

some deception was used in this matter and that the Earl of 
Warwick, whose influence was nearly at an end in a council 
where most of its members were Royalists, was inclined to make 
the most of his position for the benefit of his friends. That the 
grant was the work of the Puritan element is evident, and its 
results were not accepted by the other side. A readjustment 
of the affairs of the Council took place several years later, and 
the control passed into the hands of the Royalists. They re- 
pudiated the grant of Massachusetts Bay; and, finding their 
charter defective, they decided, in 163^5, to surrender it. They 
parted the lands which it conveyed among themselves in eight 
parcels and petitioned the king for separate patents in accord- 
ance with the division which they had made. In this assign- 
ment that portion which had then become occupied by the 
colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay, with all the 
country from the Narraganset to Salem, was allotted to the un- 
fortunate Marquis of Hamilton ; but the whole matter was 
frustrated, and the Great Council for New England itself dis- 
appeared in the political troubles and the civil war which 
supervened. The only patent which came out of this dissolu- 
tion was that to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, which conveyed a strip 
of land sixty miles wide along the coast of Maine from the 
Piscataqua to the Kennebec. From the southern limits of this 
territory to Salem the country was claimed by Captain John 
Mason under a deed of the Council which never received the 
royal assent. Suits at law to establish these grants came down 
into the eighteenth century. 

Hutchinson says, "The patent, from the Council of Plimouth, 
gave a good right to the soil, but no powers of government." 7 
To remedy this defect, and perhaps to prevent complications 
which might arise from former grants, a royal charter was ob- 
tained, March 4, 162 8 / 9 , and the good offices of the Earl of 
Warwick were again apparent. This charter, which confirmed 
the rights of the new company " by the name of the Governor 
and Company of the Mattachusetts Bay in New England, one 
body politique and corporate in deed, fact, and name," gave 

7 Hutchinson, History of Massachusetts-Bay, i. 9. Ed. 1760. 



1 8 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

authority and full powers of government within the limits 
already described. The territory thus granted was, as has been 
stated, liberal in its extent from east to west and exceedingly 
indefinite in its northern and southern bounds ; for lines drawn 
at stated distances from streams whose courses are as irregular 
as those of the Merrimac and Charles may be fruitful sources of 
controversy; and the settlement of its borders perplexed the 
General Court of Massachusetts Bay for many years. 

Primarily the corporation of the Governor and Company of 
Massachusetts Bay was formed to secure the enjoyment of 
religious freedom, or rather the free enjoyment of the peculiar 
principles and practices of those who were to control the affairs 
of the new colony. But no allusion is made to spiritual matters 
in the charter; and it seems likely that, foreseeing that an open 
avowal of their wishes and intentions might be disastrous, the 
fathers of Massachusetts exercised that worldly wisdom which 
many times thereafter showed itself in their dealings, and veiled 
their ultimate design under the disguise of a producing and 
trading corporation such as those unfortunate companies which 
preceded them had attempted to be. It was as a mercantile 
company that its grant and charter were obtained. It was only 
by degrees and with wariness that its true intent was allowed to 
appear, until it grew into a mixed hierarchy — a government of 
elders and magistrates, absolute and uncompromising in every- 
thing that pertained to freedom of thought and life; and such 
it continued to be during the colonial period, growing weaker, 
however, as the democratic spirit of the people worked upward 
and through the body politic. 

Under the authority of the grant from the Council for New 
England, and while negotiations for the royal charter were in 
progress, John Endicott, a gentleman of Dorsetshire and one of 
the original grantees, sailed in the ship "Abigail," Gauden, mas- 
ter, from the little harbor of Weymouth, with a small company, 
and arrived at Naumkeag, September 6, 1628. Others had pre- 
ceded him and were seated along the shore from Cape Ann to 
Scituate. Among these were Roger Conant, Peter Palfrey, John 
Balch, and John Woodbury at Naumkeag, the Mavericks at 



DISCOVERERS AND INDIANS. 19 

Noddle's Island and Winnisimmet, Thomas Walford at Mis- 
hawum, David Thompson at Neponset or Thompson's Island, 
William Blackstone at Shawmut, and John Bursley and William 
Jeffrey at Wessagusset. Some of these had been followers of 
Robert Gorges and had scattered in favorable trading places 
around the Bay ; others were single adventurers or perhaps 
agents for those who claimed lands by former grants. Besides 
these, " the mad Bacchanalian," Thomas Morton, was still at 
Merry-Mount, and a gathering of fishermen and traders had be- 
come a permanent settlement at Nantasket. 

During the next spring, six vessels with a large company of 
new adventurers sailed from England. As the " Talbot" passed 
the Land's End and the hills of Cornwall began to sink into the 
sea, Francis Higginson, one of their ministers who was destined 
to fill an early grave in the new world, called the passengers 
upon deck, " to take their last sight of England," saying, 
" Farewell, dear England ! Farewell, the Church of God in 
England, and all the Christian friends there ! " 8 Often were 
those words echoed by anxious, loving hearts as they entered 
upon the untried perils of that sea which would forever after 
separate them from the dear old home. Often were they re- 
called in the loneliness and discouragements of the new life. 

The new settlers arrived at the little town, which had been 
planted at Naumkeag and named Salem, in the early summer 
of 1629. Among them, " coming at their own cost," were three 
brothers, — Ralph, Richard, and William Sprague, sons of 
Edward Sprague of Upway in Dorsetshire. They remained not 
long at Salem ; but during the summer " with three or four 
more, by joint consent and approbation of Mr. John Endicott, 
Governor," they undertook a journey of exploration, and pass- 
ing westward were the first white men who are known to have 
viewed the country on the northerly side of the Mystic River. 
Their probable course may be traced along the Salem path, 
which we may believe already existed as an Indian trail. 
Crossing the Abousett at a ford, it ran over the Saugus plains 
and entered the present bounds of Maiden at Black Ann's cor- 

8 Mather, Magnalia, iii. (2), ch. r. 



20 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

ner, where, probably, another path, turning southerly, led to 
the Indian villages around Sagamore Hill and Powder Horn. 
Skirting the Scadan hills, the Salem path turned to the north- 
west over the little section of old road which remains near the 
junction of Salem Street and Broadway, where the Jenkins 
house, which disappeared in 1882, stood more than two cen- 
turies, 9 and passed between the hills nearly in the line of the 
present Forest Street. Winding around the northern and 
western base of Wayte's Mount, known to the first settlers as 
Mount Prospect, it crossed the Three Mile Brook by a ford a 
short distance above the falls at Black Rock; and, running 
along the southern foot of the Middlesex Fells, it passed over 
the Medford plain and sought the Mystic ford. In the vicinity 
of the Three Mile Brook, the present Clifton Street is the 
modern representative of the old Indian trail, although that small 
portion of the way east of the brook, only, has had a continuous 
existence since the early days. 

Passing along the southern bank of the Mystic, the travellers 
entered the peninsula of Mishawum, where they found Thomas 
Walford, a smith and an unauthorized pioneer, living in an 
"English palisadoed and thatched house," whom, with his wife, 
the distrustful magistrates ejected two years later. There, by 
the " free consent" of Wonohaquaham, the Sagamore John of 
" a gentle and good disposition," the Spragues with others set- 
tled soon after and laid the foundations of Charlestown. 

They found the country over which they passed, on the north- 
erly, or easterly, side of the Mystic, " generally full of stately 
timber," and " round about was an uncouth wilderness." Of the 
general condition of the land we are not without good evidence; 
for William Wood, who very likely accompanied the Spragues, 
for he was in New England in 1629 and tells us that "the end 
of his travel was observation," and Francis Higginson, who, 
though a sick man and unable to travel through the woods, 

9 This old house, otherwise known as ished. It was popularly supposed to 

the Rand house, was partially destroyed have been older than the town, and to 

by fire on the evening of November 14, have been used as a garrison house; 

1882. It had long been in a dilapidated but it was probably built towards the 

condition, and was soon after demol- latter part of the seventeenth century. 



DISCOVERERS AND INDIANS. 2 1 

doubtless talked with them on their return, wrote of the country 
soon after; and their accounts, although written under the influ- 
ence of the glamour which a new country often casts over men's 
perceptions, enable us to see the New England of 1629. 10 

The general appearance of the country was not entirely that of 
" an uncouth wilderness ; " for a pleasant feature which struck the 
early comers was the extended and frequent areas of open lands 
around the margins of the marshes and meadows and upon the 
plains, — lands ready for the plough and tillage without much 
labor. Higginson says that in one place might be seen " thou- 
sands of acres of ground as good as need to be and not a tree in 
the same ; " n and Thomas Graves, who saw with the eye of an 
educated traveller, wrote to his friends in England: — 

It is very beautifull in open lands, mixed with goodly woods, and again 
open plaines, in some places five hundred acres, some places more, some 
lesse, not much troublesome for to cleere for the plough to goe in, no 
place barren, but on the tops of the hils ; the grasse and vveedes grow up 
to a man's face, in the lowlands and by fresh rivers aboundance of grasse 
and large meddowes without any tree or shrubbe to hinder the sith. 1 ' 2 

These open lands and natural hay-grounds were also noticed 
by Wood, who wrote as follows : — 

The Soyle is for the generall a warme kind of earth, there being little 
cold-spewing land, no Morish Fennes, no Quagmires, the lowest grounds 
be the Marshes, over which every full and change the Sea flowes : these 
Marshes be rich ground, and bring plenty of Hay, of which the Cattle 
feed and like, as if they were fed with the best up-land Hay in New 

r> The main authorities for the con- Canaan ; Josselyn, New England's Pari- 

dition of the country around Massachu- ties and Two Voyages to Neiv-En^land ; 

setts Bay at the first coming of the and Smith, Description of New-England 

English are Higginson's Journal and and Advertisements for the Unexperienced 

New Englands Plantation ; Dudley's Planters, may be consulted with advan- 

Letter to the Countess of Lincoln ; and tage, as may most of the early wi iters 

Wood's New-Englands Prospect. Use- upon New England, 
ful reprints of the works of Higginson Of recent writers, Palfrey, History of 

and Dudley, and a portion of that of New England, i. ch. 1, contains a good 

Wood may be found in Young, Chron- resume ; and on all matters relating to 

ides of Massachusetts Bay, with other the early history of the country his 

papers of value to the student and of volumes are to be preferred, 
interest to the general reader. The n A r ew-Englands Plantation in Young, 

later portion of Hutchinson, History of Chronicles of Massachusetts Bay, 244. 
Massachusetts-Bay, i. ch. 6, is compact 12 Mass. Hist. Coll., i. 124. 

with information. Morton, New English 



22 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

England ; of which likewise there is great store which growes commonly 
betweene the Marshes and the Woods. This Medow ground lies higher 
than the Marshes, whereby it is freed from the over- flowing of the Seas ; 
and besides this, in many places where the Tres grow thinne, there is 
good fodder to be got amongst the Woods. There be likewise in divers 
places neare the plantations great broad Medowes, wherein grow neither 
shrub nor Tree, lying low, in which Plaines growes as much grasse, as 
may be throwne out with a Sithe, thicke and long, as high as a mans 
middle ; some as high as the shoulders, so that a good mower may cut 
three loads in a day. 14 

Wood's estimation of the marshes was not higher than that of 
the farmers for many years. Their peculiar yield of salt-hay r was 
esteemed beyond its real value and was carefully gathered and 
prepared. As English grasses were gradually brought into the 
uplands the marsh and meadow crops grew to be of less import- 
ance, and are now considered as of no great worth, compared 
with the finer upland grasses, except as they add variety to the 
usual feed of the stable and the barn. 

Thomas Morton, in his New Englisli Canaan, thus accounts 
for the existence of the open lands : — 

The Salvages are accustomed to set fire of the Country in all places 
where they come, and to burne it twize a yeare, viz : at the Spring, and 
the fall of the leafe. The reason that mooves them to doe so, is because 
it would other wise be so overgrovvne with underweedes that it would be 
all a coppice wood, and the people would not be able in any wise to 
passe through the Country out of a beaten path. And this custome of 
firing the Country is the meanes to make it passable ; and by that 
meanes the trees growe here and there as in our parks : and makes the 
Country very beautifull and'commodious. 15 

This custom is also mentioned by Wood ; and it was followed 
in some measure by the English until the country was compara- 
tively well cleared. It is very evident that the open lands were 
characteristic of Mystic Side, especially in the southwestern 
part along the borders of the marshes of the Mystic and the 
North River. The earliest land evidences, made at a time when 
the original forests could not have been cleared to any great 
extent, indicate the existence of natural lea-lands; and it was 

13 Wood, New-Englands Prospect, 10. 14 Morton, New English Canaan, 52, 

Ed. 1634. 54. 



DISCOVERERS AND INDIANS. 23 

-upon such a tract that the first allotment of lands, in 1634, was 
laid out. 

The country was well watered by frequent ponds and streams ; 
and the early settlers at Mystic Side found several great springs 
whose waters have continued to gush forth unto the present 
day. The best known of these were the North and South 
springs, to both of which free passage and common use were 
carefully reserved and guarded. Public rights to the North 
Spring are supposed to have lapsed years ago in some unknown 
way; but the ownership of the South, or Waters's, Spring 
remained intact until 1881, when the Selectmen of Everett re- 
linquished to a corporation of water vendors that which had 
been a public benefit for two centuries and a half. 15 

The first comers, looking upon the surface of things and 
seeing only the immediate returns of a virgin soil, were profuse 
in their descriptions of the richness of the land and the variety 
and quality of its products ; but the expectations of the early 
settlers failed, and the next generation found that the rich wood- 
land soil soon became exhausted, and that manures and careful 
tillage were as necessary in Massachusetts Bay as in Surrey or 
Essex. 

15 The North Spring is still in exist- in 1852, when Chelsea Street was widened 

ence near the railroad station at West and straightened, the willows felled, and 

Everett. It formerly supplied the water the cattle-place filled up. All the beauty 

used at Baldwin's Dye House, and is of the spot vanished in a dead level of 

now utilized by the manufacturers who gravel grandiloquently called a square; 

occupy the ground. It is a collection and the bubbling spring developed into 

rather than a single spring, and has of an awkward pump, whose creaking crank 

late years been carefully excavated and was the delight of small boys and a 

surrounded by masonry. The adjacent " baby-waker " for the neighborhood, 

lands contain several good natural Previous to its " improvement " the 

springs, and one which is often over- spring was said to give an average flow 

flowed by the brackish tide-water exists of about four hundred and fifty gal- 

upon an island far out upon the marsh. Ions per hour, and its temperature was 

The South Spring is mentioned by uniformly about forty -eight degrees 

that name as early as 1638, and was Fahrenheit. 

situated at the present junction of Chel- In its new character the spring dis- 

sea and Ferry Streets in Everett. With charged thousands of gallons by the 

its bubbling basin of gravel and its little medium of a chain-pump, to the great 

brooklet flowing across the low land, benefit of thirsty travellers ; and many 

forming an easy and roomy drinking- hogsheads of pure water were carried 

place for cattle, and its accompanying to the neighboring city of Chelsea, by 

clumps of gigantic willows, it was a peddlers and others, until it ceased to 

romantic and pleasant place in former supply the public needs and was ap- 

years. But it lost its ancient character plied to private uses. 



24 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Higginson, who endeavored, as he says, " by God's help, to 
report nothing but the naked truth," and " what I have partly 
seen with mine own eyes, and partly heard and inquired from 
the mouths of very honest and religious persons," remarks: — 
" All about Masathulets Bay, and at Charles river is as fat black 
earth as can be seen anywhere," and " the fertility of the soil is 
to be admired at." The open lands brought forth in abundance 
grains and herbs; and the country abounded " naturally with 
store of roots of great variety and good to eat." 16 Wood, in his 
enumeration of the products of the ground, says: — 

The ground affoards very good kitchen Gardens, for Turneps, Par- 
snips, Carrots, Radises, and Pumpions, Muskmillions, Squonterquashes, 
Coucumbers, Onyons, and whatsoever growes well in England, growes as 
well there, many things being better and larger : there is likewise grow- 
ing all manner of Hearbes for meate, and medicine, and that not onely 
in planted Gardens, but in the Woods, without eyther the art or the 
helpe of man. 17 

Higginson adds " plenty of single damask roses [sweet briar,] 
very sweet," and excellent vines " up and down in the woods ; " 18 
and Graves writes about " the biggest grapes that ever I saw, some 
I have seene foure inches about." 19 With the grapes are men- 
tioned " mulberries, plums, raspberries, currants, chestnuts, 
filberts, walnuts, small-nuts, hurtleberries, and haws of white- 
thorn ; " 20 and in the summer the fields were filled with straw- 
berries of " exceeding sweetness." 

Nor was the animal life less abundant than the products of 
the vegetable kingdom. The bays and harbors teemed with 
fish which filled the streams at certain times of the year; and 
the shores and flats yielded excellent shell-fish of many kinds. 
In the woods and fields, deer were common, 21 and smaller game 

10 Higginson, Netv-Englands Planta- ward. One was started by hunters in 

Hon, in Young, Chronicles of Massac hit- the Maiden woods in 1773, and chased 

setts Bay, 243-246. across the Chelsea marshes to the Sau- 

17 Wood, Netv-Englands Prospect, 13. gus River, into which he plunged. 

18 tfew-Englands Plantation, 247. Lewis, History of Lynn, 337. An act 

19 Mass. Hist. Coll., i. 124. was passed in 1739, "for the better 

20 New-Englands Plantation, 247. preservation of dear within this pro- 

21 Deer were common in this vicinity vince," under which Deer-reeves were 
until the middle of the eighteenth cen- annually chosen in Maiden until 1792. 
tury, and were frequently seen after- 



DISCOVERERS AND INDIANS. 25 

in great variety afforded a plentiful sustenance to the earlier 
settlers when their scanty supplies had failed. Great flocks of 
pigeons at one time " flew over all the towns " for hours, 
obscuring the light and causing even the sober Dudley to 
fancy a portent in the unfamiliar sight. 22 Partridges " as big 
as our hens," and great turkeys, " exceeding fat, sweet, and 
fleshy," were to be had for the shooting. Geese, ducks, and 
other sea-fowl abounded in their season, so that during the 
scarcity of the first year it was said " that a great part of winter 
the planters have eaten nothing but roast meat of divers fowls 
which they have killed." 23 

Wood speaks of the " three great annoyances, of wolves, 
rattle-snakes, and mosquitoes." The former were nightly visi- 
tors among the unprotected herds and flocks. In the time of 
deep snows they hung around the settlements in great packs, 
and their fierce barking was a terror to man as well as beast. 
They infested the Saugus woods as late as 1753 and were not 
entirely extirpated until many years after. Bounties were 
offered for their scalps, and the grisly trophies were some- 
times nailed on the meeting-houses. " For Beares," says 
Wood, " they be common being a great blacke kind of Beare, 
which be most feirce in Strawberry time." 24 They are said 
to have been seen in Maiden woods within this century, and 
they yet prowl along sequestered roads in the traditions of old 
families. 25 

Among " creeping beasts or longe creeples " the rattlesnake 
was especially noticed by early observers. Higginson says that 
they " will not fly from a man as others will, but will fly upon 
him and sting him so mortally that he will die within a quarter 
of an hour after." 26 John Josselyn mentions 

22 Dudley, Letter to the Countess of where tradition says a bear was killed 
Lincoln, in Young, Chronicles of Massa- in the early days of the present cen- 
chusetts Bay, 336. tury. Brooks, History of Medford, 4S4, 

23 New-Englands Plantation, 253. relates how, in 1735, " Sampson, a negro 
2i A r ew-E uplands Prospect, 19. slave, was sorely frightened by a wild 
25 In a rock in the Middlesex Fells, bear and cub, which he met in the 

near where the corners of Maiden and woods near Gov. Cradock's house." 
Melrose touch the Medford line, is a 26 A 7 ew- Engl and s Plantation, 255. Cf. 

deep rift in the rock called Bears' Den, Morton, A r ew English Canaan, S2. 



26 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



The Rattle Snake, who poysons with a Vapour that comes thorough 
two crooked Fangs in their Mouth ; the hollow of these Fangs are as 
black as Ink : The Indians, when weary with travelling, will take them 
up with their bare hands, laying hold with one hand behind their Head, 
with the other taking hold of their Tail, and with their teeth tear off the 
Skin of their backs, and feed upon them alive ; which they say re- 
fresheth them. 27 

Higginson speaks of the lesser annoyances mentioned by 
Wood, as the "little flies called mosquitoes" which "are 
troublesome in the night season;" and Wood adds, "Many 
that be bitten will fall a scratching, whereupon their faces and 
hands swell." 28 

The climate does not appear to have materially changed 
since the advent of the English. Great snows are mentioned ; 
and extremes of heat and cold, and droughts and seasons of 
excessive moisture were as frequent as of late years. One who 
wrote at a later period says : — 

In New England, the transitions from heat to cold are short and 
sudden, and the extremes of both very sensible. We are sometimes 



27 New-Englands Rarities Discovered, 
38-39. The Indians' manner of holding 
the reptiles, as described in the text, 
was practised by one of their descen- 
dants. John Elisha, a colored man of 
mixed blood, who claimed descent from 
the Natick Indians, resided among the 
hills in the north-eastern part of Maiden 
about the year 1820. He used to catch 
rattlesnakes, which then abounded in 
the crevices of the ledges and among 
the angular stones which the frost had 
detached from the cliffs and strewn at 
the bases of the hills. He carried the 
captives home in his hands, holding 
them fast just below their heads, their 
tails being wreathed about his arms. 
When their fangs became hooked in a 
piece of stout woolen cloth, which he 
held for them to bite at, he would pull 
them out by a sudden jerk and render 
them harmless. If they did not bite at 
the cloth, he would open their mouths 
with a stick, as he pressed them to the 
ground, while an assistant would en- 
tangle their fangs in the cloth, and so 
extract them. Sometimes he held them 
down with a forked stick, and removed 



the fangs with pincers. The " creeples " 
thus treated he exhibited in Boston and 
elsewhere, on public occasions, as tamed 
snakes, which he could handle and carry 
in his bosom with impunity, to the as- 
tonishment of the spectators. 

Besides the " taming " of snakes, he 
and his family did quite a business in 
the preparation of rattlesnake oil, which 
was sold about the country as a specific 
for rheumatic complaints and diseases 
of the joints. Fifty cents for a small 
bottle was considered cheap by the pur- 
chaser, and amply repaid the seller. 
Mrs. William Hogans, who will be re- 
membered by many old inhabitants, was 
an itinerant saleswoman in that line, and 
added to her stock skunk's fat, and 
roots and herbs, which she procured as 
ordered. (Information of William B. 
Shedd.) 

In 1S09 tour "large Rattlesnakes 
taken on the Maiden Turnpike, poison- 
tooth extracted," were exhibited at the 
Columbian Museum in Boston. Boston 
Patriot, 1809. 

28 J\^7u-£n^iands Plantation, 255 ; 
New-Engla7ids Prospect, 46. 



DISCOVERERS AND INDIANS. 



-/ 



frying, and at others freezing ; and as men often die at their labor 
in the field, by heat, so some in winter are froze to death with the 
cold. 29 

But to the early writers the climate seemed perfect in the 
first flush of their new-found joys. Graves declared that all 
the bounties which Nature spread before them were " made 
good and pleasant through this maine blessing of God, the 
healthfulnesse of the countrie which far exceedeth all parts that 
ever I have beene in ; " 30 and Higginson, speaking from his own 
experience, exceeds Graves in his commendations, and adds 
that oft-repeated line, " A sup of New England's air is better 
than a whole draught of Old England's ale." 31 



29 Macsparren, America Dissected, II. 

m Mass. Hist. Coll., i. 124. 

31 A 7 ew- En glands Plantation, 252. 
Francis Higginson, to whose description 
of New England reference is made, was 
educated at Cambridge, receiving the 
degree of A. B. at Jesus, 1609, and that 
of A.M. at St. John's, 1613 ; although 
Mather says he was of Emanuel. Hav- 
ing committed himself to the Puritan 
party, he was excluded from his pulpit 
at Claybrooke, in Leicester, and was 
soon after invited by the Company of 
the Massachusetts Bay to go to their 
new plantation at Naumkeag, where 
he arrived early in the summer of 1629, 
and was ordained August 6 of that year. 
He lived but twelve months longer, and 
his case has much in common with many 
others which occurred in the early days 
of the settlements. He was both sickly 
and enthusiastic. That he was the lat- 
ter, his exaggerated description of New 
England amply proves. That he had 
been troubled with long continued ails, 
he himself informs us. "I have for 
divers years past been very sickly," he 
tells us in his journal. Young, Chron- 
icles of Massachusetts Bay, 236. 

When he had passed but a few sum- 
mer weeks in the new land, he wrote : 
" The temper of the air of New-England 
is one special thing that commends this 
place. Experience doth manifest that 
there is hardly a more healthful place 
to be found in the world that agreeth 
better with our English bodies. Many 



that have been weak and sickly in Old 
England, by coming hither have been 
thoroughly healed, and grown health- 
ful and strong. For here is an extraor- 
dinary clear and dry air, that is of a 
most healing nature to all such as are 
of a cold, melancholy, phlegmatic, rheu- 
matic temper of body. None can more 
truly speak hereof by their own expe- 
rience than myself. My friends that 
knew me can well tell how very sickly 
I have been, and continually in physic, 
being much troubled with a tormenting 
pain through an extraordinary weakness 
of my stomach, and abundance of melan- 
cholic humors. But since I came hither 
on this voyage, I thank God I have had 
perfect health, and freed from pain and 
vomiting, having a stomach to digest 
the hardest and coarsest fare, who be- 
fore could not eat finest meat ; and 
whereas my stomach could only digest 
and did require such drink as was both 
strong and stale, now I can and do 
oftentimes drink New-England water 
very well. And I that have not gone 
without a cap for many years together, 
neither durst leave off the same, have 
now cast away my cap, and do wear 
none at all in the day time ; and whereas 
beforetime I clothed myself with double 
clothes and thick waistcoats to keep me 
warm, even in the summer time, I do 
now go as thin clad as any, only wearing 
a light stuff cassock upon my shirt, and 
stuff breeches of one thickness without 
linings. ... I think it is a wise course 



28 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

It is not surprising that, with all these exaggerated excellen- 
cies of climate and soil, New England became to the English 
Puritans a veritable Canaan, a land overflowing with milk and 
honey, where they might rest secure in the shadow of their own 
vines and fig trees. And the political condition of England and 
the dangers which surrounded them there, were added incentives 
for removal. In 1637, eight years after the arrival of the 
Spragues, the English population of New England is supposed 
to have approached twelve thousand souls. 

Thomas Dudley was of a less enthusiastic mind, or he saw 
with a clearer vision than did his companions ; for he wrote to 
Bridget, Countess of Lincoln: " Honest men, out of a desire to 
draw over others to them, wrote somewhat hyperbolically of 
many things here." 32 A woman, who longed, I suspect, for the 
green hedges and old homes of England, wrote a few years 
later : — 

When I remember the high commendations some have given of the 
place, and find it inferior to the reports, I have thought the reason 
thereof to be this, that they wrote surely in strawberry time. The air 
of the country is sharp, the rocks many, the trees innumerable, the 
grass little, the winter cold, the summer hot, the gnats in summer 
biting, the wolves at midnight howling. Look upon it, as it hath the 
means of grace, and, if you please, you may call it a Canaan. 33 

The exaggerations of the first comers, with other causes, 
added to the tide of immigration, which was very much 

for all cold complexions to come to He lingered until August, 1630, when, 

take physic in New-England." New- in the words of Cotton Mather, " in the 

Englands Plantation, 251-252. midst of many prayers, he fell asleep, 

Poor fellow! he had experienced the in the forty-third year of his age." 
bracing effects of a not unpleasant sea- He had seen the new world in a rosy 

voyage, and fondly thought that the light, and the messages which he sent 

"extraordinary clear and dry air" of back to England were colored by his 

New England had done in a few weeks desires and hopes. Sharp and bitter 

that which came from the healthy air was the truth which to him and many 

of the sea. He had yet to meet the who followed him came too late, 
untried rigors of an exceeding hard win- A memoir of Higginson, by the late 

ter; and in the privations and severities Rev. Joseph B. Eelt, is in N. E. Hist. 

of that season, amid the suffering, dis- and Gcneal. Register, vi. 105-127. 
ease, and death w r hich ensued, the de- 32 Dudley's letter, in Young, Chron- 

lnsive promise of health and strength ieles of Massachusetts Bay, 324. 
departed, and "the hectic attacked him, 33 Hutchinson, History of Massacku* 

which was to close his earthly career." setts-Bay, i. 483. Ed. 1760. 



DISCOVERERS AND INDIANS. 29 

increased in 1630, and Cambridge, Boston, Dorchester, and 
other places received their first inhabitants. The disappoint- 
ments and sufferings of those who were not well prepared to 
meet the hardships and dangers of a pioneer's life were, no 
doubt, as strongly set forth to their friends in England as had 
been the attractions and advantages ol the country before. As 
a consequence, in part, immigration nearly ceased, and some 
returned to England. But after a year or two ship after ship 
continued to arrive in the harbors of Salem and Boston ; and 
growing communities of sturdy Puritans attested at once the 
troubles which had befallen the mother land, and the perman- 
ence of the refuge which Providence had opened upon the 
bleak shores of Massachusetts Bay. A new empire had been 
founded ; and upon a narrow strip of country, between un- 
known forests and the barren sands and sombre rocks of an 
unkind coast, a handful of earnest men and women, in the 
language of the time, "chosen vessels" and "precious seed," 
began to work out that problem of freedom which forecasts the 
coming Glory of the Ages. From the green lanes and ancient 
towns of Essex, full of the traditions and associations of a 
thousand years, to the tangled forests and the wild shores 
of a new world ; from the old English homes to the land which 
God had prepared for the chosen seed whose fruitage was to be 
a great nation, — these are to us of the nineteenth century but 
the turning of a leaf; but to the men and women of 1628 a 
stormy waste of waters and many weeks of anxiety and distress, 
of weeping and praying, lay between the homes of their child- 
hood and the unknown land where they were to watch and work 
and lay their bones to rest. 

In the year 1614 Captain John Smith, observing the shores 
of Massachusetts Bay, remarked that " the sea Coast as you 
passe shewes you all a long large Corne fields, and great 
troupes of well proportioned people." 3i It may be that the 
redoubtable champion and bearer of "three Turks heads, which 
with his sword, he did overcome, kill, and cut off," indulged 
somewhat in the exaggeration to which he was prone ; but the 
:fl Smith, Gcncrall Historie,\\. 194. Ed, 1S19. 



SO HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

corroborating testimony of other writers renders it certain that 
around the mouths of the Charles and the Mystic and along the 
shores and upon the islands of Boston harbor were gathered 
many villages of the aborigines. Hubbard mentions this section 
as "the general rendezvous of all the Indians;" 35 and Hutchin- 
son says, "That circle which now makes the harbors of Boston 
and Charlestown, round by Maiden, Chelsea, Nantasket, 
Hingham, Weymouth, Braintree and Dorchester, was the capital 
of a great sachem, much reverenced by all the plantations of 
Indians round about." 36 South of the Charles, among and 
around the Blue Hills, were the Massachusetts; and northward, 
extending to the Piscataqua and Penacook, were the Pawtuckets, 
an extensive and once powerful tribe, a portion of whose 
domain we occupy. 

At the dawn of authentic history the latter tribe, or rather 
combination of tribes, for it included " the Pennakooks, (Con- 
cord Indians,) Agawomes, (at Ipswich) Naamkeeks, (at Salem) 
Pascatawayes, Accomintas (York) and others," 37 was led by the 
Sachem Nanepashemet, who lived at Saugus on the border of 
the wide marsh which stretches from the easterly portion of 
Maiden through Revere 38 to the sea. Westward towards the 
Connecticut River, the Nipmucks owed him a rude allegiance. 
In 1615 the Tarratines, whom Mr. Lewis styled " the Goths 
and Vandals of aboriginal New England," 39 in revenge for an 

35 Hubbard, General History of New protected from the ocean by a strong 
England, 32. earthen wall of a great antiquity. Much 

36 Hutchinson, History of Massacku- has been added to its extent within the 
setts Bay, i. 460. Ed. 1 760. range of history. It possesses a soil of 

37 Gookin, in Mass. Hist. Coll., i. great fertility, which nourishes numer- 
149. ous herds that are sent there to graze ; 

38 Called by the English Rumney and its reedy creeks and fens shelter 
Marsh, which name it has retained to large flocks of wild fowl. Hardly a 
the present time. hedge or tree breaks its expanse, save 

Rumney Marsh, its English counter- a few near the villages, which are scat- 
part, from which it doubtless received tered here and there in convenient 
its name, is an extensive tract of rich places. Cf. Lewis, Topographical Dic- 
land in the county of Kent, which Cam- tionary of England, ii. 490; Camden, 
den called the gift of the sea. It em- Britannia, 210. Ed. 1695. There is a 
braces more than forty-four thousand map of the district in Harris, History 
acres of land, which has been thrown of Kent, copied from Dugdale, History 
up by the sea or left by the changes of of the Eens. 

the coast line and the courses of the 39 Lewis, History of Lynn, 33. The 

small rivers which intersect it ; and it is Tarratines were a branch of the Aben- 



DISCOVERERS AND INDIANS. 3* 

injury, invaded the lands of the Pavvtuckets and Massachusetts 
and overran the region from the Penobscot to the Charles. 
Gorges describes the slaughter as " horrible to be spoken of."" 10 
Nanepashemet retired from the banks of Rumney Marsh to a 
hill near the head-waters of the Mystic, where he built a fort 
which was seen by Edward Winslow of Plymouth in 162 1. 

About this time the natives attacked and burned a French 
trading vessel which was lying at anchor near Peddock's Island 
in Boston Harbor. The men were slain or distributed among 
the neighboring villages. One of these men, daring to rebuke 
the Indians for their wickedness, was told, " they were so many 
that God could not kill them." Thomas Morton of Merry 
Mount tells the result: — 

In short time after the hand of God fell heavily upon them, with 
such a mortall stroake that they died on heapes as they lay in their 
houses ; and the living, that were able to shift for themselves, would 
runne away and let them dy, and let there Carkases ly above the 
ground without buriall. For in a place where many inhabited, there 
hath been but one left a live, to tell what became of the rest ; the liv- 
inge being (as it seemes) not able to bury the dead, they were left for 
Crowes, Kites, and vermin to pray upon. And the bones and skulls 
upon the severall places of their habitations made such a spectacle after 
my comming into those partes, that, as I travailed in that Forrest nere 
the Massachussets, it seemed to mee a new found Golgatha. 41 

Cotton Mather, in an apparent spirit of thankfulness, wrote : — 

The Indians in these Parts had newly, even about a Year or Two 
before, been visited with such a prodigious Pestilence ; as carried away 
not a Tenth, but Nine Parts of Ten ( yea 't is said Nineteen of Twenty) 
among them : so that the Woods were almost cleared of those per- 
nicious Creatures to make Room for a better Growth.^ 

This pestilence, which was described by various names, is 
supposed by recent writers to have been the small-pox, which 

aquis nation and inhabited, if a people 1813, by Samuel Angier and others of 

of their roaming habits may be said to Maiden, was probably a Tarratine. 

have a fixed habitation, the region east 40 Gorges, Briefe Narration, in Mass. 

of the Penobscot River. Williamson, Hist. Coll , xxvi. 90. 

History of Maine, i. 513, gives a speci- « Morton, Neia English Canaan „ 

men of their language. Nicholas John 23. 

Crevay, who was killed at Spot Pond in i2 Mather, Magnalia, i. ch. 2. 



32 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

in later instances caused a great mortality among the Indians. 4 
Gookin, writing half a century later, says of this sickness : — 

Doubtless it was some pestilential disease. I have conversed with 
some old Indians, that were then youths ; who say, that the bodies all 
over were exceeding yellow, describing it by a yellow garment they 
showed me, both before they died, and afterward. 44 

What the hatchet and the knife of the Tarratines had spared 
of the nation of the Pawtuckets, the plague devoured, so that 
but a feeble remnant remained to uphold the waning authority 
of Nanepashemet. So great was the loss that, out of about 
three thousand men which the united tribes could once muster, 
" not above two hundred and fifty men, besides women and 
children," remained when Gookin wrote. 45 

But the Sachem only escaped the plague to fall by the hands 
of his old enemies, the Tarratines, who again swept over the 
land and slew him in his fort near Mystic Pond in 1619. Two 
years later, Edward Winslow passed along the banks of the 
Mystic and thus recorded his observations in A Relation of Ovr 
Voyage to the Massachvsets : — 

On the morrow we went ashore, all but two men, and marched in 
Armes vp in the Countrey. Hauing gone three myles, we came to a 
place where Corne had beene newly gathered, a house pulled downe, 
and the people gone. A myle from hence, Nanepashemet their King in 
his life time had liued. His house was not like others, but a scaffold 
was largely built, with pools and plancks some six foote from ground, 
and the house vpon that, being situated on the top of a hill. 

Not farre from hence in a bottome, wee came to a Fort built by 
their deceased King, the manner thus ; There were pools some thirtie 
or fortie foote long, stucke in the ground as thicke as they could be set 
one by another, and with these they inclosed a ring some forty or fifty 
foote ouer. A trench breast high was digged on each side ; one way 
there was to goe into it with a bridge ; in the midst of this Pallizado 
stood the frame of an house, wherein being dead he lay buryed. 

About a myle from hence, we came to such another, but seated on 
the top of an hill : here Nanepashemet was killed, none dwelling in it 
since the time of his death. 46 

43 Massachusetts audits Early History, 46 Mourt Relation, 58. It was doubt- 
261. less the burial place of Nanepashemet's 

44 Mass. Hist. Coll., i. 148. men, or of their ancestors, which was 

45 Ibid., i. 149. disturbed in 1882, as related in the fol- 



DISCOVERERS AND INDIANS. 



33 



After the death of the Sachem and the retirement of the 
Tarratines his people again gathered around the Mystic and 
Rumney Marsh, where they dwelt, at the time of the settlement 
of the English, under the general government of the widow of 
Nanepashemet, the Squa Sachem, and the local rule of her sons, 
Wonohaquaham and Montowampate. 47 

The Squa Sachem appears to have had a large share of the 
masculine spirit in her character and to have been equal to the 
task of ruling the scattered bands of the roving Pawtuckets. 
She succeeded in establishing and maintaining authority over 
the domain of her deceased husband from Agamenticus to the 
Connecticut River. In 162 1 Obbatinewat of Shawmut com- 
plained that she was his enemy. 48 In accordance with an Indian 
custom she married Webcowet, the powow or physician 49 of the 



lowing extract, which, in its historical 
allusions, is as trustworthy as the aver- 
age newspaper articles upon local his- 
tory. Sagamore John died in 1633, 
among the English. They would hardly 
have taken the trouble to carry his body 
and those of his men from the lower 
Mystic and Rumney Marsh through the 
wilderness to Medford. The " Car- 
kases" of Indians who had died of the 
small pox would have been more likely 
to be thrown into the nearest hole. 

" A year ago last September, while 
workmen were engaged in excavating 
the earth for the large barn of Mr. 
Francis Brooks at West Medford, the 
skeletons of eighteen Indians were un- 
covered, found in sitting posture, to- 
gether with implements of war, pipes, 
etc. These bones were preserved, and 
last week Mr. Brooks erected a monu- 
ment to the memory of the red men, on 
a spot between his residence and that of 
Mr. Conant, his foreman, which is be- 
lieved to have been the burial place of 
Sagamore John and those Mystic In- 
dians who inhabited this region. It is 
about ten feet high, with a rough boulder 
weighing about one ton on the top, is 
rough throughout, with the exception 
of the panels, on which are the follow- 
ing inscriptions : ' In memory of Sag- 
amore John and those Mystic Indians 
whose bones lie here ; ' 1630-1884.' 



Sagamore John, a friendly man, once 
saved a white settlement from a brutal 
massacre, by pitching his tent on the 
high rock on Mr. Edmund T. Hasting's 
premises to command the river, thus 
warning the people that the Indians 
were in ambush to slay them all. All 
the bones saved were put in a black 
box in a brick vault laid in cement, in 
which were also placed the different 
kinds of coins of this year, and copies 
of the Medford papers. The whole was 
covered with a large slab and firmly 
imbedded in cement." Maiden Mirror, 
Aug. 2, 1884. 

47 " [December y e 24, 1694.] The 
Testimony of John Devoreaux of Marble- 
head aged about Eighty years Testifieth 
& Saith y l about y e yeare of Our Lord 
One thousand Six hundred & Thirty J 
came ouer from old England to New 
England & y e place of my abode and 
residence has been at Salem & Marble- 
head Euer Since & when J came hither 
here was an old Sqwah Called old Sqwaw 
Sachem y e Sqwaw of y e Dec ed Sachem 
Which had three reputed Sons viz John 
James & George whoe were y e Reputed 
Sachems & Owners of all y e Lands in 
these parts as Salem Marblehead Linn 
& as farr as Mistick." Essex Co. Deeds, 
xi. 132. 

48 Mourt, Relation, 57. 

49 Powow, priest, conjuror, or sorcerer. 



34 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

tribe, of whom we know but little beyond the fact of his mar- 
riage. He subscribed to some papers, and he is mentioned as 
taking an interest in the efforts, which were being made, in 1647, 
to christianize the Indians. 50 

In 1639 the two signed a deed by which- they conveyed to 
the inhabitants of Charlestown, with some reservations, all the 
lands which the Court had granted them, including the bounds 
of the present cities of Maiden and Everett and the town of 
Melrose. This document is of interest to us as being the first 
and only conveyance of the aboriginal title in the territory which 
we occupy. The consideration, or " satisfaction," proves how 
little the Indians valued their rights and how-cheaply the settlers 
quieted their claims. 

The I5 1 ! 1 of the 2. m°. 1639 

Wee Web Cowet & Squaw Sachem do sell vnto the Inhabitants of 
the Towne of Charlestowne, all the land with in the lines granted 
them by the Court (excepting the farmes and the ground, on the West 
of the two great Ponds called misticke ponds, from the South side of 
m r Nowells lott, neere the vpp r end of the Ponds, vnto the little runnet 
that cometh from Cap' Cookes mills which the Squaw reserveth to their 
vse, for her life, for the Jndians to plant and hunt vpon, and the weare 
above the Ponds, they also reserve for the Jndians to fish at whiles the 
Squaw liveth, and after the death of Squaw Sachem shee doth leave all 
her lands from m'. Mayhues house 51 to neere Salem to the present 
Governo r , m r Jn° Winthrop Sen r , m r Jncrease Nowell, m r Jn? Wilson, 
m r Edward Gibons to dispose of, and all Jndians to depart, and for 

60 Shattuck, History of Concord, 25. at Meadford house, who shewed me the 

51 By " m r Mayhues house " is meant, accomodations of the farme, being about 

I am convinced, the house built by Gov- to take y e said farme and stock of him 

ernor Cradock's people on the east bank and captaine Will. Ting: and I testify 

of the Mystic, which is still standing and that M r Mayhew did not then dwell at 

which was known in the early days as Meadford house to y e best of my Knowl- 

" Meadford house." I base my belief edge. 17, 10.1662." 
on the following affidavits in Middlesex Nicholas Davison was Cradock's 

Court Files, in loco. agent and Mayhew had probably occu- 

" The testimony of Richard Beers, pied the farm as tenant. 
Benjamin Crispe and Garret Church, " 1634, 14 May. M r Thomas May- 

Testifieth and Saith that M r Thomas hewe is intreated by the Court to examine 

Mayhue lived at Mistick alias Meadford what hurt the swyne of Charlton hath 

in y e yeare one thousand six hundred done amongst the Indean barnes of 

thirty and six. Charls-Towne the 17 th come, on the north side of Misticke, 

of the 10 th , 1662." & accordingly the inhabitants of Charl- 

" I Joseph Hills aged about 60 yeares ton p r miseth to giue them satisfaction." 

testify that about 1638, M r Davison lived Mass. Colony Records, i. 121. 



DISCOVERERS AND INDIANS. 35 

sattisfaction from Charlestowne, wee acknowledge to have received in full 
sattisfaction twenty and one coates ninten fathom of Wampon, & three 
bushels of corne. Jn witnes whereof we have here vnto sett o r hands, 
the day and yeare above named. the marke of Squa Sachem. m c . 

the marke of Web cowet. m. 
Subscribed in the 
p r senc e off 

Jn? Humphery 
Robert Feake. 52 
This is to testifie that the aforenamed purchase was made at the 
charges of the Jnhabitants of Charlestowne, and to their vse, and for so 
much as lyeth with in their limitts, we do accordingly resigne, and yeld 
vp all our interest therein to the vse of the said towne, according to 
the trust reposed in vs. 10 th m° 18 th , 1639. 

Jn? Winthrop Gou r n r . 
Jncrease Nowell. 
Jn? Wilson. 
Entred &: Recorded. 2^ 8m? 1656. 

By Thomas Dan forth Recorder.™ 

In 1644 the Squa Sachem, with others, formally submitted to 
the colonial authority by subscribing an instrument in which 
the hand of the Indian is little apparent: — 

Wossamegon, Nashowanon, Cutshamache, Mascanomet, & Squa 
Sachim did volentarily submit themselves to us, as appeareth by 
their covenant subscribed w th their own hands, hear following, & 
oth r articles to w ch they consented. 

Wee have & by these presents do voluntarily, & w th out any constraint 
or perswasion, but of o r owne free motion, put o r selues, o r subiects, lands, 
& estates under the government & iurisdiction of the Massachusets, 
to bee governed & protected by them, according to their iust lawes & 
orders, so farr as wee shalbee made capable of understanding them ; 
& wee do promise for o r selues, & all o r subiects, & all o r posterity, to 

62 Frothingham, History of Charles- George had begun to " trouble " the 

town, 67, makes this, Robert Heake —an English about his land. January 13, 

unknown name. Robert Feake, the wit- i6^/ 4 ., the Squa Sachem and Webcowet, 

n ess, was of Watertown, where he died in consideration of "many kindnesses 

February 1, 166%. Mount Feake in and benefites " and "for our tender loue 

Waltham was named in his memory. & good respect " deeded to Jotham 

53 Middlesex Co. Deeds, i. 190 (orig- Gibbons the reversion of the lands 

inal vol.). It will be noticed that sev- around the Mystic ponds which had 

enteen years elapsed before this deed been reserved in the Charlestown deed, 

was recorded. When it was finally put Suffolk Co. Deeds, i. 43; Middlesex Co. 

upon record the Squa Sachem had been Deeds, i. 191. 
dead five or six years, and Sagamore 



36 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

bee true & faithfull to the said government, & ayding to the main- 
tenance thereof, to o r best ability, & fro™ time to time to give speedy 
notice of any conspiracy, attempt, or evill intension of any which wee 
shall know or heare of against the same ; & wee do promise to bee willing 
fro m time to time to bee instructed in the knowledg & worship of God. 
In witnes whereof wee have hereunto put o r hands the 8 th of the first 
m°, @ 1 643-1 644. 

cutshamache, 
Nashowanon, 
wossamegon, 
Maskanomett, 
Squa Sachim. 54 

Several questions relating to morals followed the signing of 
this " volentary " submission, the answers to which are fully set 
forth in the Colony Records. Two of them would be regarded 
as especially creditable to the Indian character, did we not 
remember that the vices referred to are vices of civilized and 
not of savage life. They said " they know not w* swering is 
among y m ," and that it was their custom " to honor their 
parents and their superiors." At the close they gave the Eng- 
lish twenty-six fathoms of wampum and received five coats of 
red cloth and a potful of wine. 

Little is known of the Squa Sachem beyond what has been 
related. With other Indians she had sold a large tract of land 
at Concord, in 1637 ; and she had conveyed to Jotham Gibbons 
the reversion of her lands which she had reserved in the Charles- 
town deed. In 1640 the General Court ordered Cambridge " to 
give Squa Sachem a coate every winter while shee liveth." This 
order apparently was not obeyed, for the next year " Cambridge 
was enioned to give Squa Sachem so much corne as to make up 
35 bushels, & 4 coates for the last year and this." 55 Her needs 

64 Mass. Colony Records, ii. 55. Cut- friendship for the English formed so 
shamache was a sachem, or sagamore, great a contrast to the enmity of his 
from near the Blue Hills; Nashowanon, savage son, Metacomet, or Philip, 
a Nipmuck from Wachuset ; and Mas- 55 It appears by these orders that she 
kanomett was that sagamore of Agawam had some special claim on the town of 
who is elsewhere called Mascononomo. Cambridge ; and a clause in the deed to 
Drake, History of the Indians, 106, sup- Jotham Gibbons, Suffolk Co. Deeds, i. 
poses Wossamegon to have been no 43, indicates that she may have con- 
other than the great Wampanoag, or veyed land there. Cambridge agreed, 
Pokanoket, chief Massasoit, whose April 10, 1643, " to P a Y t0 Squa Sachem 



DISCOVERERS AND INDIANS. 37 

seemed not to require attention for awhile; but in 1643, the 
Court granted her " haulfe a pound of gunpowder" and ordered 
"her peece to be mended; " and in the fall of the same year 
she was allowed to buy " I lb of powder & 4 lb of shot." 5,i 
After the submission and catechizing of 1644, she disappears 
from sight and nothing more is heard of her. A pathetic story 
is told of her as being old, blind, and worn-out; and with little 
reason it has been supposed that she was the " ould " blind Nip- 
muck squa who died in 1667 in consequence of ill treatment 
received from a party of Narragansetts ; but the testimony of 
Richard Church, preserved in the Court files of Middlesex 
County, shows that she died about the year 1650. 57 Old she 
may have been, but there is no evidence that she was blind. 

Wonohaquaham, or Sagamore John of Winnisimmet, " of 
gentle and good disposition," 58 whom Thomas Dudley describes 
as " a handsome young man, conversant with us, affecting Eng- 
lish apparel and houses, and speaking well of our God," 59 
dwelt " upon a creek which meets with the mouth of Charles 
River." 60 This is the creek, now known as Island-End River, 
or Chelsea Creek, which runs through the marshes between 
Powder-Horn Hill and Winnisimmet into the Mystic at Worm- 
wood Point 61 in Everett. Here, on the south side of the creek, 
near its mouth, Samuel Maverick built a fortified house in 1625, 
which the savages attacked. They were so warmly received 
that they " never attempted it more," to their sincere regret in 
after years. 62 John gave Ralph Sprague and his brothers " free 



8 bushels of Indian corn, after next har- 58 Charlestown Records, in Young, 

vest;" and again, November 11, 1643, Chronicles of Massachusetts Bay, 374. 

"Agreed, that the cow-keepers shall pay 59 Young, Chronicles of Massachusetts 

six bushels of corn to Squa Sachem for Bay, 307. 

the damage clone to her corn, upon the 60 Hutchinson, History of Massachu- 

Sabbath day, through the neglect of the setts Bay, i. 461. Ed. 1760. 

keepers in the year 1642." Cf. Paige, 61 Sometimes corrupted to Wormall's 

History of Cambridge, 384. Point ; and at different times known as 

50 Mass Colony Records, i. 292, 317; Sweetser's, Beacham's, and Van Voor- 

ii. 36, 44. his's Point, from the owners of the 

57 Testimony of Richard Church, adjacent lands. 
Jan. 15, i659/ 6o : "soone after Squaw 62 Maverick, Briefe Discription of Xc7t> 

Sachems Death w ch to the best of his England, in N. E. Hist, and Getieal. 

remembrance was in the yeare 1650." Register, xxxix. 38. 
Middlesex Court Files, in loco. 



38 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

consent" to settle at Mishawum, where they founded the town 
of Charlestown in 1629. 63 His tendencies towards civilization 
did not prevent him from going with thirty men, in 1632, to the 
assistance of the celebrated Narragansett chief Canonicus, who 
was fighting the Pequots in Connecticut. 64 

Montowampate, called James by the English, was the saga- 
more of Saugus. Compared with his brother Wonohaquaham 
he is said to have been " of a far worse disposition, yet repaireth 
often to us." 65 In 1629 he married Wenuchus, daughter of 
the great Bashaba Passaconaway of Pennacook. 66 There is a ro- 
mantic and somewhat amusing story of Indian stubbornness and 
fatherly dignity connected with this marriage, which the curious 
reader may find in Morton's New English Canaan?" and which 
Mr. Whither has embalmed in his " Bridal of Pennacook," trans- 
ferring, however, with a poet's licence, the husband's place to 
his brother Wenepoykin and the time to a later generation. 

In 1 63 1 the Mystic Indians were terrified by another inroad 
of their old enemies, the Tarratines, " who they said would eat 
such Men as they caught alive, tying them to a Tree, and gnaw- 
ing their flesh by peece-meales off their Bones; " and many of 
them fled among the English for protection. 68 During this in- 
road, both Wonohaquaham and Montowampate, who perhaps 
had gone to the assistance of their fellow sagamore, Mascono- 
nomo, were wounded at Agawam ; and Wenuchus was carried 
away captive as far east as Pemaquid, where she was ransomed 
by Abraham Shurte. 69 Tradition says that soon after Monto- 
wampate went to England in search of a man named Watts, who 
had " forced him " of twenty beaver skins. 70 

About the same Time the Indians began to be quarrelsome touching 
the Bounds of the Land which they had sold to the English ,• but 
God ended the Controversy by sending the Small-pox amongst the 

68 Charlestown Records, in Young, 67 Morton, New English Canaan, 

Chronicles of Massaclmsetts Bay, 374. 38-40. 

64 Winthrop, History of New Eng- c8 Johnson, Wonder-working Prffvi- 
land, i. 72. dence, 50 

65 Dudley's Letter, in Young, Chroni- 89 Hubbard, History of A T ew Englan <t, 
cles of Massachusetts Bay, 307. 145; Winthrop, History of A r ew Eng- 

60 On the Merrimack, now Concord, land, i. 61. 
N. H. 70 Cf. Winthrop, History of New 

England, i. 49. 



DISCOVERERS AND INDIANS. 39 

Indians at Saugust, who were before that Time exceeding numerous. 
Whole Towns of them were swept away, in some of them not so much 
as one Soul escaping the Destruction. There are some old Planters 
surviving to this Day, who helped to bury the dead Indians, even whole 
Familyes of them all dead at once. 71 

Other writers attest the truth of this story. Edward Johnson 
writes : — 

The mortality among them was very great, and increased among them 
daily more and more, insomuch that the poore Creatures being very 
timorous of death, would faine have fled from it, but could not tell how, 
unlesse they could have gone from themselves ; Relations were little 
regarded among them at this time, so that many, who were smitten 
with the Disease died helplesse unlesse they were neare, and known 
to the English.' 1 ' 1 

This disease spread among the Indians from the Connecticut 
to the Penobscot. Seven hundred of the Narragansett tribe, 
alone, are said to have perished. Many of the English took 
their lives in their hands and went among the sick and dying, 
administering relief and consolation. They " were very frequent 
among them for all the noysomenesse of their Disease, entring 
their Wigwams, and exhorting them in the Name of the Lord." 
Governor Winthrop records that Elias Maverick of Winnisimmet, 
who buried above thirty of Wonohaquaham's people in one 
day, " is worthy of a perpetual remembrance. Himself, his 
wife, and servants, went daily to them, ministered to their ne- 
cessities, and buried their dead, and took home many of their 
children. So did other of the neighbours." 73 

Wonohaquaham, falling sick, was taken among the English 
at his own request, promising, " if he recovered, to live with 
them and serve their God." He died December 5, 1633, " in a 
persuasion that he should go to the Englishmen's God." His 
son, a child whom he gave to Rev. John Wilson of Boston, " to 
be brought up by him," probably died also, as we hear nothing 
more of him, 74 and but three of the children who were taken by 

71 Mather, Early History of New Eng- Providence, 51; Winthrop, History of 
land, no. New England, i. 120. 

72 Johnson, Wonder-zvorking Provi- 74 Johnson says he had two sons, 
dence, 51. Wonder-working Providence, 52. Per- 

73 Cf. Johnson, IVonder-working haps one died before the father. 



4 o 



HISTORY OF MA L DEN. 



the English were living three months later. One of them was 
living in the family of Governor Winthrop and " was called 
Know-God, (the Indians' usual answer being when they were 
put in mind of God, Me no know God)." 75 

By the death of Wonohaquaham and Montowampate, their 
brother Wenepoykin, then about seventeen years of age, became 
chief of the small band of Indians remaining in this vicinity. 76 
He was known to the English as George Rumney-Marsh, from 
the place of his abode near Powder-Horn Hill; and he married 
Ahavvayet, daughter of Poquanum, or Black William, who sold 
Nahant to Thomas Dexter for " a suite of Cloathes," and soon 
after resold it, together with Swampscott and Sagamore Hill, to 
William Witter " for two pestle stones." The latter sale ap- 
pears to have been considered of importance by the Indians, as 
Montowampate, Wonohaquaham, Wenepoykin, Mascononomo 
of Agawam, and others were present. 77 The Indians had very 
limited ideas of the transfer of property, and there is no lack of 
proof that they were often outwitted in their transactions. 

George Rumney-Marsh had a son, Manatooquis, 78 and three 



76 Winthrop, History of New England, 
i. 124. 

76 He had lived at Naumkeag, where 
he had a village, and came to the Mystic 
after the death of his brothers. The 
Rev. John Higginson, " Pastor of y e 
Church at Salem," testified, December 

25. l6 94= — 

"To y e best of my Remembrance 
when J came Ouer with my father to 
this place in y e yeare 1629 being then 
about 13 yeares old there was in these 
parts a Widow Woman Called Sqwaw 
Sachem who had 3 Sons Sagamore John 
kept at Mistick Sagamore James at 
Saugust & Sagamore George here at 
Naumkeke Whether he was an Actual 
Sachem here J Cannot Say for he was 
young then about my Age & J thinke 
there was an Elder man y l was at least 
his Guardian but y e Jndian Towne of 
wigwams was on y e North Side of y e 
North riuer not farre from Simondes s 
& y n both y e North & South Side of 
that Riuer was together Called Naum- 
keke So that J remember Seuerall that 



wrote ouer Then to Thier friends in 
England S d y' y e Jndian name of y e 
place where they were building a Towne 
Called Salem was Naumkeke." Essex 
Co. Deeds, xi. 132. 

77 Essex Court Files, April, 1657. 
This double sale did not prevent We- 
nepoykin himself from transferring the 
same territory at a later date; for, April 
1, 1652, he mortgaged to Nicholas Davi- 
son, for twenty pounds " dew many 
yeeres since vnto m r mathew Craddock 
deceased all that Tracke or necke of 
Land Comonly Called Nahant." Suf- 
folk Co. Deeds, i. 205. This mortgage 

was to have been satisfied " within 
twenty dajes;" but no record of its dis- 
charge appears, and it was not recorded 
until May 21, 1652, some time after the 
twenty days had expired. 

78 Otherwise Samuel Manatooquis, 
or Manatahqua. This only son died 
before Sagamore George, leaving by 
his squa, Abigail, two sons, Nonupa- 
nohow, or David Kunkshamooshaw, and 
Samuel Wattanoh, who were living in 



DISCOVERERS AND INDIANS. 41 

daughters, Petagunsk, Wattaquattinusk, and Petagoonaquah. 
The unpoetic Puritans called one Cicely, Su George, or 
Susanna, and to another gave the name of Sarah. 79 Ahawayet 
was transformed to Joan, and Wenepoykin, himself, became in 
after years " old Sagamore George No Nose," perhaps from a 
facial peculiarity. But little is known of Sagamore George until 
after the death of his mother, the Squa Sachem, when he pre- 
sented to the General Court the following petition and declara- 
tion : — 

To f Rigt War 11 f Go'': the Wor 11 Dept Go r no r : &> magistrates of 
this hon ed Courte. 

The humble Petticon of George Jndian, humbly Requesting Whereas 
yo r Peticon r , hath often besought this hon ed Courte to consider his 
condicon, & weighing sure Grounds & euedenc as he hath produced 
to declare & manifest his interest & Just Title to the Lands of his late 
brother deceased, on mistick side, & conceiueing the hon Lj courte to 
be soficiently informed & possessed with the truth & equitie of his 
cause in and aboute the same That now at Last out of yo r Great clem- 
ency & compastion towards yo r poore Jndian & Petitioner, you will 
bee pleased to vouchsafe him somme small parte parcell or propor- 
tion of his inheritance for himselfe & company to plant in, which he 
only is bould to put you in Remembranc of as hertofore not doubt- 

16S6, and joined in the several deeds tatinusk, wife of Peter Ephraim of Na- 

which were given to the English in that tick, appears in the same deed, and may 

and the preceding year. have been a daughter of Sarah Watta- 

79 Lewis, History of Lynn, 39, gives quattinusk, who also appears at the 

these Indian girls three English names, same time ; but perhaps it is more 

and affects to distinguish between them, probable that she was daughter of Ya- 

He says they were Cicely or Su George, wata, the sister of Wenepoykin. 

Sarah, and Susanna; but I cannot sep- Mr. Lewis further informs us that 

arate Cicely, Su George, and Susanna, the daughters of George were collec- 

which appear to me as names of one tively "called Wanapanaquin, or the 

person in the three deeds of the Rum- plumed ones." In the Indian deed of 

ney Marsh, and Lynn and Reading lands Marblehead, Sarah is called by an evi- 

given in 1685 and 1686. As " Cisly and dent change of spelling, "Sarah Wana- 

Sarah two Surviving daughters of the panequin," being elsewhere in the same 

s d Saggamore George " are mentioned, paper referred to as " Sarah Wenepaw- 

and Thomas Poquanum, brother of weekin," and her sister as " Susannah 

Ahawayet, testifies that " Sagamore Wenepawweekin," both daughters of 

George left two daughters name Sicilye " George Saggamore- als Wenepawwee- 

and Sarah," it is evident that one of the kin." Essex Co. Deeds, vii. 1-2. Mr. 

three had previously died. Su George Lewis saw through a veil of romance 

had a son John Tontohquon, who joined which was unfavorable to accuracy, 
in a deed with his mother in t6S6. Wat- 



42 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

ing of his grante from yo r Greate' fauor toward him, vvhoe is willing to 
be now & euer 

An humble seru' to this honnered courte & country 

George Jndian. 80 

Quachamaquine saith : when George Jndians brother was sick of the 
pox before his death he spake to him & Egawam with him & said when 
I die I give all my wompam & coates & other things to my mother & 
all my ground to my owne brother meaning the Ground about powder 
home hill, vnles his own sonne did Hue but if his sonne dyed then 
none to haue the Ground but his brother George Jndian, and Egawam 
saith the same : & they both say that seauen dayes after this John 
Sagamore Georges Brother dyed. 

21 3 i6si. 81 

mo. 7 ° 

There is a touching simplicity in these documents. As we 
read them the whole story of injustice — an injustice per- 
haps unavoidable but not the less an injustice — is brought 
before us. The last chief of a once powerful tribe asks for 
" somme small parte " of his own inheritance of those who 
asked of his brother, the " gentle and good " Wonohaquaham, 
leave to settle in his bands. When the whites were weak 
they courted the red men's friendship. It was quite another 
thing when war and sickness had weakened the Indians and 
the Colony of the Massachusetts had become strong. There 
is also much simplicity in the answer by which the General 
Court showed its " Great clemency & compastion " towards 
the petitioner: — 

[165 1 : 22 May.] George Indian, complayninge of land wrongfully 
detaynd from him on Misticke side, is referd to bringe his action 
agaynst any that withold it, in some inferior Court. 82 

There is worldly wisdom as well as simplicity in this ad- 
vice; and its practical value — to the English — is proved by 
the fact that " George Jndian " was twice defeated in attempt- 
ing to recover his own. The following petition is interest- 
ing as showing the extent of his claims and the position of the 
planters : — 

80 Mass. Archives, xxx. 19. 82 Mass. Colony Records, iii. 233. 

81 Ibid. 



DISCOVERERS AND INDIANS. 43 

To the Right wo r John Endicot Gonv. r etc. 27ie humble petition of 
John Newgate, John Coggine, Robert Keayne, Samuell Cole, Nicholas 
Parker, 6° other inhabitants of Rumne Marsh Showeth 

That whereas this Honored Court hath formerly giuen that necke of 
Land, caled by the Name of Rumne Marsh : diuers years since to 
Boston, for the accomodation of that Tovvne and the Townsmen 
thereof hath deuided the same to many of there Jnhabitants, Some 
whereof hath sould & passed ouer there Alotments to others, and many 
alsoe haue bought much of there Land there, and Layd out the greatest 
pt of there estates, in Buildinge, ffensinge, plantinge &c, and have 
inioyed the same peacably for these sixtene years & vpwards : as is the 
condition of most of yo r Petitione rs : And yet now haue the Title of 
there Land called into Question by sagamore George and Indian, by 
some pretence of clayme that he makes thereto, and vpon that pre- 
tence (though he haue lyen quiet soe many years & neuer made any 
clayme thereto, yet Lately by the instigation of some discontented, or 
disaffected persons as we verely suppose, he hath bine full of molesta- 
tion to yo r petitioned, and hath by way of Petition brought vs twise 
into the Gene rl Court, who after strict inquire by committes chosen on 
purpose to examine it found no Just ground of clayme, & there vpon 
reiected his Petitions, yet after this, by Petition agayne, he brought vs 
before oure Honored Magistrates, at countie Court at Boston, who after 
hearinge all that he could aledge & some that pleaded for him, it was 
determined that they saw no right he had, nor any Just ground of his 
molestation, but that he ought to be quiet, w th w c we thought he had 
bine fully satisfied, and that we should neuer haue heard more of it, yet 
the Last country Court at Boston, he serued vs all agayne by way of 
question, wherafter we had attended all that Court, we at Last Non- 
suted him, & had costs granted vs. And yet he still threttens vs w th 
farther sutes. 

Vpon all w ch grounds, as alsoe because this is not ou r case alone, but 
the case of many other Townes, & soe by consequence of the whole 
cuntrye : for if he can preuayle to draw vs to any composition, or to 
pt wth any of ou r Land, than he intends to doe the Like to Lyn &c as 
he hath threatned. And accordinge to his successe other Jndians 
wilbe incoraged to Lay clayme, not only to the ffarmes belonginge to 
other Townes, but to the Townes them selues, as some haue bine for- 
ward enough to expresse them selues that way. 

Therefo r yo r petitiono rs pray this Honored Court to take it into 
there wise consideration and to prouide some way by some Order of 
'Court, that no Jndian shall make clayme nor any of the English shall 
tender composition, after soe many yea r s quiet posession as some other 
Courts haue done, or how else you in yo r wisdomes shall judge best, 



44 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

that soe not only yo r Petitioners may haue Jndemnitie agaynst such 
continuall and vniust molestations (haueinge no other way to helpe 
ou r selues. for if we recoue r any thinge they haue nothinge to pay) but 
alsoe the whole cuntry may be cleared from such pretended Titles. w ch 
if not timely preuented may proue of very bad consequenc And 
Yo r Petitioned shall euer pray. &c 

Robert Keayne 

John Cogan 

John Newgate 

James Penn 

Samuel Cole 

George Burden. 83 

The answer to this petition is thus recorded : — 

[165 1 : 14 October.] Capt Robt Keayne, M r Joh Coggan, M r 
Newgate, M r Pen, Samuel Cole, & George Burden, preferinge a petition 
for releife in respect of vnjust molestation, as they conceiue, from Saga- 
more George, pretending a tytle to certayne land 5 at or about Rumny 
Marsh, in answer to which this Courte doth order that their petition be 
graunted, provided that the petitiono' 5 lay out twenty acors of good 
plantinge land in some convenient place, such as this Courte shall 
approue off, for Sagamor George to make vse off; but if Georg Saga- 
mor sell it, the petition rs are to haue the refusall of it. And it is also 
further ordred that if the petition" shall refuse to lay out twenty acors 
of good planting land, as is before exprest, that then the sd Sagamor is 
permitted the benefitt of the law to recouer what right he hath to the 
land. 84 

The democratic deputies, as appears elsewhere, would have 
increased this meagre allowance to forty acres; but the conser- 
vative magistrates refused to concur in so liberal a measure. 85 
The " poore Jndian & Petitioner" was silenced for a time, if not 
satisfied, by this paltry grant, which appears not to have been 
laid out at once ; for we have evidence that he again presented 
his " clajme," eighteen years later. Unfortunately the petition 
which he presented to the General Court is not in its place 
in the Massachusetts Archives, and we can only guess at its 
tenor; 86 but the answer which he received is before us, and 

88 Mass. Archives, xxx. 26. that unfortunate disarrangement of pa- 

84 Mass. Colony Records, iii. 252. pers which is a disgrace to the State 

88 Mass. Archives, xxx. 26. and a cause of vexation to scholars. 

86 It may be said that many docu- The paper in cpaestion has not been 

ments are not in their prober places in found. By the crude system of arrange- 



DISCOVERERS AND INDIANS. 45 

shows how hopelessly closed, to the Indian, were the avenues 
which led to justice: — 

[1669 : 19 May.] In ans r to the petition of Georg Sagamore, the 
Court declares that his clajme mentioned in his petition concernes not 
the Generall Court to determine, but leaue him to the proprieto r s of 
the land to give him as they & he shall agree. 87 

It would be interesting to know if the parties were able to 
agree ; and we might find that the grant was located, if at all, 
in some eligible place where it would not be likely to interfere 
with the settlers. The strength of his friendship for the English 
thereafter does not appear to have been strong. 

Having by the death of the Squa Sachem become the chief of 
the Pawtuckets and the nominal, if not the real, head of the 
Nipmucks, who occupied the land westward to the Connecticut 
River, he joined Philip in the bloody war of 1675-6. About the 
same time, the few remaining Rumney Marsh Indians left the 
banks of the Mystic and the Abousett and retired among their 
brethren, the Praying Indians, at Natick and at Wamesit, now 
Tewkesbury, near the Pawtucket Falls. There is evidence that, 
while some of the Christian Indians remained faithful to their 
pledges and performed important services for the English, there 
were many who resumed their savage habits and were far from 
being agreeable or safe neighbors. Accordingly, it was con- 
sidered prudent to put them under restraint; and it was ordered 
by the Court, October 13, 1675, " that all the Naticke Indians 
be forthwith sent for, & disposed of to Deare Island, as the place 
appointed for their present aboade." 88 

At the same time, those of Wamesit were " vehemently sus- 
pected to be actors & consentors to the burning of a haystacke 
at Chelmsford; " 8<J and two strangers, who were seized and sold 
as suspected spies, but who were really peaceable Indians who 
had come in from Wannalancet of Pennacook, were found 
among them. And so, " It is ordered, that the majo r generall 

ment which prevails it should be under 87 Mass. Colony Records, iv. (2), 428. 

" Indians " ; it may be classified with 88 Ibid., v. 57. 

" Taverns," or hidden in the bulky vol- 89 Ibid, 
umes which are labelled "Miscellaneous." 



46 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

forthwith take order to secure the Indians at Wamesicke, & 
about Chelmsford." 90 

It cannot be supposed that the condition of the Indians upon 
the bleak islands of Boston Harbor, where they were now placed, 
during a long winter, was particularly pleasant, or that they were 
supplied with many comforts beyond the mere necessities of life, 
although there were appointed " meet p r sons to vissit them 
from time to time," and the Treasurer was ordered to make 
provision, " so as to p r vent their perishing by any extremity that 
they may be put vnto for want of absolute necessaries." 91 At 
the same time : — 

It is ordered, that none of the sajd Indians shall presume to goe off 
the sajd islands voluntarily, vpon pajne of death ; and it shallbe laufull 
for the English to destroy those that they shall finde stragling off from 
the sajd places of theire confinement, vnlesse taken of by order from 
authorjty, and vnder an English guard. 92 

There seems to have been a strong feeling against them in 
the community — a natural fear, perhaps, which was not without 
cause. Out of eleven hundred and fifty Praying Indians, who 
were supposed to be in the towns just before the war, not over 
five hundred were ever confined upon the islands. Some, like 
James Rumney Marsh and Thomas Quanapowitt, kinsmen of 
Wenepoykin, were with the English army or acting as scouts and 
spies in the Indian country; but many more were with the 
enemy upon the frontier or were skulking about the woods, 
singly or in small parties, thieving and murdering as opportu- 
nities appeared. Some former teachers of the gospel were 
known to be with Philip. That the English looked upon the 
prisoners in the harbor, poor and wretched though they were, 
with distrust was not unnatural: that some of the baser sort en- 
deavored to compass their destruction was not strange. There 
is good evidence of the latter fact. 

15. 12. 75 Thomas Shepard of charlstown [Mystic Side] being exam'.' 
Saith y' y e last 6 th day of y e week Abram Hill of Mauldon asked him 
if he would goe with him to Deare Jland. His words were these. 

90 Mass. Colony Records, v. 58. 91 Ibid., v. 64. M Ibid. 



DISCOVERERS AND INDIANS. 47 

Will you go with vs to Deare J land to destroy y e Jndeans for ab 1 30 : 
of Linn men are intended to go thither ab* y e work and wee are intended 
to get as many as wee can at Mauldon. & then go down thether. And 
the place of meeting is to be at Rumney marsh at Gm Muzzeys house. 68 
or there ab ts Hee did not speak as though they had come to an agree- 
in' to meet there, but named y l place as most fitting. & spake also of 

doing it in a moone light night. 

Thomas Sheppard. 

This Exam" taken vpon oath y e day & year above written 

Before Thomas Danforth Assist*. 

The Subtanc of y s Abraham Hill owned before y e Council 15 febr 75. S4 

Meanwhile the poor Indians, among whom were Old Waban 
and Piamboho, who were the earliest to receive the teachings of 
the Apostle Eliot at Nonantum, were passing through a long 
winter; and their "want of absolute necessaries " was so well- 
met that they were found to be in a suffering condition in 
the spring. The Court made a provision for them — on paper — 
as follows : — * 

[May 5, 1676] This Court, considering the p r sent distressed con- 
dition of the Indians at the island, they being ready to perrish for want 
of bread, & incapacitated to make provission for the future, doe 
order, that there be a man w th a boate provided, who, w th some of the 
Indians, shallbe imployed in catching of fish for theire supply, and that 
if any of the English tounes doe moove for some of them to imploy in 
scouting, labouring, or otherwise, with some of theire oune men, (the 
sajd tounes bearing the charge,) they shallbe accomodated in that 
respect, the which improovement of them may tend much to theire 
supply, & much more to our security, and that the rest may be im- 
prooved in planting the island or islands where they now are. 95 

93 Goodman Muzzey. This was Ben- acted strangely, coming to " Mannings 
jamin Muzzey, who was then in the occu- Moone Jsland," where he was. He said, 
pation, as tenant, of the Keayne farm at " J was affraide & durst not proseed in 
Rumney Marsh. His house, the site of that J went aboute but hauing gunns 
which is now marked by that of John P. & Amunition J went to strengthen the 
Squire, was a convenient place for the house." He further testified: "J haue 
proposed meeting, being on the only inteligence that the indians haue sayd 
road which led from Lynn and Maiden that when the spring comes they shalbe 
to Pullen Point and the shore opposite fetched of the Jsland by the other Jn- 
Deer Island. dians & that they will make Boston espe- 

94 Mass. Archives, lxviii. 136. There sially the magistrates pay deare for 
appears to have been some provocation euery houre they haue been kept theire." 
to this plan of destruction. Edward Mass. Archives, lxviii. 136. 

Page deposed [February 15, 167%,] in 95 Mass. Colony Records, v. 84. 

relation to a boat full of Indians, who 



4 8 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



At the same session of the Court they were ordered to be 
removed " as neere as they may w th safety to their oune planting 
feilds ; " and English garrisons, in which they were to lodge, 
"on pajne of death," were established for their protection or 
their intimidation. The Rumney Marsh Indians returned to 
Natick and to the banks of the Merrimac, and so the feeble 
remnant of the tribe of Nanepashemet was dispersed and finally 
disappeared. 

What part Wenepoykin took in the massacres and burnings 
of those eventful years I know not ; for he cannot be distin- 
guished in the crowd of howling demons who drew a line of 
blood and flame around the frontier towns of New England. At 
the close of the war he again appears, and was sent, with hun- 
dreds of other prisoners, into West Indian slavery. 96 By 
some means he was finally enabled to return to Massachusetts 
Bay; and he died in or before 1681, 97 at Natick, in the house of 
his kinsman, Muminquash, who was otherwise known by the 
English as James Quanapowitt or James Rumney Marsh. 98 



96 The following document may refer 
to the sale of Wenepoykin : 

" To all people who shall see these 
presents or heare them read, greeting. 
Know yee that Lancelott Talbott and 
Joseph Smith have bought of the Tres- 
- urer of this Collony seaven Jndians, 
vizi George, William, Hawkins, Great 
David, Rouley, John Indian and Tom- 
moquin, which Indians were sentanc'd 
to be sould for slaves : to which end the 
said Talbott and Smith may transport 
them to any place out of this continent. 
In testimony of the truth hereof, I have 
caused the publique seale of the Collony 
to be affixed hereunto, this 22 of 9 br 1675, 
Ano'q. Regni Regis Coroli, secundi nunc 
Aug .... xxvii. 

" John Leverett, Gov 1 : " 
In Boston Book of Possessions, 145. 

97 Lewis, History of Lynn, 264, says, 
with admirable pretension to exactness, 
that he died in 16S4, at the age of sixty- 
eight years, " sad and broken-hearted, . . . 
in a lone wigwam, in the forest of Natick, 
in the presence of his sister Yawata." 
Ahawayet and others, in consideration 
of " Six Indian Coats and other things," 



conveyed lands at Rumney Marsh and 
elsewhere to Thomas Savage of Boston, 
by a deed, December, 8, 168 r, in which 
she is called '• Jone Indian Relict of 
Sagamore George No-Nose dec; 1 " Suf- 
folk Co. Deeds, xiii. 190. 

98 Lewis, History of Lynn, 40, errone- 
ously makes this James Rumney Marsh 
to have been a son of Yawata. Yawata, 
daughter of Nanepashemet, and sister of 
Wenepoykin, became the squa of John 
Awansamug, or Oonsumog, and was liv- 
ing in 16S6. Her husband was living in 
16S2, when with Waban, Peter Ephraim, 
Piamboho, John Magus. Andrew Pitti- 
mee, and Great John, he sold lands in 
Sherborn to John Hull. Suffolk Co. 
Deeds, xii. 264. They appear to have 
had sons, John and Amos, who deeded 
land near Maspenock Pond in Mendon 
in 1692. Suffolk Co. Deeds, xxvii. 293. 

James Quanophkownatt, or Quana- 
powitt, "alias James Rumney Marsh," 
was of Natick in 1686, and appears at all 
times as a near kinsman of old George 
No-Nose. His mother is mentioned as 
"Joanna Quanophkownatt, relict and 
widow of old John Quanophkownatt." 



DISCOVERERS AND INDIANS. 



49 



With him the line of the Pavvtucket sachems came to an end. 
Members of his family were living sixty years later ; but they 
went, long ago, into their nameless graves and are forgotten, 
save by the antiquary who pores with aching eyes over the 
faded and crumbling records of past generations. 

Wenepoykin never abandoned his claim to the broad lands 
which he considered his own ; and he died leaving his uncertain 
heritage in the lands from Naumkeag to the Mystic to James 
Rumney Marsh, who appears to have been a leader among his 
kinsmen." 

The Testimony of Daniel Tookuwompbait & Thomas Wauban Saith 
that Sagamore George when he came from Barbados he lived Sometime 
and dyed at y e house of James Rumley Marsh y e Said Daniel heard 
y e Said Sagamore George Speake it & y e Said Thomas Saith he heard his 
father Old Wabun Speak it that all that land that belonged to him that 
is from y e Riuer of Salem alias Nahumkeke riuer : up to Maiden mill 
brooke running from a pond called Spott pond that before his death he 
left all this land belonging to him vnto his kinsman James Rumley 
Marsh vpon y e Condition that he would looke after it to procure it. 
This they offer to Testify vpon oath y e 2 d day of October 1686 as 



Witnis thier hands 



In the Indian deed of Salem she appears 
with " Yawataw relict Widow of Jn° 
Oonsumoo." Essex Co. Deeds, vii. 126. 
At the same time, " Jsrael Quanoph- 
kownatt Son of s^ James " appears. The 
temptation to dwell on the story of In- 
dian kinship is not great and the liability 
of error is evident. 

James Quanapowitt was employed by 
the English in 1675 as a S P V among the 
Nipmucks ; and his testimony was used 
against the old chief Matoonas who was 
shot to death by three Indians on Boston 
Common. He was a useful scout and 
forewarned the English of the assault on 
Lancaster. He had a brother, Thomas 
Rumney Marsh, who was a Christian 
Indian and did good service against 
Philip. 

Indians bearing the surname of Rum- 
ney Marsh were frequently in the service 
during the early part of the last century ; 
and the name of " James Rumlymarsh " 
is on a roll of those who joined the ex- 
pedition against the Spanish West Indies 



Daniel Tookuwompbait 
Thomas Wauban 

in August, 1740. Mass. Archives, xci. 
326. Thomas, son or grandson of Awan- 
samug and Yawata, owned a house lot 
in Natick in 1742. Barry, History of 
Framingham, 19. Widow " Rumne- 
marsh " was living in the same place in 
June, 1749. Mass. Hist. Coll. x. 135. 

99 He had given some portion of his 
claims to James Rumney Marsh, under 
conditions, before Philip's War. 

" Georg Sagamore w th : no nose ap- 
peared in y Court held at Natick among 
the Jndians y e 15'.'' of 6 month 1672 & 
also there appeared Jone Quanopoko- 
wait Kinsman to y e s ci George they both 
agreed & declared in open Court y [ all 
y e right of George Saggamore in the 
Lands of Marblehead of Antient ryme, 
George he Consents y l : James shall have 
it, dispose of it & he will joyne \v ,h him 
to make y e deed for it apon Condition 
y £ Georg Saggamore is to reseeve one 
moiety of y e paye & y° other Contraty 
to reseeve y e other half." Essex Co. 
Deeds, vii. 9. 



50 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

The Two persons above named Viz Daniel Tookuwompbait pastor of 
y e Church at Natick aged about 36 yeares & Thomas Waban a member 
of y e Church aged 25 yeares being Examined touching y e Nature of an 
Oath they both made Oath before me this Second of October 1686, 
vnto y e Truth of the above s d Testimony as is Attested p r me. 

Daniel Gookin, Justice 
oj peac &= Ruler of f Christian Jndians. m 

While the settlers had but the Indians between them and the 
ownership of the soil, there was no difficulty in maintaining 
possession and little real attention was paid to their demands. 
What went into the courts seldom came out with advantage to 
the savage and a slight present quieted less pressing claims. 
But the political ruin which threatened the Colony during the 
reign of the last Stuart induced some appearance of tardy 
justice towards the former occupants of the land. Then the 
English, fearing the alienation of the lands which they had occu- 
pied for a half a century, began to seek a title older than that 
of the charter which had been annulled ; and the claims of the 
Indians began to have a slight market value. Under the pres- 
sure of the times, several conveyances were obtained from those 
whom the English affected to recognize as the lawful heirs of 
Wenepoykin and others. Under these conditions and at this, 
time, the peninsula of Boston, Deer Island, and the Rumney 
Marsh Lands were conveyed ; 101 but no deed, save that of the 

100 Essex Co. Deeds, xi. 131. John a neer kinsman of Sagamore George in 
Waabaquin, alias John Magus of Na- his life time." Essex Co. Deeds, xi. 131. 
tick, " Susannah Potoghoomaquah," and 101 An unrecorded deed of the Rum- 
others testified soon after in relation to ney Marsh lands, April 9, 16S5, is printed 
the Indian claims. The testimony of by Chamberlain in his Studies in Chelsea 
Old Mahanton, then aged about ninety History in Chelsea Telegraph, December 
years, " Saith that y e Land that is 18, 18S0; and others conveying neigh- 
Testified about by Seuerall ancient Jn- boring lands are recorded in Suffolk Co. 
dians that are Deceased which did be- Deeds, xiii. 190, 281, 364. The deed of 
long to Sagamore George as is Expressed the territory of Lynn and Reading, 
in y e Euidence is y e Truth & properly September 4, 1686, is printed from Essex 
doth now belong to Dauid that is old Co. Deeds in Lewis, History of Lynn, 
Sagamore George his Grandchild & 51-54; and that of Salem, October 11, 
Scicily & Sarah y e daughters of Saga- 1686, is in Mass. Hist. Coll. vi. 278-281, 
more George & y e wife of John Owus- and Felt, Annals of Salem, i. 28-33. The 
sumug now a widow Peter Ephraims deed of Marblehead lands, July 1 8, 1684, 
wife & y e wife of Appooquahamock thier is earlier than those of Salem and Lynn, 
daughter & old mahanton & James and is recorded in Essex Co. Deeds, vii. 
Rumney Marsh by right of his Mother 1-2,9. James Rumney Marsh and David 



DISCOVERERS AND INDIANS. 5 I 

Squa Sachem and Webcowet of 1639, is known to have been 
given for the Mystic Side and Maiden Lands. 102 

" As property is defined," says Judge Sullivan, " there may 
be a question, how far the savages had acquired one in the soil 
of this wilderness ; " 103 and the practice of the settlers of New 
England indicates that they were of the same opinion and were 
inclined to take advantage of the doubt. They saw in the 
apparently aimless wanderings of the Indians no traces of that 
occupancy and subjugation of the earth which civilization has 
made a necessity and the Scripture enjoins as a duty. 104 The 
aborigines cleared no land, taking only for the temporary pur- 
poses of their rude agriculture such spots as might be found 
ready to their hands. They made no permanent enclosures; 
nor had they any clear idea of the nature of inheritance. Their 
occupancy had little more of fixity in it than that of the wild 
beasts that divided with them the scanty sustenance which 
nature, not their own exertions, afforded them. Notwithstand- 
ing the apparent solemnity and earnestness which attended 
their several treaties with the English, it is not difficult to 
see how imperfectly they understood the contracts which they 
made, and how much more important, to their minds, than the 
lands or privileges conveyed were the few necessities or useless 
trinkets which they were to receive. Nor did they appear to 
recognize in these formal contracts anything binding beyond 
the immediate future ; for their claims were repeatedly renewed 
when the supplies which they had so easily secured were ex- 
hausted or a fresh band of unsatisfied kinsmen appeared. 

On the other hand, there is too often an appearance of over- 
reaching on the part of the grantees. Liberal and indefinite 
bounds were secured, and considerations, ridiculous in their 

Kunkshamooshaw conveyed land lying deeds a small tract is described as 

in Lynn and the pan-handle of Boston, " lyeing in Charlestowne and Mauldin 

near Reading line, to Daniel Hitchens, Bounds." Suffolk Co. Deeds, xiii. 364. 
July 28, 16S6, Essex Co. Deeds, vii. 88. J l3 Sullivan, History of Land Titles in 

All these were given by heirs of George Massachusetts, 23. 

No Nose, and they are the sources of 104 Gen. i. 28, ix. 1. In 1633 the Court 

most of the information which has been measured the rights of the Indians by 

gathered in relation to his family. these references. General Lawes and 

102 In one of the Rumney Marsh Liiertyes, 40. Ed. 1660. 



52 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

scantiness, were rendered to the unsophisticated savages. 
Treaties and covenants were couched in language which it is 
impossible that the Indians could have understood. The hand- 
ful of beads, the red coat, or the pot of wine was of more pres- 
ent consequence than the meaningless words which were read 
to them from the strip of paper on which they made their rude 
marks. There is no substantial evidence that the English them- 
selves regarded the titles gained under such circumstances as 
of any great importance, except as they served to answer pres- 
ent purposes, until they sought them as a possible defence against 
the arbitrary measures of Andros. There is somewhat of grim 
justice in an incident which is related of that unpopular gov- 
ernor, who, on being shown " an Indian Deed for Land, said 
that their hand was no more worth than a scratch with a Bear's 
paw." 105 

The best that can be said of the Indians is, that they were 
often friends in need and that their virtues were those of sim- 
plicity and ignorance. The worst that can be said of them is, 
that they were savages and were true to their nature whether 
friends or foes. Their presence forms a romantic background 
in the history of New England ; but it is a background black- 
ened with terror and stained with blood. While the treatment 
which they received and the means employed in their removal 
were not always honorable to the settlers nor just to the Indians 
— sometimes wicked and cruel — humanity has not suffered by 
their disappearance. They were in the way of civilization, and, 
opposing it, they were doomed as surely as the wild beasts that 
infested the forests and have disappeared with them. 

Tradition has preserved the memory of the red men in 
Maiden, and still points with uncertain finger to the places of 
their former abode on the high lands and in the valleys in the 
vicinity of Powder Horn Hill; and, to enforce this vague testi- 
mony, the tool of the laborer has at times uncovered the bones 
of the lords of the forest. Near by, the name of Sagamore Hill, 
so called as early as 1641, 106 and now superseded by the some- 

105 Tlit- Revolution in A T civ-Etigland 10G Mass. Colony Records, i. 340. 

Justified, in Andros Tracts, ii. 92; also 
Mass. Archives, xxxv. 169. 



DISCOVERERS AND INDIANS. 



53 



what inflated and less distinctive title of Mount Washington, 
recalls the memories of the old days ; and traces of habitation 
around it and scattered implements and broken utensils, often 
found, are tangible proofs of the reality of the Indians' former 
presence. 107 On the old road to Winnisimmet there remained 
until within a few years the Nichols farm house, a well pre- 
served relic of the seventeenth century, within whose walls the 
visitor might see the spot where household legend said the 
axe of the settler clove the head of an Indian and insured 
safety to the wife and child who were hidden from sight in 
the ample fireplace near by. 108 

Some remembrance or traditions of their former dwelling 
places may have lingered long in the Indian mind ; for in the 
early part of this century a party from a distance visited Saga- 
more Hill and remained in its vicinity several months. 109 



1)7 A skull and other portions of a 
skeleton were found on the Nichols 
farm in Everett in 1S74; and skeletons 
were disinterred there about thirty years 
before. Maiden Tribune, March 2S, 
1874. — A skeleton, with a pipe and 
other relics, was found in Revere twenty 
years ago. Boston Journal, March 23, 
1878. — Remains of Indian habitations, 
with shell heaps and implements, have 
been found in the vicinity of Sagamore 
Hill and upon Powder Horn Hill in 
Chelsea. Chelsea Telegraph, December 
11, 1880. — In 188S-90, burial places were 
found and interesting discoveries made 
at Winthrop on several occasions. Bos- 
ton Post, April 30, 188S; August 23, 1888; 
February 21, 1889; April 4, 1890. — The 
Maiden Messenger, March 19, 1859, con- 
tains a short article on the Indian works 
at Sagamore Hill, by the late William 
B. Shedd. — Indian bones and relics 
were found upon the Ballard farm at 
East Saugus in 1891. Maiden City 
Press, December 26, 1891. 

108 This old house, which stood on 
the hill on the north side of the road, 
about half-way from Waters's Spring to 
Everett Avenue, was the homestead of 
John Nichols, who bought it of John 
Marble in 1746. It had been removed 
at some time from its original location 
at Moulton's Island, and then consisted 



only of the great chimney and the two 
or three rooms which leaned against its 
eastern side. About the year 1759, 
Nichols enlarged it upon the western 
side, employing therefor Benjamin Bla- 
ney, afterwards the Revolutionary cap- 
tain, who had just completed his service 
as an apprentice. With its overhanging 
second story it was a most interesting 
example of a house of the colonial 
period; and it retained its peculiar 
characteristics until its removal, some 
time before 1879, to Central Avenue, 
near Hancock Street. It was then 
changed beyond recognition. 

The tradition relating to the killing 
of the Indian is as briefly related in the 
text. The tribe to which he belonged 
is said to have lived in the vicinity, and 
to have exonerated the white man. No 
names are mentioned ; but the story, 
which seems probable, must relate to 
events which took place at an early 
date at Moulton's Island. 

109 "Between the years 1806 and 1S10, 
some Leominster Indians visited Saga- 
more Hill, and the late Mr. Robert 
Pratt's father let them occupy a house 
which stood near the residence of Dr. 
Cheever. Their chief man was named 
Comanche Brown." Chamberlain, in 
Chelsea Telegraph, December 11, 18S0. 








j0m^Ai i ^^gg^ j^j&k 



'. / „ 






CHAPTER III. 



ALLOTMENTS AND SETTLEMENT. 

IT was not long after the Spragues passed over the land 
before the pleasant southern and western exposure of the 
uplands from Powder Horn Hill l to the head of the North 
River, with the open lands of the plains, and the natural hay- 
fields of the meadows and salt marshes, lying in close proximity, 
attracted the attention of the new-comers on the other side of 
the Mystic; and the "uncouth wilderness" began to be fitted 
for the uses of civilization. Governor Cradock's men had 
already crossed the river and built, west of Wilson's Point, the 
first house, probably a temporary one, upon its northern bank; 
and Governor Winthrop, with Increase Nowell, John Eliot, and 
others, viewing the country, February 7, 163J2, had found 



1 So called by the earliest settlers. 

" [Novemb r 7 1 ! 1 1632] It is ordered 
that the necke of land betwixte Powder 
Home Hill & Pullen Poynte shall be- 
longe to Boston, to be enioyed by the 
inhabitants thereof for euer." Mass. 
Colony Records, i. 101. 

The origin of the name is unknown. 
Its shape hardly suggests it ; but it may 
have come from the winding creek in 



the marshes near by, which in 1640 was 
known as " pouder home Creeke, parting 
betweene the land of M r Bellinghame 
and M r . Nicholas Parker." Boston Town 
Records, i. 49. The neighboring hill was 
known as Sagamore Hill in 1641. The 
Chelsea hills in 1740, and long after, 
were covered with forests. Tuckerman, 
Anniversary Sermon, 8. 



ALLOTMENTS AND SETTLEMENT 55 

A very great pond, having in the midst an island of about one acre, 
and very thick with trees of pine and beech ; and the pond had divers 
small rocks, standing up here and there in it, which they therefore 
called Spot Pond. They went all about it upon the ice. From thence 
(towards the N. W. about half a mile,) they came to the top of a very 
high rock, beneath which, (towards the N.) lies a goodly plain, part 
open land, and part woody, from whence there is a fair prospect, but it 
being then close and rainy, they could see but a small distance. This 
place they called Cheese Rock, 2 because, when they went to eat some- 
what, they had only cheese, (the governour's man forgetting, for haste, 
to put up some bread). 3 

The territory thus passed over by John Winthrop and his 
companions, was the wildest and most picturesque which could 
be found in the country around; and Middlesex Fells still 
holds within its borders many traces of its old-time beauty. 
The exploring party had looked out upon the pleasant plain 
of Stoneham, and the hills above Mystic Side had met their 
view as their eyes ranged around the horizon to the glimpses 
of the distant sea; but they had not noticed the valley of the 
Three Mile Brook which was hidden by the forest and the hills. 
That was first to be settled. 

1633 It is ordered that the ground lyeing betwixt the North 

2 J u 'y- Ry V >- & the creeke on the north side of M Mauacks, & soe 
vpp into the country, shall belonge to the inhabitants of Charlton. 4 

This order of the General Court confirmed to the Charles- 
town settlers the land between the Island End River and the 
North River, running northwardly to indefinite bounds. It may 
have been that some had already entered upon this land as 
settlers, but it is doubtful. Elias Maverick was seated at VVin- 
nisimmet, where he had been, perhaps, for several years, on the 
land now occupied by the United States Government. Of this 
place, Samuel Maverick, one of the " old planters," wrote in 
1660: — 

2 This was Bear Hill in Stoneham, forests into whose depths no white man 

from which on a clear day they might had entered. 

have seen the distant Wachusett and 3 Winthrop, New England, i. 69. 

Monadnock, lifting their heads from 4 Mass. Colony Records, i. 106. 



56 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

One house yet standing there which is the Antientest house in the 
Massachusetts Goverment. a house which in the yeare 1625 I fortified 
with a Pillizado and fflankers and gunnes both belowe and above in 
them which awed the Indians who at that time had a mind to Cutt off 
the English, They once faced it but receiveing a repulse never at- 
tempted it more although (as now they confesse) they repented it when 
about 2 yeares after they saw so many English come over. 5 

Opposite the Maverick plantation, upon the Maiden side of 
the river, were good grounds upon Wormwood Point and Moul- 
ton's Island, which would be likely to be the earliest occupied 
of the Mystic Side lands. 6 Edward Johnson, writing of the 
arrival of VVinthrop and his party in 1630, says: — 

On the North side of Charles River, they landed neare a small Island, 
called Noddells Island, where one Mr. Samuel Mavereck then living, 
. . . had built a small Fort ... to protect him from the Indians. 
About one mile distant upon the River ran a small creeke, taking its 
Name from Major Gen. Edward Gibbons, who dwelt there for some 
yeares after. 7 

This led Mr. Frothingham, and several writers after him, to 
declare that Gibbons had his house on the easterly bank of the 
Mystic in Maiden. This would commend the old soldier to us 
as the earliest known settler of Mystic Side, did not a closer 
examination show that the river and the neck of Charlestown 

8 Maverick, Briefe Discription of New improvement. It received its name from 

England, in N. E. Hist, and Geneal. Thomas Moulton, an early settler, who 

Register, xxxix. 38. may have built near the landing there ; 

6 Wormwood Point has since been and when, in the course of years, Moulton 
known as Sweetser's, Beacham's, or Van gave place to his son-in-law, Thomas 
Voorhis's Point, as its ownership has Mitchell, its name was changed to 
changed. It was known as Wormwood Mitchell's Island. Latterly it has been 
Point as early as i64°i. Suffolk Co. known as the Island or Island End, and 
Deeds, i. 17. In a survey of the streets the river has become the Island End 
of Charlestown, 171 3-14, the old name River. Island End must not be con- 
was preserved. Charlestown Archives, founded with Island Hill, a rocky hill 
xxxiv. 265, 266. It was sometimes men- on the west side of Main Street, be- 
tionedas Wormall'sor Wormore's Point, tween Forest Street and Pine Banks 
Maiden Town Records, 1738; March 5, Park, which in early days was surrounded 
174^. by the meadows of Three Mile Brook. 

Moulton's Island was that long, That, too, in 1898 is gradually crumbling 

smooth hill in the marshes on the South before the steam drill and cartridge of 

River, of which a small section remained restless improvement. 

in 1898, most of the hill having disap- 7 Johnson, Wonder-tvorking Provi- 

peared before the shovels and carts of deuce, yj. 



ALLOTMENTS AND SETTLEMENT. 57 

divided him from that honor. The Charlestown Records ex- 
pressly declare that, with three others, he " went and built in 
the maine on the north-east side of the north-west creeke of 
this town." 8 This places him on the southerly side of Somer- 
ville, where Gibbons's River, as mentioned by Johnson, pre- 
served his memory for many years. 

West of the North River, and between that and the territory 
afterwards covered by the Cradock grant of 1634, 9 which be- 
came in time " a peculiar town " under the name of Medford, 
were the lands which soon became the subjects of the following 
grants : — 

Apr. 1st. There is two hundred acres of land graunted to M r I. 
1 J 4 ' Nowell, lyeing & being on the west side of the North Ryv, 
otherwise called the Three Myle Brooke. 

There is two hundred acres of land graunted to M r J°: Wilson, 
pastor of the church of Boston, lyeing nexte the land graunted to 
M r Nowell on the south, & next Meadford on the north. 10 

The Wilson farm included that promontory which juts into 
the marshes near the mouth of the North River, and which was 
formerly known as Wilson's Point, as Blanchard's Point, and 
now as Wellington. It extended from the Mystic to the little 
creek, which parts Medford and Maiden, and from the North, 
or Maiden, River, to the easterly line of the Cradock grant. 
A house was standing upon it in 1651, which I am led to 
believe was built before 1640, perhaps as early as the Cradock 
house. Traces of its cellar and chimney could be seen upon 

8 Frothingham, History of Charles- Russell. It was afterwards divided 
town, 59. among the Wades, Tuftses, and others ; 

9 The grant of 1634 appears to have and it gradually passed from its original 
merely confirmed to Cradock the terri- form of a manor or plantation into that 
tory of about twenty-five hundred acres of a town, which it finally accomplished 
which his men had already occupied, in 1684. This view, as stated by Mr. 
It did not include the Wellington farm, Frothingham, ///story of Chariestotvn, 
as Mr. Frothingham states, History of 89-93, i s generally accepted, although 
Charlestown, 90, as that was the tract a recent local historian has, with little 
granted to Mr. Wilson. This large grant, success, attempted to disprove it. The 
known as Medford, passed by purchase original form of its name may have had 
in 1652 into the hands of Edward Col- a natural origin in its surroundings — 
Hns, who soon after sold sixteen hundred Meadford, the ford in the meadow, 
acres and the house, which still stands 10 Mass. Colony Records, i. 114. 
upon the bank of the Mystic, to Richard 



58 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

the highest part of the Wellington farm in 185 5. n A landing- 
place was established on the North River, near by, which was 
reached by a way across the marsh. Mr. Wilson retained pos- 
session of this grant until February 12, 1 659-1, when he sold it 
to Thomas Blanchard, of Braintree, for two hundred pounds. 12 
After the death of Thomas Blanchard, in 1654, the house and 
lands were divided between two of his sons, George and 
Nathaniel; and the latter, in 1657, sold one-half of his land 
to their younger brother, Samuel, who was then building a 
second house on one acre of the land " called & known by the 
name of the flax ground, lying length ways betwixt the high 
way side, and some Swamp or waste ground." 13 The lands 
gradually went out of the Blanchard family, by sale, and in 
1795 the only house which was standing upon the point was 
owned and occupied by Captain Wymond Bradbury, a retired 
mariner. 

The Nowell grant, which was situated north of the Wilson 
lands, covered the present Edgeworth ward and extended out 
upon the Medford plain, to the Cradock farm. On the north 
it was separated from the common lands by land which it was 
proposed, in 1635, to divide as hay-lots, and which Nowell 
described as "Joining [to] my ffarme bettweene [it] & the 
Salem Highway." 14 For some reason the division was not 
made, and the intervening land became a portion of the seventh 
range of the allotment of 1638. The two hundred acres were 
sold to Peter Tufts in 1663 by Parnell Nowell, as executrix, 15 
and with large additions, gained by purchase from the Cradock 
farm, remained in the family of the purchaser many years. A 
house was built upon the firm land jutting out towards the 
river, near where the property of the United States is now 
situated on Medford street. Here in 1792 a bridge was built 

11 Brooks, History of Medford, 39. exchanged for a grant at Mount Wollas- 

Mr. Brooks is in error in attributing the ton ; but Wilson received and retained 

building of this house to Cradock's men. the land at both places. Boston Town 

The Cradock grant, as I have before Records, i. 4. 
shown, did not extend so far east. It was 12 Suffolk Co. Deeds, i. 223. 

undoubtedly built by Wilson. Drake, ls Midd. Co. Deeds, ii. 51, 96. 

History of Boston, 176, and others have 14 Charlestown Archives, xx. 33. 

given the impression that this land was 15 Midd. Co. Deeds, iii. 85. 



ALLOTMENTS AND SETTLEMENT. 59 

across the river by Stephen Tufts, which, however, had dis- 
appeared before 1820. In 1823 this portion of the farm, com- 
prising seventy-five acres, was sold by Joseph Warren Tufts to 
Amos Newton, 16 and was occupied by the buyer and his son 
until it became a part of the extensive purchases of the Edge- 
worth Company. The grants of Wilson and Nowell, forming a 
part of Charlestown on Mystic Side, separated Maiden and Med- 
ford until 1726, when they were annexed to the former town. 

The order of 1633 having loosely defined the bounds of the 
Charlestown lands north of the Mystic, that town appointed, 
October 13, 1634, a committee, of which one member was 
William Brackenbury, who was afterwards a selectman of the 
town whose foundations were being laid, to divide the common 
land in the territory which now was first known as Mystic Side 
and Mystic Field. This division, which had been voted, 
January 9, 163^, gave ten acres to each inhabitant, but during 
the next year twenty-nine of them "Willingly Surrendred for 
the good of the Towne p l of theire ground on mistick side." 
The records may be understood to indicate that all finally 
acquiesced, and that each alternate five-acre lot was reserved 
for future settlers. The record of the completed allotment, 
which was made two years later, shows seventy-five proprietors ; 
and although it is a list of Charlestown inhabitants, it is of 
interest here as being the roll of the first white landholders of 
the future town of Maiden. 

The first Divisiofi of Lands one Mistick syde Ten Acres to A house : 
wher of five were again resigned for the accommodating of After 
comers. 

No : of Lot 4 : M r Increase Nowell ..... 5 
pt. of Tho: Hubberd. 

5 : Edward Jones 5 

6 : Thomas Moulten 5 

William Learned 5 

Thomas Squire 5 

9 : George Whitehand 5 

10: Sam: Richeson 5 

16 Midd. Co. Deeds, cclxxii. 312. 



6o 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



No: of Lot 



38 



1 1 

1 2 
13 
14 

J 5 
16 

17 
18 

20 
2 1 

22 

2 3 
24 

2 5 
26 
27 
28 
29 
30 
3i 
3 2 
33 
34 
35 
36 
37 

39 

40 

41 
42 

43 
44 

45 



William Baker 5 

John Hodges 5 

Peter Garland 5 

M r Zacha: Symes 5 

Walter Palmer 5 

Robert Hale 5 

George Felch 5 

Tho: Minor 5 

John Greene 5 

William Dade 5 

Rice Cole 5 

Nicho Stower 5 

Tho. James 5 

Seth Svvitzer 5 

Edwa: Gibbons 5 

Edwa: Convers 5 

M Andrews ,5 

Rich: Palgrave 5 

M rs Higginson 5 

John Haule 5 

John Woolrych 5 

Will: Brakenbury 5 

M r Eason of Hauks .... 5 

Abrah: Palmer 5 

James Browne 5 

Tho: Squire : Tho: Ewer . . 5 
of Jos. Hubbe : 

M r Hough 20 

Ralph Sprague 5 

James Tomson 5 

Abra: Palmer of m r - Crow . . 5 

Edwa: Burton 5 

Tho: James 5 

m rs - Eason 5 

Beniamine Hubbard .... 5 

Henry Lawrence 5 

William Johnson 5 

John Lewis 5 

Samuell Haule 5 

Michaell Bastowe 5 

Ezekiell Richeson 5 

James Pemberton 5 

Robert Longe 5 



ALLOTMENTS AND SETTLEMENT. 6 1 

Robert Sedgwick 5 

John Palmer 5 

Widdovve Harwode 5 

Widdovve Wilkins[on] .... 5 

Richard Kettell 5 

Thomas Peirce 5 

George Hepbourn 5 

John Mowsall 5 

William Nash 5 

Ralph Mowsall 5 

Thomas Richardson .... 5 

Edward Sturgis 5 

George Hutcheson 5 

James Heyden 5 

Edward Carrington 5 

Thomas Ewer 5 

Rice Morris 5 

Thomas Knower 5 

Thomas Lyne 5 

Edward Mellowes 5 

Richard Sprague 5 

William Frothingham .... 5 

Robert Rand 5 

George Buncker 5 

Abraham Mellows 5 

Nicholas Davis 5 17 

These lands, which were laid out in lots of ten poles wide by 
eighty poles long, began at the south-east corner of Mystic Side 
at a point near the westerly slope of Powder Horn Hill and 
upon the Boston line, which was soon after defined. The first 
lot was assigned to Thomas Hubbard, or Hobart, and soon 
transferred to Increase Nowell, who may be considered as the 

17 Charlestpwn Archives, xxxiv. S2. nearly the relative order of proprietor- 

The record of this allotment was made, ship. Thus Nowell and B. Hubbard 

or probably copied from the committee's would have occupied the two divisions 

report, in 1637, which has led a recent of lot 4, and Jones and Lawrence those 

editor to state that this first division of of lot 5; but by some arrangement or 

Mystic Side lands was made in that bargain, Jones and Hubbard exchanged 

year. Report of the [Boston] Record places when the ownership w r as settled 

Commissioners, iii. 73. Those lots which in the Book of Possessions. A few such 

appear unnumbered in the record were changes are found in the final ordering 

made by dividing the original lots; and of the division ; but the .sequence of the 

the order of the names in the numbered lists was generally followed, 
and unnumbered lists indicates very 



62 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

first recorded land owner of Mystic Side east of the North 
River. It was described in 1638, as 

ffive Acres of woodland scituate and lying in misticke feilde ; butting 
to the south upon Rob. Long his meaddow, to the north upon 
M r Simmes, bounded on the east by Boston line and on the west by 
[Edward Joanes.] 18 

From this the lots ran westerly along the edge of the salt 
marshes of the South, or Island End, River to the neck of firm 
land which runs down to Wormwood Point and the Mystic. 
They then ran northerly, along the meadows and uplands, 
towards the head of the North River and apparently beyond 
Sandy Bank, where the burying ground was afterwards begun. 19 
Though these lots are described as woodlands, I am inclined to 
believe that they were of light, open growth on the upper 
portions and generally clear land towards the meadows. 

On the inner or country side of the lots ran a land-way, 
parting them from the reserved or common land ; and on the 
other side ran a drift-way or cattle-way along the marshes and 
meadows. The present Chelsea Street in Everett, from the 
Chelsea line to Everett Square, is certainly, from its position, a 
portion of the old drift-way, although in a later record it is de- 
scribed, perhaps inadvertently, as running at the head of the five- 
acre lots. It then turned to the south-west, and, running in the 
line of School Street, met the way to the Mystic, where the 
house of James Barrett stood as early as 1648. 20 This house, 
or its successor, became known as the Call house, and was 
razed not many years ago. The way to the Mystic formed the 
eastern line of the lots running northerly, and ultimately 
became the settled way to Reading. Bow Street in Everett and 

18 Charlestown Archives, xxxiv. 26. allotment was recorded had married her 
This lot became a part of the farm of third husband, Nicholas Easton, after- 
Thomas Whittemore. wards President and Governor of the 

19 At the head of the river was the colony of Rhode Island. This lot was 
lot of Mrs. Easton, numbered 45 in the the most northerly of the ten-acre lots 
list, which is often referred to as the of the earlier plan. 

lot of Thomas Beecher, to whom it was 20 This house stood on three acres of 

originally granted. Beecher was a sea- land which Barrett bought of George 

captain who died before 1637. He had Felt in 1648. Charlestown Archives, 

married Christian Copper, a widow of xxxiv. 121. 
Wapping, near London, who, when the 



ALLOTMENTS AND SETTLEMENT. 63 

the portion of Broadway near Maiden Bridge follow the ancient 
way. The drift-way on the westerly side, towards the North 
River, remains only in the form of ancient rights of way to the 
salt marshes. 

It had been voted, April 2, 1634, " That the Hay Land bee 
Laid out as soone as convenient for w*: h 13 men were chosen to 
ord r y l bussines ; " and, later, it was ordered, February 12, 1635/6, 
that " None [are] to have right to Hay ground y £ resigne not 
halfe theire 10 Acre Lotts at mistick side." Soon after " It 
was agreed y c . Ezek. Richeson, W™ ffrothingham, Tho: Peirce, 
W'. 11 Baker, Edmo4 Hubberd Junio r , and Tho s : Squire, should 
goe & stake out the Hay ground, bettweene each stakes for two 
Covves." 21 The allotment was agreed upon by the committee, 
February 9, 1 635/6, and it divided among the inhabitants two 
hundred and seventy-seven lots, of varying size, of which by 
far the greater number were on Mystic Side, a few being at 
Menotomy, now Arlington, and others on the western bank of 
the lower Mystic. The lots upon Mystic Side, which are not 
as readily identified as the grants of arable and wood land, were 
in the marshes and meadows, which, as has been stated, pro- 
duced a plentiful growth of native grasses, and ran between the 
rivers and the drift-way which formed the outer bound of the 
five-acre lots. Along the marshes of the North River, each lot 
generally ran from the upland to the river, although in some 
cases, where the bends of the river carried it far from the firm 
ground, intervening lots were granted with rights of passage 
over the adjacent marsh. Many of the larger lots have retained 
to the present day small pieces of hard land at their upper edges, 
or have prescriptive rights to land and cure hay upon the neigh- 
boring upland - — a probable survival of the ancient drift-way and 
the privileges which it afforded. Besides the hay-lots along the 
five-acre lots, several were laid out in the meadows beyond 
Mount Prospect, now better known as VVayte's Mount. 

While the arrangements were being made for the apportion- 
ment of the hay-lands, the following entry was made in the 
Charlestown records : — 

21 Charlestovun Archives, xx. in loco. 



64 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

[1635.] Edw d Convers, W™ Brackenbury & M- Abra. Palmer were 
desired to goe upp into the Country upon discovery 3 or 4 daies for 
w c . h we agreed they should bee sattisfied at the Charge of the Tovvne. 22 

A tradition in relation to this expedition has come down to 
us. It is said that a party, having been sent out into the country, 
" returned and reported, that, having reached a mountainous and 
rocky country, they deemed it best to come back, as there was 
little probability that the settlement would ever extend beyond 
these mountains." 23 They had seen the line of the Middlesex 
Fells or the hardly less wild range eastward of Wayte's Mount, 
bounding the Scadan woods. 24 However, the explorers saw 
something better than the dark forests which covered the rocky 
northern hills. They found the agreeable table lands which 
stretch from Powder Horn Hill to the head of the North River, 
and now form the most pleasant parts of Maiden and Everett. 
Beyond the Great Swamp they saw the fair plain of Scadan, 
lying at the feet of its abrupt hills ; and, farther west, was the 
fertile valley of Harvell's Brook, now in the centre of a growing 
city. Still farther west, they may have passed over the wide 
plain which lies beyond the Three Mile Brook and extends 
within the bounds of the Cradock grant. 

22 Charlestown Archives, xx. in loco. ern hills. Or, it may have been the spot 

23 Rev. John G. Adams, D.D., in Bi- which separated the sources of Har- 
Centennial Book of Maldoi,^. veil's Brook and the Pines River and 

24 Scadan, the former name of the sent away their waters on the one hand 
territory east of Faulkner. It is to be to the Mystic and on the other to 
regretted that a tasteless affectation has the Abousett. 

in many instances destroyed the familiar An Indian scholar, on being asked 

names of earlier years. The sturdy by the writer what Scadan should be, 

sense which has preserved in London inquired if it were a locality, and said 

the titles of Rotten Row or Cheapside that it must be a low or swampy place 

would have retained in Maiden those of near many great rocks. This certainly 

Scadan and Tyot. Certainly the elder described the swamps and rocky hills 

names would have been as dignified as of our Scadan, of which he had no 

those of Maplewood and Linden, or knowledge. On the contrary, the emi- 

Oak Grove. nent authority, the late James Hammond 

I have sought diligently for the origin Trumbull, whose knowledge in the 

of Scadan without a great success. Indian tongues no man could equal, 

Sceadan in the old English, which our writes: — 

fathers may have brought here, was " Scadan, as it stands, is not an 

separate or send away, and it might have Indian name, though it may be an abbre- 

applied to the Great Swamp which sepa- viation or a remnant of an Indian name, 

rated the lands of Mystic Side, or sent I can find in it no trace of the meaning 

the traveller away from a direct path you assign to it." 
into the crooked trail among the north- 



ALLOTMENTS AND SETTLEMENT. 65 

The report of the explorers, doubtless, prepared the way for 
a further division of the lands of Mystic Side. 

Concerning which division of Lands it was Jointly Agreed 
That y e Lotts on Mistickside should be one hundred Pole in length 
each five Acres being eight Pole in breadth, to begin next Powder 
home hill at & to goe by A Streight Line to A marked 

Tree at the end of Tho: Beecher's Lott at the head of the North River, 
& from thence to goe backe againe to Boston Bounds, & from 
thence againe to returne & to the end of the Plott toward the Written 
Tree : the oth r Plott at the head of the North River to begin at 
Mr Nowell's ffarme whe. the form r is Laid out : 

And it was farthf ord r . d y! where these Lands are so devided, con- 
venient Highwaies shalbe allowed in the most convenient places 
through any such allotting at the discretion of those who shalbe designed 
to Lay them out : And what Land is not found within the Plotts is to 
bee laid out after the Plotts in y e most convenient places. 

A reservation was then made by the following order : — 

[1638. 20. 2 rao ] It was ordr* f. all the Land on Mistickside at the 
head of y? 5 Acre Lotts to y? straite Line from Powd r home hill to 
the head of the North River shalbe reserved (togeth^ with so much 
as shall make it up 300 Acres above Ml Craddocks ffarme where it 
may bee convenient) in y e hands of y? Towne for y? use of such 
desireable persons as shalbe received in with anothl officer, [or min- 
ister.'] - h 

The reserved land embraced a tract nominally of two hundred 
acres, which was found upon measurement to amount to about 
two hundred and sixty acres, lying above the five-acre lots 
upon the plain in the vicinity of Corey and Bucknam Streets in 
Everett, and upon the highlands above it. Northward it ex- 
tended beyond the line of Cross Street in Maiden. We shall 
notice its final division hereafter. The portion reserved above 
the Cradock farm was not within the bounds of the future town 
of Maiden. 

The great allotment was made April 23, 1638, and divided the 
lands of Mystic Side and a larger tract above the Mystic Ponds 
in that part of Charlestown which soon became Woburn, to one 
hundred and fourteen inhabitants, of whom one hundred and 
seven received lots on Mystic Side. The record gives in three 

25 Charlestown Archives, xx. 18. 
5 



66 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

columns: — first, " y e . number of Acres on Misticke side;"' 
second, "the number of Acres above y! Ponds;" and third, 
" the five Acres y\ wee had in Possession Afforetime." The 
latter refers to the allotment of five-acre lots in 163^. 

Land Laid out by Lot on Mistickside & above the Ponds the three 
& twentieth day of y e second month 1638 

ftp [Increase] Nowell . . . . 60-135-5 

]VP [Zackary] Sims 40-100-5 

M T . [John] Greene 45 - 50 - 5 

Ralph Mousall 15-40-5 

N? 2 : Richd Miller 5 - 15-5 

N? 3 : Sam" Cartar 5- 5-0 

N? 4 : Jn° Goulde 10-25-0 

N? 5 : Tho? Cartar 2 5 - 55 - o 

N? 6 : Tho s Wickes 5-10-0 

N.° 7 : Robt Blott 15-35-0 

N? 8 : James Greene 5 - 1 5 - o 

N? 9 : John Martin 10-20-0 

N? 10 : Edw? Convers 35-80-0 

N.° 11 : Tho? Moulton 10-30-5 

N° 12 : Mr [Jn?] Crow 25-50-0 

N? 13 : Dan!' Shepherdson 10-20-0 

N? 14 : Seth Switzer 10-30-5 

N° 15 : Edw! 1 Gibbons 15 — 45—5 

N? 16 : Hen: Bullocke 5-25-0 

N? 1 7 : Jn? Burrage 5- 5-0 

N? 18 : W 1 ? Smith . . . .5-5-0 



T V i. U • I IO- 20-0 

Jose: ketchenng . 5-15-0 

N? 19 : Sam" Haule 20-40-5 

N? 20 : James Tomson 5 - 30 - 5 

N? 21 : W? Powell 5-10-0 

N? 22 : Abra: Pratt 10-20-0 

N? 23 : Isack Cole 10-20-0 

N? 24 : W™ Batchelor 15-30-0 

N? 25 : Geo: Hutchinson 5 - 30 - 5 

N? 26 : Tho? Lynde 35-80-5 

N? 27 : W? Brackenbury 15-40-5 

N? 28 : James Pemberton 5 - 30 - 5 

N? 29 : Peter Garland 5 — 15—5 

N? 30 : Robt Rand 15 - 35 - 5 

N? 31 : Ezek" Richeson 35-85-5 

N? 32 : John Hodges 5 - 30 - 5 



ALLOTMENTS AND SETTLEMENT 



67 



N° 


33 


N? 


34 


N? 


35 


N? 


36 


N° 


37 


N? 


38 


N? 


39 


N? 


40 


N? 


41 


N° 


42 


N? 


43 


N? 


44 


N° 


45 


N° 


46 


N° 


47 


N? 


48 


N? 


49 


N° 


5° 


N° 


5 1 


N? 


5 2 


N? 


53 


N? 


54 


N? 


55 


N° 


56 


N? 


57 


N° 


58 


N° 


59 


N° 


60 


N? 


61 


Nf 


62 


Nf 


63 


Nf 


64 


Nf 


65 


Nf 


66 


Nf 


67 


Nf 


68 


Nf 


69 


Nf 


70 


Nf 


7i 


Nf 


72 


N c 


73 


Nf 


74 



Rice Cole 10 ■ 

Mf Jn? Harvard 60 ■ 

Rich; 1 Sprague 20 - 

Tho? Goble 15 

James Browne 15 - 

Robt Hawkins 10 • 

goo: Tho- Caule 5 • 

Jose: Coleman 5 

WT Nash 5 ■ 

W™ ffrothingale 20 

Mf Nicho s Trarice 15 

Robt Shorthus 5 

Benia'. 1 Hubberd 10 

Mrs. Ann Higginson .... 20 

Nichf Davis 5 

Jnf Haule 5 

Rich d Kettle 5 

John Palmer o 

W ,n Dade 5 

Jn? Lewis o 

Jn? Woolrich 5 

Wido: Wilkeson 5 

James Hubberd 5 

Tho? Pearce ..!.... 15 

Richf 1 Palgrave 20 

Edwf 1 Burton o 

Thof Richeson o 

Abra: Hill {5 

: John Mousall j 20 

: Geo: Hebourne 5 

: James Mathews 10 

: Abra: Palmer 20 

: M r [W 1 ."] Witherall 15 

: Walter Palmer 30 

: Geo: Buncker 75 

: Geo: Knore 5 

: Edw? Carrington 5 

: Jn? Brimsmead 5 

: Phillip Drincker 10 

: Geo: ffelch 5 

: Edw d Sturges o 

: Rice Morris 5 

: Joshua Tedd 5 



5° -5 
120-0 

55-5 
35 -o 
40-5 
20-0 
15 -o 
15-0 

30-5 
40-5 

35 -o 
20-0 

2 5 - 5 
45-5 
3° - 5 
2 5 "5 
20-5 
10-5 

3o-5 
15 -5 

2 5 - 5 

15-5 

10 - o 

5°~ 5 
5° -5 
10-5 

IS -5 

45-5 

3°- 5 
20-0 

55 -o 
30-0 

65-5 

180-5 

10 — o 

15 -5 
15-0 
20-0 
20-5 

5 -5 

■ i5-5 
15-0 



68 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

N? 75 : M r . s [Widow Kather"] Coitemore 20 - 40-0 

N? 76 : John Sibley 10-20-0 

N° 77 : Edw d Johnson 40-80-0 

N? 78 : Hen: Lawrance 0-15-5 

N? 79 : W™ Johnson 5-30-5 

N.° 80 : James Hayden 5 _ I5 _ 5 

N? 81 : Thof Knore 5 _ 20 - 5 

N? 82 : ffra: Norton 25-45-0 

N? 83 : Robt Long 30-65-5 

N° 84 : Robt Cutler 10-25-0 

N? 85 : Nichof Stowers 25-60-5 

N? 86 : John Tedd 10-20-0 

N? S 7 : W m Baker 5-20-5 

N? 88 : Geo: Whitehand 10 - 30 - 5 

N? 89 : Robt Leach 5-10-0 

N.° 90 : Robt Hale 15-40-5 

N? 91 : Thof Brigden 15-25-0 

N? 92 : Math- Smith 5-15-0 

N° 93 : A bra: Mellowes . . 10. 35. 5 \ 

Edw? Mellowes . . 25. 60. o j 35 - 95-5 

N° 94 : Widow Harwood o - 15 - 5 

N? 95 : W? Lerned 15-40-5 

N? 96 : Sam" Richerdson 15-40-5 

N? 97 : Mich" Barstow . , . . . . 10-25-5 

N? 98 : Steph'. 1 fforsditch 20-40-0 

N? 99 : ffaintnot Winds 5 _ IO -o 

N? 100 : Captr Robt Sedgwick . . . 35-160-5 

N.° 10 r : Theophi? Higginson .... 5 - 10 - o 

N? 102 : Tho? Ewer 25-60-5 

N° 103 : Ralph Sprague 35-90-5 

N? 104 : James Garrett 10-30-0 

N? 105 : Thof Squire 5-20-5 

N° 106 : Edw d Jones c - 2 < - c 



N? 107 : W" Quicke 5 _ 



N? 108 : Thof Coitmore 



TO — O 



35- 70-0 



Of v« V T n 7' XX - *" l0C °- lt wil1 be seen ^ Richard Sprague 

Of Novvell, bymmes, and Greene, the ( 3S ) and Ralph Sprague (103 recefved 

first three in the hst, it is said, "These according to the allotment fifty fie and 

were agreed to have the first without ninety acres respectively 'in the la,"d 

Lott Forty-five acres were allotted to "Above the Ponds." In the BoTof 

Greene the ruling elder of the church, Possessions they are given si xttnH 

but in the Book of Possessions he is cred- ninety acres, adfoin ,g in "Pond il^" 

.ted with fifteen only. James Hayden southwest of Ell Pon and there Is 

(No. 80) rece.ved ten acres in his lot. nothing ' to correspond with th a lot! 



ALLOTMENTS AND SETTLEMENT. 69 

The lots on Mystic Side, cast of the North River, were north 
of a line drawn from Powder Horn Hill to the head of the 
river, and ran in six ranges, each one hundred poles in width, 
northwest from the Boston line. Northerly, they were limited 
by the rocky hills of Scadan, and by the Long Meadow — the 
marshes at the head of the North River and along the banks of 
Pemberton's or Harvell's Brook. On and beyond those hills, 
too wild and rocky for immediate use, were the commons, which 
were not divided until 1695. 27 

The first lot of the lower range was the forty acres of the Rev. 
Zechariah Symmes, the greater part of which became a portion 
of the farm of Thomas Whittemore and his descendants and so 
remained until 1845, when it was sold to Nathaniel Sands of 
New York, and became the subject of an unfortunate specula- 
tion which involved a large tract of land in that vicinity. Saga- 
more Hill, named by a tasteless generation Mount Washington, 
was within or near its bounds. Next was the unnumbered por- 
tion of Increase Nowell, which being sold to Robert Burden, the 
progenitor of the Burditt family, was a part of his possessions 
in 1667, when he died. In the same range was the lot, num- 
bered twelve, of John Crow. Fifteen acres of this lot were sold 
by William Roberts to Rowland Lahorne in 1648. Six years 

merits about the Mystic Ponds. This " 1638. 

may be explained by the following " On the 28th day of the X month 

entry : — was taken A True Record of all such 

"[18. 12'." 1638.] Inasmuch as it houses & Lands as are Possessed by 
app": s y« the Land in the great Lotts the Inhabita ms of Charlstown, \vheth r 
y* was laid out to Thomas Line & by purchase, by gift from the Towne. 
Rich? Sprague prooves altogeth"; un- or by allottments as they were devided 
usefull being nothing but Rockes w<i h amongst them by A Joynt Consent aft r 
was wholly besides o\ intent, & only the Gen" Court had setled theire Bounds, 
through oversight of the Surveyo rs wee by granting eight miles from the old 
Judge it to bee Just & equall y'. they Meeting house into the Contry North- 
have allowance elswhere to theire sat- west Northrly, &c. the bounds of the 
tisfaction they leaveing the affores 1 . 1 s d Towne Lying or being bettwixt Cam- 
Rocks to lye Common." Charlestown bridge alias New Towne, on the West 
Archives, xx. in loco. Cf. note 35, this South west, & Boston Land on the East 
chapter. as j t a p p rs upon Record by the sever" 

27 The completion of the great allot- grants of Gen 11 Courts to all the affores' 1 

ment was marked by the compilation Bounds." 

of the Charlestown Book of Possessions, This volume, which has been printed 

now preserved as Charlestown Archives, J n the Third Report of the [Boston] Record 

xxxiv., which is fully described in the Cotnmissioners, is the Domesday Book 

following extract from the Charlestowti of Mystic Side. 
Town Records. 



JO HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

later Lahorne transferred his purchase, with a house, to Thomas 
Skinner, "victualer; " but it is soon found in the occupancy of 
Thomas Call, as a grantee or tenant of Skinner. The marriage 
of Skinner with Call's widow, Lydia, after 1678, returned the 
house and land to their earlier possessor. The later history of 
this house, which stood near the corner of Cross and Walnut 
Streets, is given in another place. 28 Farther north, the lot nine- 
teen bordered the Long Meadow, and its twenty acres, forming 
a sharp angle to the north-east, closed the first and began the 
second range. 

In the second range, lot thirty-one had the Great Swamp near 
it upon the east; and lot thirty-four, passing through several 
hands, became the " westermost " of the farms of Job Lane. 
Here in 1652 were Turkey Hill, afterwards known as Burden's 
or Burditt's Hill, and a path, the former of which remained 
almost unscarred by the works of man until 1892, when it began 
to be built upon. In the latter, perhaps, we may trace the 
origin of the present Elm Street in Everett. This land was for 
forty years the home of the Mudges, then of the Chittendens. 
Lastly, it was the farm of Leavitt Corbett, who will be remem- 
bered by many. It is now a portion of the Woodlawn Cemetery 
Company's lands. Lot forty, a triangle of five acres, met the 
Boston line and closed the second range. 

In the third range, the first three lots, forty-one to forty-three, 
having been acquired by Nicholas Parker, were sold to Job 
Lane in 1656 and formed, with some adjoining lands, the " eas- 
ternmost " of his farms. Before 1688 it was occupied by John 
Scolley and John Ross, 29 and in that year it was improved by 
Thomas Wayte, who purchased it in 1704 of the Lane heirs. 
It was the home of the Waytes for nearly a century, when, the 
last male of the name in that branch having passed away, it was 
sold, in 1787, to Captain Naler Hatch of Revolutionary fame. 30 
The " Mansion " which was probably built by Job Lane, who 
was himself a house-carpenter, stood near the present gate of 
the Woodlawn Cemetery and was demolished by the Cemetery 

28 Vide chap. xiii. note II. Barrett. John Ross was his brother-in- 

29 John Scolley had been a ferryman, law, having married Mary Barrett. 

His wife was Hannah, daughter of James 30 A/idd. Co. Deeds, xiv. 14; xcv. 210. 



ALLOTMENTS AND SETTLEMENT. J I 

Company. The farm itself is rapidly becoming a city of the 
dead. 

Next to the lots just mentioned, on the Boston line in the 
fourth range was a triangle of six acres which was accounted as 
a part of the twenty-five acres of Francis Norton, the remainder 
of his allotment forming the first lot in the fifth range, bounded 
likewise by the Boston line. This land, which in time became 
the property of the Sayes women and after them of James 
Millinor, is elsewhere noticed. 31 

Across the centre of these ranges ran the Great Swamp, some 
remnants of which still remain east of Cross and Ferry streets. 
Fifty years ago, in its extent and dense growth, it was worthy of 
the ancient name which it still bore. Slight attention appears 
to have been paid to its disadvantages, unless some of the lots 
may have been made larger in consequence ; and there are one 
or two indications of an allowance for waste land. 

A seventh range, beginning above the Nowell grant, west of 
the North River, ran eastward to the vicinity of the Three Mile, 
or Spot Pond, Brook, embracing the territory through which 
afterwards ran the Medford road, our present Pleasant Street. 
Above it was the common, and once a highway is mentioned as 
running along its northern side. This was the Indian trail, 
known as the Salem Path, which Nowell noted as running north 
of his farm in 1635. This range comprised five acres of number 
ninety-seven 32 and the remaining lots of the division, all of 
which were west of the Three Mile Brook, except that of 
Thomas Coytmore, whose thirty-five acres were on the eastern 
side, and the two lots of Edward Jones and William Quick, 
which covered the piece of upland between the marshes of the 
two brooks in the vicinity of Middlesex and Centre Streets. 

The lot numbered one hundred was transferred to Joseph 
Hills and, passing from his possession, formed, with the adjoin- 
ing lot of Faintnot Wines, Samuel Eldred's farm of forty acres, 

31 Vide chap. xi. note 48. Maiden, while the remaining five acres 

32 Lot 97 was the ten-acre portion of formed a triangular piece at the end 
Michael Barstow, of which the five acres of the sixth range of the larger division, 
here mentioned were at the extreme far east on the Boston line, at or near 
western limit of the future town of the present Black Ann's Corner. 



72 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

which was taken in 1660 on an execution in favor of Edward 
Lane. 33 It was afterwards occupied by the blacksmith, George 
Durand. Richard Dexter purchased this with other lands in 
1663 and it remained in the Dexter family without division 
until the present generation. On the adjoining land, allotted 
to Stephen Fosdick, the almshouse was built in 1821. The 
allotment of Richard Sprague, descending to his heirs, ulti- 
mately absorbed all the range east of the Dexter land, including 
a portion of the Coytmore lot east of Three Mile Brook. On 
the northern end of his farm in the vicinity of Clifton Street, 
between Washington and Summer streets, Richard Sprague 
settled very early. Summer Street, and perhaps a portion of 
Pleasant Street, was a lane leading from Sprague's house to a 
landing-place — Sprague's Bank, on the river at the lower ex- 
tremity of his lot. 

How far east the lot of Thomas Coytmore, on the easterly 
side of Three Mile Brook, extended cannot now be ascertained. 
Certainly it was bounded on the south by the meadows of 
Pemberton's Brook, and on the north, as at first granted, it ran 
not far beyond the falls, near the bridge by which Mountain 
Avenue now crosses the brook. On the east it reached the 
vicinity of Sprague Street, for the easterly line of the High 

33 Suffolk Co. Deeds, hi. 375; Midd. century, a second house was built farther 

Co. Deeds, m. 132. How Eldred got the south under the great elm which still 

land from Joseph Hills, or who built remains. Tradition says that this tree, 

the house, which was standing upon it which in its later years has been known 

in 1663, I do not know. The old house as the Washington Elm, and which 

stood near the south-easterly corner of spreads its branches over a hundred 

the present Dexter and Rockland Streets, feet, was a large one even at that time, 

where a few years ago its ancient foun- With a girth of twenty-seven feet in 

dation was found and the depression its largest part, it is still vigorous and 

which marked its site was filled. The shows few signs of decay. It is the 

Salem Path ran upon the northerly side only relic of the primal forest which 

of the rocky hill near by, nearly in the once covered the town, 
line of Clifton Street. West of the Some of the material of the first was 

Village Lane, now Summer Street, fifty used in the second house, which in its' 

years ago, bars in the walls and traces later days was an interesting example 

of an old way across the fields remained of the domestic architecture of the colo- 

to show the location of the Indian trail, nial period. It was demolished in 1848 

Still farther westward, evidences of sev- and the present house was built upon 

eral ways were visible in 1890, by one its site by Richard and Samuel G. 

of which the old path sought the Med- Dexter, in whose possession and occu- 

ford plains. pancy it still remains. Information oj 

Towards the end of the seventeenth Samuel G. Dexter. 



ALLOTMENTS AND SETTLEMENT. J I 

School land, which represents the limit of the Coytmore allot- 
ment in that direction, is one of the few ancient boundaries 
which can still be recognized with almost absolute certainty. 
However it may have been bounded at first, it was after a few 
years limited to the narrow strip of land west of Main Street by 
unrecorded transfers to Joseph Hills on the northerly side of 
Salem Street, and to Abraham Hill on the southerly side. 
Before its diminution, however, it was enlarged on its northerly 
side by the following grants : — 

[May 29, 1640] M r ThoT Coitmore was granted the end of his Lott 
bettwixt y e Mount Prospect & the River for his p r per use in case he 
goe on with building the Mill w ch if hee doe not hee is then to Leave 
4 Acres to the use of such as shall have Liberty to build y e Mill to bee 
sett out by such as shall be appointed. 34 

[Feb? 15, 1649'!.] M r Tho: Coitmore was granted the ground 
above his Lott over the Mount Prospect to the Land Laid out to Tho: 
Line to runne upon A Streight Line from y? parting line bettwixt him 
& m: Jose: Hills. 35 

Beyond the line of the Coytmore land and extending to the 
hills and swamps toward Scadan was a plain, on which are now 
located the populous sections of the fifth ward and Faulkner, 
which was not covered by the grants of the great allotment, 

34 Charlestown Archives, xx. in loco. site of the brick-end house now standing 

35 Ibid. In 1638, Thomas Lynde near the entrance of the cemetery on 
owned three acres of meadow " on the Forest Street. The old house, with 
north side of mount prospect," which about forty acres of land on both sides 
he had evidently received in the division of the road, was sold, in 1753, by Jacob 
of hay-lots. The eighty acres which Lynde to Ebenezer Harnden, and by 
were assigned him "above y? Ponds" the latter, in 1761, to Thomas Pratt, 
in the great allotment, proving " alto- whose son John, to make room for the 
getfc unusefull being nothing but present house, demolished it about 1830. 
Rockes," it was agreed, August 26, 1639, The older part of the house, known as 
" y'. Tho: Line shall have some Land the Joseph Lynde house, now standing 
by the Mount Prospect, if upon view it at the corner of Main Street and Good- 
may bee had by his Hay ground." year Avenue, was built about 1720. The 
Charlestown Archives, xx. in loco. This view of this house which is given in 
land, which was laid out, as proposed, the text was taken in 1873. In the 
on the north side of Wayte's Mount, cellar of this house there was formerly 
was a part of the large property which "an oak log, a little larger and taller 
Thomas Lynde and his descendants than a barrel, scooped out like a mortar, 
afterwards held. Here, as the Lynde with an iron hoop around the top ; the 
family increased, several houses were pestle is gone. In this the corn was 
built, the oldest of which was probably pounded and ground." Goss, Historical 
built by Thomas, the grantee, on the Address, 11. 



74 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



except on its easterly side, where a portion, at least, of the lot of 
Walter Palmer appears to have passed into the hands of George 
Bunker.* 3 The unappropriated portion remained not long in its 
primitive condition; and the entry which records the grant in- 
troduces us to one who became prominent and "helpful" to 
both church and state. 




[July 30, 1638.] M' Joseph Hill \_Hills\ was admitted A Towns- 
man, & is granted 25 Acres of Land on mistickside by M r - Coitmores 
Lott, & 50 more aft r the great Lotts are finished. 37 

The twenty-five acres were located east of the Coytmore 
land. Farther east were twenty acres of the Palmer land, which, 



36 This was No. 65 of the allotment, 
which covered the westerly ends of the 
third and fourth ranges of the first 
division. Of this lot, seventeen acres 
were north and thirteen acres south of 
Long Meadow, or Harvell's Brook ; and 
both divisions were evidently east and 
south of the present Cross Street. 



37 Charlestown Archives, xx. in loco. 
The fifty acres were probably laid out 
on the south side of Smith's Pond. Mr. 
Hills sold his sixty-acre lot at that place 
to Henry Evans in 1660. Midd. Co. 
Deeds, ii. 131. 



ALLOTMENTS AND SETTLEMENT. 75 

before the end of the year, George Bunker sold to Thomas 
Ruck, and which in time became a part of the possessions of 
Joseph Hills. On its eastern side was afterwards laid out that 
way " between M r Hils & M r Bunkars farmes," which, known 
for many years as Harvell's Brook Lane, became in time a part 
of the present Cross Street. These three lots were covered by 
the forest, and the whole territory was bounded by the Three 
Mile Brook, by the common which contained Mount Prospect, 
or Wayte's Mount, and the Faulkner hills, by the Scadan 
swamps, and by the meadows of Pemberton's Brook between 
Salem Street and Eastern Avenue. In the Charlestown Book 
of Possessions [1638] these lots are described as follows: — 

[Coytmore.] Thirtie and five acres of woodland, scituate and lying 
in mistik feilde, N° 108, length, and in breadth, butting to 

the south upon the meaddow, to the north upon the common, bounded 
on the west by the fresh riverett, and on the east by M r Hiles. 

[Hills.] Twentie and ffive acres of woodland, more or lesse, scituate 
in mistick feilde, butting south upon long meaddow, north upon the 
comon ; bounded on the west by Tho Coytemore and on the east by 
Tho Ruck. 

[Ruck.] Twentie acres of land, more or lesse, scituate in mistick 
feilde, bounded on the north by the common, on the west by Josseph 
Hiles, and on the south east by a swamp and meade. 38 

The unappropriated land between the five-acre lots and the 
lots of the great allotment, as has been seen, was reserved for 
such as might be received with another minister, that is for the 
use of those new comers who should bring the strength neces- 
sary for the formation of a new church; but the town having 
called Thomas Allen, "a studyent " from England, to fill the 
office left by the deceased John Harvard, and new settlers hav- 
ing come in, it was divided as follows: — 

[The 28 day of y e . viij month 1640.] Abram Palmer & Robt 
Hale were appointed to Lay out the 200 Acres of Land on mistick side 
to the men appointed in w c !' they are first to accomodate M r . Serieant, 
Tho: Martin then Mr Tho: Allen and y e rest by Lott. 

38 Charlestown Archives, xxxiv. 9, 28, co. Essex, in England, or its vicinity. 
■61. Thomas Ruck was from Maldon, Lechford, A T ote-Book, 78, 91. 



j6 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

[In the margin. ,] This is p ( of y! 300 Acres reserv"? y? 6 of y? ij 1 ? 
month 1638 call 1 ? heere but 200 Acres at Mistickside, tho at measuring 
it held out 260 Acres there, laid out to m' Tho: Allen (now called to 
the office of Teacher of this Church) and to the rest heere imediatly 
aft- mentiond. 

A devission of the Land lying bettiveene the five Acre Letts at the head 
of them allotted out as heereafter exprest. 



Names of Persons 


Acres 


Names of Persons 


Act 


M r . Thomas Allen 


25 


Bro: Robinson 


3 


M r . [W™] Seargeant 


20 


Tho: Gould 


4 


Tho: Martin 


IO 


W'. n Stitson [Stilson] 


20 


Abra: Hill 


4 


Jn? Pentecost 


3 


Robt Leech 


4 


Edw'. 1 Wood 


5 


Walter Popes Child 


5 


Goo: [Tho:] ftrench 


2-! 


Gaudy James 


2 5 


Goo: [W m ] Smith Tailor 


2-j 


Tho: Weilder 


2l 

~2 


Jn? Seer 


2^ 


Alexand 1 : ffield 


4 


Rich? Lowden 


3 


goo. [Jn°] Whitman 


4 


Tho: Graves 


20 


M r . [Robt] Cooke 


10 


John Allen 


20 


Ralph Woorie 


6 


Manus Jackson 


4 


Micha? Long 


4 


John Martin 


4 


W™ Phillips 


10 


I sack Cole 


4 


Bro: [Jn° ] Baker, y? Tailor 


3 


Robt Nash 


4 






goo: [Jn°] March 


4 






W. [Rich'. 1 ] Russell 


20 






ffra: Willoughby 


20 






goo: Edw"? Larkin 


3 






Augustine Walker 


4 



Several lots of this division may be identified. The most 
northerly was the twenty acres of John Allen, which, being sold 
to John Lewis, who died in 1657, passed into the hands of the 
Greens and others. Out of it came the six and one-half acres of 
the Rev. Michael Wigglesworth, which in 1657 was bounded on 
the north by the common field in the vicinity of the present 
Newhall Street, west by the ministry land, and south by the 
highway which is now Cross Street. The corner of High and 
Ashland Streets is upon this lot. 

South of the Allen lot was the land of Thomas Graves, which, 
being purchased by James Green of Richard Harrington in 
1656, remained in the possession of the Greens until 1765, when 
it was sold by Darius Green to Joseph Perkins of Danvers and 

89 Charlestcnvn Archives, xx. 93, 94. 



ALLOTMENTS AND SETTLEMENT. JJ 

continued with the descendants of the latter another century. 
South of this lot was that of Robert Cooke. 

The great lot of Francis Willoughby was farther south. It 
was sold to William Bucknam in 1649 an <3 formed a part of that 
farm, the memory of which is preserved in the name of Bucknam 
Street in Everett. 40 South of this was the allotment of the 
Rev. Thomas Allen, which was sold to William Johnson, the 
brickmaker, in 1651. Eight acres of the easterly portion of 
this lot were purchased by William Sargeant in 1654; and the 
remainder, accounted as fourteen acres, was sold to Joses Buck- 
nam in 1677, when it was bounded, north-west, west, and south, 
by the highway at the head of the five-acre lots — the present 
Norwood Street. This land, which was known as " Johnson's 
Playn," may still be recognized by its bounds opposite the head 
of Corey Street. A part was for many years in the possession 
of the late Captain Solomon Corey, whose land on the south 
side of Norwood Street was apparently within the limits of the 
five-acre lots. 

North of the Willoughby lot was that of William Phillips ; 
and on the west was the twenty-acre lot of Richard Russell, 
which was sold to William Stilson. The latter occupied the 
level land west of Bucknam Street and the slope of the wood- 
land towards the marshes ; while still farther west lay the four 
acres of Augustine Walker, which were sold to Edward Carring- 



40 Upon the Bucknam farm was the Maiden very near the Charlestown line, 
interesting old house, known in its latter standing upon four acres, is mentioned 
years as the Swan house, which was de- with the Willoughby lot of twenty acres, 
molished in 1875. A portion, being the When his son Joses died, August 24, 
northwest corner, was the first house built 1694, he left to his son Samuel the house 
upon the land. Around or against it a with its four acres and the twenty-acre 
later construction was raised in the early lot, with six acres adjoining " buting To 
part of the eighteenth century. A highly the homsteed so as it may Reach to the 
imaginative article, which was reprinted Spring for y e henifit of watring." i Lieu- 
from the Boston Herald in the Maiden tenant Samuel probably built the addi- 
Mirfor, August 14, 1875, gives the early tion above mentioned, and he lived in 
date of 1630 to its erection; but there the house until his death, July, 1751. 
was evidently no house standing there His descendant, Joseph Swan, who re- 
in 1649. It was not u P on tne Willoughby sides upon the site of the old house, has 
lot that William Bucknam, who was him- family papers to which I am indebted 
self a carpenter, built, but upon an ad- for information of interest. A view of 
joining and later purchase. At his death, the old house is given in Everett Sou- 
March 28, 1679, the house, which was in venir, 9. 



78 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

ton in 1652, being bounded on the west by the " highway 
bordering on John Upham," or the way to Penny Ferry. North 
of Walker was the lot of John March, and on the south was 
that of John Martin. Beyond Willoughby's land, on the east, 
was the allotment of William Sargeant, occupying the brow of 
that highland above Everett Square, on the line of Broadway, 
which was long known as Sargeant's Hill. 

The bounds between Boston and Charlestown were not defi- 
nitely fixed by the order of 1633, but two years later the 
following order and report were entered upon the Colony 
Records : — 

1635 It is referd to Mf Holgraue, M r Colbran, & S r ieant Sprage, 

ay ' to sett out the bounds of land betwixte Boston & Charlton 
on the nore-east of Misticke Ryver. 

1635: The bounds betweene Boston & Charlestowne are from 
u y the creeke along the creeke vpward in the same till wee come 
to a little neck of land that come from the east side of the same 
neck : there the first stake stands a little on the east side of it, & from 
thence to a m r ked tree at the foote of the marsh agreed vpon of all 
sides, & from that tree to another that lye right opposite over a hill, 
& from thence to a high, tall pine, that stands vpon a point of rock, on 
the side of the high way to Mistick [upon the] other side of Rumney 
Marsh, & from outside to outside by a straight line. 

pf lOHN HOLGRAVE. 41 

The line between the towns, in its remoter course, was settled 
by the following agreement: — 

The 28 th day of the first moneth, 1636. 
Agreed by vs, whose names are vnder written, that the bounds 
betweene Boston & Charles Towne, on the nor east syde Misticke 
Ryver, shall run from the m r ked tree vpon the rocky hill above Rumney 
Marshe, neere the written tree nore-nore west vpon a straight lyne by 
a meridean compass vpp into the countrie. 

Abraham Palmer, 
Will" Cheeseborough, 
Will 1 ? Spencer. 42 

In the meantime the Court settled the extent of the territory 
of Charlestown on the north by the following order: — 

41 Mass. Colony Records, i. 148, 150. 42 Ibid., i. 162. 



ALLOTMENTS AND SETTLEMENT. 79 

163% Ordered, that Charles Towne bounds shall run eight myles 

3 arc ' into the country from their meeteing howse, if noe other 
bounds intercept, reserueing the p r prietie of ffermes graunted to John 
Wintrop, Esq r , M r Nowell, M r Cradocke, & M r Wilson, to the owners 
thereof, as also ffree ingreese & egresse for the serv's & cattell of the said 
gent", & common for their cattell, on the backeside of M r Cradocks 
rferme. 48 

The limit of eight miles from the meeting house carried the 
Charlestown line nearly to Smith's Pond, where it met the in- 
definite line of the Saugus (Lynn) plantation. By a liberal 
allowance of distance, it finally fixed itself at the northeast 
corner of the pond, at a point which may be readily ascertained 
by an extension of the north-easterly line of Melrose. Within 
this bound was included that part of the present town of Wake- 
field now known as Greenwood. At the extreme northern 
point, bounded by the pond, was a lot of sixty acres belonging 
to Joseph Hills, which was probably the grant of fifty acres, 
which he was appointed to have after the great allotments were 
settled. 

In 1639 the Court appointed a committee "to settle the 
bounds betweene Charlestowne, Boston, & Lin ; " but I have 
not found a report of the result. A document written by Cap- 
tain Thomas Brattle is extant, which gives the line as run 
between Maiden and Rumney Marsh in 1678. 

We whose names are underwritten being Appointed by the Select- 
men of the Towne of Boston to be perambulators to runn the line 
betwixt the town of Maulden and this towne, we accordingly did goe 
to Leivtenants Smiths house where wee meeting some of Maulden men 
appointed for that service being on the 1 5*! 1 day of Aprill 1678 Cap- 
taine Weight and Leivtenant Sprague being tow of the men for Maulden 
wee began the line at the Corner of A stone Wall next unto Aaron 
Wayes house save one and Contined it over the Come field to an Oak 
tree at the Corner of the same fence from thence to A stake nere unto 
the house called Job Lanes house where augment to the heap of stones 
about the saide Stake, and from thence to A pine tree on the side of 
A rocky hill over Against the Way yt goeth from Winnesimmet into 
Salem path from Maiden and from thence to A heape of stones, and 
from thence on A North north West lyne to A tree to the westward 

43 Mass. Colony Records, i. 168. 



8o HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

of his house which we marked M X B and laide stones to the 

root of it, from thence renewing sevrall marks untill we came to A 
greate oak yt was felled which had m & B on it and its stub A great 
heap of stones the which we renewed, and from thence to A forked 
oake on A playne with A stone in the Cratch of it the line goeing A 
litle Westerly of it and from thence to A small Oake marked M x B 
with A heape of stones at the roote of it on the top of hill before we 
came to doctor Waldrons house and from thence leaving Doctor 
Waldrons house on the right hand to An Oake standing on the top 
of A hill by the saide Waldron house marked M x B and so to A 
heape of stones in Maiden line where Redding and Boston head line 
meett 

these bounds were runn by Capt hutchinson Cap? fairweather Leift 
Smith & my Self for this Towne & Cap' waite Leift Sprague & Corpo- 
rall Green the 15 th day of April 1678 and agreed vpon Coppy in the 
towne house. 44 

The line fixed as the easterly bound of Charlestown in 1636 
has never been changed and still marks the eastern limits of 
Everett, Maiden, and Melrose. The " point of rock on the side 
of the high way to Mistick" — the Salem Path, may still be 
recognized and is a prominent feature near Black Ann's Corner; 
but the " high, tall pine " which crowned it, after having been a 
landmark for more than a century, came to be, in 1738, "an 
old Pitchpine tree marked B. M." Twenty-one years later it 
was only " an old pitch pine stump with an heap of stones about 
it," and so it disappears from our view. 

The eastern boundary being settled, the Court ordered : — 

1640 M r Tynge, M r Samu: Sheopard, & Goodm. Edward 

7 October. „ J & ' , , , , ^, , 

Converse are to set out the bounds betweene Charlestowne 

& M r Cradocks farme, on the north side of Mistick Ryver. 46 

This completed the settlement of the bounds of Mystic Side. 
By the close of 1640 all the larger grants of the lands south of 
the Scadan hills and the rocky edge of the western fells had 
been made; but the more rocky and remote portions north of 
these lines remained common land until 1695. That some 
settlers may have entered upon their allotments or purchases is 
possible, perhaps probable, but an assertion to that effect can 

44 Mass. Archives, cxii. 246. 45 Mass. Colony Records, i. 304. 



ALLOTMENTS AND SETTLEMENT. 8 1 

only rest upon conjecture. In 1638, when the compilation of the 
Charlestown Book of Possessions, by Abraham Palmer, gives an 
opportunity to ascertain with a great degree of certainty the 
location of most of the allotted lands, no house is mentioned. 

The first hint of a settlement is found in the following petition ; 
but whether the petitioner or his neighbors, Moulton and the 
widow Wilkinson, first built, I cannot determine. That a settle- 
ment was first made at Sweetser's Point or Moulton's Island, 
where the river afforded a convenient means of communication 
with Charlestown and Boston, I am convinced. That Thomas 
Moulton 46 settled at an early day upon the island which bore his 
name is probable ; but, however it may be, we have here the first 
notice of actual settlers at Mystic Side. 

John Greenland carpenter petitio7is the Court 

That yo r petitioner hath bin an inhabitant in Charlestowne by the 
space of two yeares last past and all that while sojourned in other mens 
houses because he had none of his owne at length he spake to some of 
the Townesmen to entreate them to be a meanes to the rest that he 
might have a house lott given him whereon he might build an house but 
he received answere that the Towne had no house lott to give & there- 
fore the said Townesmen wished him to buy one Whereupon yo! pe- 
tioner hath bought of Samuel Richardson of Charlestowne five acres of 
land within Charlestowne bounds on Misticke syde near to Thomas 
Moulton & the widdow Wilkins 47 and hath begun & halfe built his house 
upon it as yo r petitioner conceiveth it was lawfull for him to do seeing 
that he hath built on five acres of ground. Notwithstanding some of 

46 Thomas Moulton was an inhabi- two allotments, and apparently built 
tant of Charlestown in 1631. His early upon her five-acre lot somewhere to the 
settlement at Island End, or Moulton's eastward of the way to the Mystic and 
Island, while a matter of conjecture, is near the marshes of the South River, 
one of great probability. He shared in A slight clue to its location may exist in 
the allotments and afterwards purchased the fact that Wilkinson's Creek was that 
of Walter Palmer the five-acre lot in stream which, running into the South 
number eleven which had been assigned River, received, itself, on its easterly side 
to William Baker. This lot was between the waters which came down from the 
those on which George Felt and James South Spring. Its early name long 
Pemberton built ; but no house was upon since passed out of use and is unknown 
it in 1646, when it was sold to Richard to those now dwelling in its vicinity. 
Dexter. He died, December 24, 1657. Widow Wilkinson died in 1655, leaving 

47 Widow Prudence Wilkinson was her homestead to her only son, John, 
in Charlestown in 1630, having been, Other land was left to her grandson, 
perhaps, a passenger in the Winthrop John Bucknam, whose troubles are else- 
fleet. She received her portions in the where mentioned 



82 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

the said Towne have given forth words to discourage yo r petitioner to 
goe on to plant there w ch may turne to his great hinderance if he should 
be now caused to remove. Yo r petitioner humbly prayeth this wor" 
Cort to be pleased in consideration of the premises to confirme yo r 
petitioners <said planting on misticke syde in the place aforesaid. And 
yo r petitioner shall pray for this Cort, &c. 48 

This petition, which remains in the note-book of Thomas Lech- 
ford, who wrote it, has disappeared from the colonial archives; 
but ample evidence of its presentation and consideration exists 
in the answer which it received. 

1640; John Greenland is granted his petition, w c is to plant 

upon a five acre lot in Charles Towne bounds on Mis- 
tick side. 49 

We can easily identify the spot on which John Greenland 
" halfe built his house." The portion of Samuel Richardson 
comprised the westerly five acres of the lot numbered ten in the 
allotment of 1634. In 1638 it was described among his posses- 
sions as follows : — 

ffive Acres of woodland in misticke feilde N° 10, butting to south 
upon the highway toward Cap. Robert Sedgwicke his meaddow ; and to 
the north upon the misticke feilde, bounded on the west by the high 
way and upo the East by Micheall Bastow, 80 pole in length and tenn 
pole in bredth. 60 

The subsequent conveyances of this land are very clear, and 
unlike those which attach to many ancient titles, they form an 
unbroken line of evidence to the present time. The highway 
towards Captain Sedgwick's meadow was that part of Chelsea 
Street in Everett which is east of the South Spring ; and the 
highway upon the west was the narrow way leading into the 
great allotments, which in time became Ferry Street. Green- 
land, who afterwards acquired the adjoining five acres of 
Barstow, lived here, continuing a resident within the bounds 
of Charlestown, until his death, in i69°/i. 51 

48 Lechford, Note- Book, 178. graunted the Wast ground bettweene 

49 Mass. Colony Records, i. 309. him & Geo: ffelt, to begin A Pole above 
60 Charlestown Archives, xxxiv. 10. Geo: ffelts house from the South Spring 
51 Greenland received an additional upwards to the head of the 5 Acre Lotts." 

grant from the town : Charlestown Archives, xx. in loco. 

"[10. ii?° 1641] JiV? Greenland was He left his housing and lands on 



ALLOTMENTS AND SETTLEMENT. 



To the three settlers who had planted upon the allotments 
were soon added others, who before the close of the year 1640 
had built in the vicinity of the South Spring. It is difficult to 
understand why the older settlers at Mishawum opposed the 
settlement of Mystic Side; but it is certain that the troubles 
which Greenland encountered continued after the action of the 
Court in his favor. I have found no evidence that the following 
petition was ever presented to the authorities. Like that of 
Greenland, it was written by Lechford and is preserved in his 
note-book. It is probable that the grievances of which the pe- 
titioners complained ceased without the intervention of the 
General Court. 

To the right wor" the Governor Council cV Assistants 
The humble petition of James Pemberton Prudence Wilkinson wid- 
dowe Lewis Hulett George Felt George Knowe John Greenland and 
Thomas Whittimore 



Mystic Side to his only surviving son, 
John, with the use of the house to his 
widow, Lydia, during her natural life. 
What time the son, Deacon John Green- 
land, removed into the bounds of Maiden 
is uncertain ; but it was probably about 
the time of his marriage with Lydia 
Sprague in 1670, and it is sure that he 
was here in 1673. ^ e built upon a piece 
of rising land in the woodland west of 
the Great Swamp, where his father, in 
1655, had acquired a portion of the lot 
numbered thirty-one in the great allot- 
ment. His farm, which he left by will 
\S to his grandson, John Shute, the long- 
lived deacon and town clerk, was that 
which, lying east of Ferry Street, became 
in later years the property of Captain 
Henry Rich, and more recently of 
George A. Sammet. 

How long the widow lived to enjoy 
her rights in the Mystic Side house is 
unknown ; but apparently it was not long. 
In January, \$%% , it was sold with its ten 
acres, and other lands, to John Ridge- 
way, mariner, who already occupied it. 
Ridgeway died of the small-pox in 1721 ; 
and his son John, having purchased the 
rights of his brothers and sisters, sold 
it to Ebenezer Pratt, boatman, in 1725. 
Whether the house which was then trans- 
ferred was, wholly or in part, that which 



was built by Greenland in 1640 is uncer- 
tain ; but it is sure that the house in 
which the younger Ebenezer Pratt was 
born in 1725, was that which remained 
unto the present generation. With the 
exception of about two years, when it 
was in the hands of Samuel Waite, it 
was owned and occupied by the Eben- 
ezers, father and son, who were large 
holders of land in that vicinity, until it 
was purchased, in 1782, by the Revolu- 
tionary captain, Isaac Smith. 

After the death of Captain Smith, 
the house, with a large tract of adjoin- 
ing lands which he had acquired, passed 
by purchase into the possession of 
Nathan Nichols, who had married his 
daughter Dorcas. A portion of these 
lands, which occupied the extensive 
tract now known as Nichols's Hill, was 
sold by the heirs of Captain Nichols to 
a party of operators who formed the 
Nichols Land Association. The old 
house stood until May 18, 1S74, when, 
with the exception of a modern addition, 
it was burned. Recent improvements 
have nearly obliterated the old land- 
marks. Midd. Co. Deeds, in loco ; Infor- 
mation of the late John Smith Nichols. 
A view of the house is in Everett Sou- 
venir, 12. 



84 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

The petitioners shewe that whereas they having bin heretofore in- 
habitants in Charlestowne and could not there have accommodation to 
live comfortably they were forced to crave leave of the Cort to build 
and plant upon Mysticke syde w ch they did by the leave of the Court 
afores d and have expended a great parte of their estates therein, Some 
of the Towne endeavoring to straighten the petitioners and to hinder 
others from comming to them as they say have procured divers orders 
to be made in the Towne meeting w ch to the petitioners are very pre- 
judiciall and they thinke unreasonable viz' that any of the petitioners 
shall pay for every swine taken in the marsh 2 s 6 d a tyme besides the 
dammage, whereas the orders for the towne are but to yoake & ring 
the swine or els to pay double dammage. 2 ly whereas yo r petitioners 
cannot live to pay rates to Towne & Country except they have some 
convenient common allotted them to keepe some cattel about them, 
their said opponents have procured a towne order to be made for the 
making of a common fence a great way from yo r petitioners houses 
w ch will not keepe out swine and yet would have the petitioners con- 
tribute and afford wood to the said common fence w ch yet tends to 
their undoing, whereas the fence is made for the present only to defend 
the Townesmens medow ground w ch the petitioners were willing to 
joyne w th them so they would only have fenced in the medow and left 
the petitioners convenient common. These things yo r petitioners 
humbly desire the Court in their wisdome to consider and to order 
that they may have a convenient common allowed them and may have 
equall remedie in their said greivances. And they shall as their duty 
bindes them pray for yo r wor pps . 52 

52 Lechford, Note-Book, 203. James The sometime servant was his second 

Pemberton received the easterly half of wife, Margaret, who outlived him. After 

the ten-acre lot, No. 12 in the first allot- the death of Keayne in 1656, he became 

ment, on which he evidently built a an inhabitant of Maiden, where he had 

house, which in 17 17 was occupied by a house, standing on a lot of ten acres, 

Isaac Wheeler. This was the third and land in the Great Swamp and in 

five-acre lot west of the way which is the salt marsh. He died here, Feb- 

now known as Ferry Street in Everett, ruary 5, i66>£, leaving his Mystic Side 

The intervening lots on Chelsea Street house to Edmund Barlow, the husband 

were those of George Felt and Thomas of his daughter Mary, and his Maiden 

Moulton, which are elsewhere noticed, property to his widow and his son John. 

Pemberton is supposed to have been Pemberton's Island in Boston Harbor, 

a passenger in the fleet of Winthrop upon which stands Fort Warren, bears 

in 1630. In 1647 he was at Hull; and in its name the record of his early and 

afterwards he removed to Rumney disputed ownership; and Pemberton's 

Marsh, where he lived upon the farm of Brook preserved his memory in Maiden 

Robert Keayne, being mentioned in the until it was superseded by the later 

will of Captain Keayne in 1653, which name of Harvell. 

gave "Vnto James Pemerton, & his wife, Of Lewis Hulett little is known and 

sometimes my Servant, now partner that little is not creditable. He was in 

with me at my ffarme, forty shillings." Charlestown in 1636, and afterwards 



ALLOTMENTS AND SETTLEMENT. 



85 



It is evident that the allotments in other parts of Mystic Side, 
as well as those around the South Spring, were beginning to 
receive inhabitants and that occasions to pass and repass the 
Mystic were frequent ; for the inhabitants of Charlestown voted, 
April 2, 1640, that Philip Drinker should keep " a ferry at the 
Neck of Land with a sufficient boat." For his service he was to 
have two pence for one person and a penny each " when there 
goe any more." This was the beginning of the Penny Ferry 
which served the inhabitants of Maiden and the upper towns 
until 1787, when it was superseded by the Maiden Bridge. 53 



appears as the reputed owner of a lot 
on the west of the Mill Hill ; but his 
possessions are not specifically noted. 

"[December 3, 1639.] Lewes Hew- 
let, for his extortion, was fined 20 sh s , & 
was bound over in iol to the first month 
for his contemptuous speaches." Mass. 
Colony Records, i. 284. 

" [March 3, i6|§.] Lewes Hewlet, 
not appearing, forfected his recognisance 
of iol." Ibid., i. 286. 

Besides this, I have met nothing re- 
lating to him. He evidently was not 
long at Mystic Side. 

George Knower received no land in 
the allotments and he may have come 
as a tenant rather than as a landowner. 
He died in Maiden, February 13, 167!; 
and his lands and those of his descend- 
ants were within the limits of this town, 
near the Boston line, north of Sagamore 
and Turkey Hills. 

Thomas Whittemore did not partici- 
pate in the allotments, but he purchased 
the five-acre lot of Increase Nowell and 
other lands around it and above it at 
Sagamore Hill. His homestead, which 
was bounded upon the east by the 
Boston line, continued in the possession 
of his descendants until it was sold in 
1845, as has been stated. A house, 
which was doubtless that built by 
Thomas Whittemore, stood upon the 
premises until 1S06, when a second 
house was built in its place, or near, 
by Joseph Whittemore, which remained 
until destroyed by fire in 1866. In 1898, 
the site was still marked by a cellar 
hole and an old cherry tree on the 
northerly side of Chelsea Street, a short 
distance west of Everett Avenue. 



53 Drinker, who died June 23, 1647, 
was succeeded a few months before his 
death by Peter Tufts, who afterwards 
became a large landholder on Mystic 
Side and in Maiden, and the owner of 
the Nowell grant. He was assisted by 
his brother-in-law, William Bridge. In 
1 65 1 it was voted to let the ferry for 
one year to John Harris; but for some 
reason the vote was not carried out, 
and the ferry was soon after granted to 
Philip Knight, a cooper, who agreed 
" to attend the ferry carefully, and not 
to neglect it, that there be no just 
complaint." Frothingham, History of 
Charlestown, 147. Little Island, by some 
supposed to be that since known as 
White Island, over which the railroad 
now passes, but more probably an island 
in the marsh afterward known as the 
Ferry Island, on the southerly side of 
which the ferry-ways were built, was 
granted to the ferry, which continued to 
be maintained by the town of Charles- 
town, and at a later period produced a 
small income. The causeway over the 
marsh and some traces of the ways 
remained upon the easterly side of the 
present street until its widening covered 
them. A few years earlier, remains of 
piles might be seen in the mud of the 
river. The position of ferryman was 
far from being a permanent one and 
its holders were often changed. Paul 
Wilson, who is noted in many records 
as a sinner and a roysterer, appears in 
1664, but soon left it to " keep the cows 
in the stinted Pasture." Many names 
appear until 1726, when the ferry was 
leased for twenty-five years to Joseph 
Frost of Charlestown and Samuel 



86 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

That settlers were beginning to gather in the fields and woods 
of Mystic Side is still more plainly evinced by the building of a 
corn mill by Thomas Coytmore, whose grant for that purpose, 
in 1640, has been noticed. It is certain that he built a dam at 
Black Rock at once, for the next year the town passed the 
following vote : — 

[27. 6T 1 64 1.] It was granted y! Thos: Coitmore should have 
one daies worke throughout the whole Towne, to helpe to breadthen A 
Damm (at the 3 mile brooke) to A convenient highway for horse & 
Cart ; & y f : hee shall have Liberty to appoint what number hee shall 
thincke fifitt for A day : proceeding accord? to the Liste of the Sur- 
veyo s for the Highway. 54 

The " convenient highway for horse & Cart " has continued 
to the present time to be a travelled way, and Mountain Avenue, 
formerly Mill Street, is laid over the dam which was " bread- 
thened " by the men of 1641. Although the dam was built in 
the place where it continued to furnish power until recent years, 
the original mill stood far away, near the present Middlesex 
Court, between Pleasant Street and the river. For this purpose, 
Coytmore appears to have acquired the lot of Thomas Squire 
on the westerly side of the brook, and perhaps that of James 
Garrett; and he also apparently purchased those of Edward 
Jones and William Quick on the south side. When the dye 
works of Benjamin W. Dodge were being built, about 1835, 
charred timbers were found in the ground ; and an old lady was 
living in the neighborhood who remembered to have heard that 
the old mill stood there and was burned. Afterwards traces of 
the water-way, leading down from the dam, were found on the 
side of the hill near Barrett's Lane, now Dartmouth Street. 06 In 

Sweetser of Maiden, each paying five man & Horse." Mid J. Court Records — 

shillings a year. The former assumed General Sessions, July 12, 1726. Frost 

control of the southerly side and the does not appear to have long followed 

latter that of the northerly; and each the craft of ferryman; but Sweetser 

agreed to maintain good ways to low continued therein, and was followed 

water and to keep good boats for the by his son Stephen, who is supposed to 

accommodation of the public. It was have used the oars until the bridge was 

settled by the Court "y* the fair for built. 

every person be stated at two pence 64 Charlestown Archives, xx. in loco. 

for each person, & Seven pence for 55 Information ^/"Charles Hill, 1S88. 



ALLOTMENTS AND SETTLEMENT. 87 

this connection the testimony of the Hills, given about 173 1, is 
of interest. 

Isaac Hill of maiden Aged about 63 yeeres and Abraham hill about 
61 Testifieth and saith y 4 their fathar Abraham Hill was tennent and 
keeper of y e corn-mill jn maiden formerly belonging to m r Thomas 
Coitmore at y e time of m r John Coggains marrige with y e widdow 
wintrope formerly y e widdow Coitmore And y l after said Coggins 
marria: \v th s d wido: he y e sd Abraham Hill continued Tennant in 
possession of said mill: In right of said Coggan for sundrey yeeres — 
and paid y e rent to said Coggan : but y e mill-pond in Maiden beeing 
neer half a mile distance from y e mill and considering y e grate charge 
in maintaining of troues and frams to bare y e troues over a thurt 
y e Streeme to carry y e water ouer y e land doun to y e s d . mill : The 
s d Coggain Altred and Remoued y e said mill further up y e streeme 
neere to y e s d mill-pond. And after s d mill was remoued The same 
was still Jmproued and possessed by said Coggan : and his sucessers. 
. . . and y t y e mill possessed by Edward Sprague stands upon 
y e same streeme and watter cours neer to y e place whare m r Coggans 
Mill stood, &c. 56 

From its first building the mill, descending by purchase or by 
inheritance through the hands of John Coggan, of Job Lane, 
and the Spragues, became an important factor in the life of the 
new and growing community; and the power which supplied it 
became the centre of years of strife and the cause of lawsuits 
not a few, which continued even to the present generation. 

In an entry relating to highways made in January, 164}^, and 
hereafter given, the house of William Luddington is mentioned; 
and it is soon after again noted in a grant of upland made to 
Edward Mellowes. Luddington had bought the five-acre lot 
which had been laid out to William Dade, and I am led to 
believe that here he built his house. If so, it was situated near 
the marshes of the South River and not far from Sweetser's 
Point, as it " butted " upon that river, and the highway to the 
Mystic was not far away. 

The next indication of actual settlement is shown in a petition 
of Thomas Call, which is redolent of piety and in a measure of 
good cheer and proves the existence of a community of settlers 
in the country above. 

56 Original MS. in the possession of Artemas Barrett. 



88 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

To the honora" Cort assembed at Boston the humble petition of 
Thomas Caule Whereas yo r petitioner Dwelleth by the water, at the 
fferry place on mistick side, many people haveing accasion to come that 
way, & when they cannot have passage are necessitated to stay at 
yo r petitioners (many of o r owne towne, & of other townes have moved 
yo r petition 1 to desire leave to sell them some thing ; for their refresh- 
ing) now yo r petition r Doth humbly request leave to sell bread, beare 
& other victualling for the refreshing of such, as have occasion to stay, 
& yo r petition 1 shall humbly pray the lord to bless, guide, & counsell 
yo u in all yo weightye affaires, & so I rest yo r humble suppliant 

Thomas Caule. 67 

This petition, in which twenty-two others joined, is undated, 
and in the exasperating disarrangement of the Massachusetts 
Archives the original document has been defaced by a suppositi- 
tious date ; but the time and the reply are readily ascertained. 

1645 : Thomas Caule is alovved to keepe victualing in his house for 

14 May. strang r s M 

There now began to be mentioned cattle and swine upon 
Mystic Side; and rails were built to keep out the wolves, and 
pens were made for the sheep and swine. In 1645 the select- 
men were given 

the letting and disposing of all the common ground on mistike syde 
eyther w ,h in or w th out the rayles : By letting it out to them that will hire 
it for 2 1 years : at the price of 6 shillings an Acre by the year. . . . 
It was then ordered that all the cattell and swine w th in the field on mis- 
tike syde w th in the fence shalbe kept out by the midst of the first 
Moneth. 

At a meeting of the " Seven men," January 12, 164 H, Robert 
Wilder was appointed as " officer to see to Trespasses ; " and 

Hee is alsoe to see that all the front fences on mistike syde bee made 
vpp ag st the midell of the first moneth ensuing and to see that they 
after be kept sufficient. 

At a later meeting in the same month, Rowland Lahorne was 
chosen to keep the " Dry heard," for twelve shillings a week, 
and " to burn the woods in the fittest season, and to help about 
the pen." That Lahorne was a faithful herdsman was shown at 
the end of the season, when it was recorded: — 

57 Mass. Archives, cxi. 6. M Mass. Colony Records, ii. 98. 



ALLOTMENTS AND SETTLEMENT. 89 

[7. 10. 1646.] Royland Layhorn had out 100 dry cattell and 
brought them all well home but one. 59 

A year later, the selectmen passed the following order : — 

[25. 11". 1 1647.] It was ord r f y\ noe man is to keepe any Cattle 
within any enclosed ground on Misticksd afu the first Month 1648 upon 
forfeit of 6 d each beast so found, & 6? each time any beast is so found 
in any enclosed field. 60 

In the meanwhile, the town made special grants of land or 
renewed and laid out old ones. In 1647 a committee was 
appointed to lay out Major Robert Sedgwick's two hundred 
acres by Reading bounds. This grant had been made by the 
Court in 1639, and it is described in the Book of Possessions as 

Eight score acres of land by estimation, more or lesse, scituate at the 
northeast point of the towne bounds, bounded on the east by Boston 
line, and on the north by Lynne villiage ; 

but I cannot discover that it was laid out in the place prescribed ; 
and it does not otherwise appear that Sedgwick ever owned land 
at the head-line of Maiden. Soon after, January 3, 164/6, " John 
Wait was granted to have the 8 Akers more or less that lies next 
to Tho Lines farme on mistik syde ; " and a little later a com- 
mittee was chosen to " lay out yong Thomas Coitmores twoo 
lotts by Ell pond." 61 

With the clearing of fields and the building of homes came 
the necessity of roads ; and we have already seen how the Indian 
trails, followed perhaps for centuries, gave the first comers ways 
through the forests and brushwood of Mystic Side. Of these 
the great trail known as the Salem Path and its branch, leading 

59 Charlestmvn Archives, xix. in loco, ried Governor John Winthrop, and 
Burning the woods in the spring and after his death, John Coggan, and in- 
fall was the continuance of an Indian herited the Coytmore lands. After the 
custom, which is elsewhere mentioned. death of Coggan, although the widow 

60 Charlestmvn Archives, xx. in loco. of three husbands and the mother of 

61 Ibid., xix. in loco. Wayte's land six children, she became "discontented 
was laid out in the meadows above that she had no suitours," and "encour- 
Mount Prospect. Captain Thomas aged her Farmer, a meane man." If 
Covtmore was lost on the coast of we may believe report, "she grew dis- 
Spain in 1644, and his unlocated land contented, despaired, and tooke a great 
was laid out to his young son, Thomas, quantity of ratts bane, and so died." 
who died in his minority. Widow Mass. Hist. Coll., xxx. 45. 

Martha (Rainsborough) Coytmore mar- 



90 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

southward from Black Ann's Corner to the Indian villages near 
Powder Horn, were the principal, and were at once adopted by 
the settlers. The former is first mentioned in 1635 62 and appears 
several times in the Book of Possessions. Its course from the 
Abousett to the Mystic, through Maiden, is elsewhere traced. 
In the great allotment little or no attention appears to have 
been given to highways, although it was provided that " con- 
venient Highwaies shalbe allowed;" but such ways as were 
most direct or practicable, through the woods and across the 
meadows, were taken by the earlier comers without much regard 
to private bounds. From this cause, in part, arose the custom 
of placing gates across the roads near farm boundaries. It was 
not long, however, before the convenience of settled ways which 
could be permanently maintained became apparent. Especially 
were they desirable in difficult places, as around hills or over 
meadows, and the earliest orders appear to have reference to 
such cases. Thus, the first order after the allotment was de- 
signed to settle a way across the Long Meadow — apparently 
that part of the present Main Street which lies between the City 
Hall and Bailey's Hill. 

[30. v. 1638.] Edw? Convers & Ezek" Richeson were desired to lay 
out A highway in y e most, convenient place over the Meadow at y e head 
of the North River allowing the owners of y e Ground sufficient for theire 
pportions allotted them, or els to make them allowance elsewhere. 63 

The land-way and the drift-way along the five-acre lots ended 
at the head of the North River, where the lot of Christian Easton 
closed the range in that direction, until the new way across the 
meadow extended the united ways northward. A still further 
extension was soon made ; and in the following order we may 
find the origin of that part of Salem Street which was long 
known as Baptist Row. 

[24. 8™ 1640.] It was ord'f that Ralph Sprague, Tho: Line & 
Abra. Palmer should determine the bounds bettwixt Mr Hills fferm, & 
the Medow & to sett out the Highway for Cattle from the five Acre 
Lotts to y e common. 64 

62 Charlestown Archives, xx. 33. 68 Ibid., xx. in loco. 64 Ibid. 



ALLOTMENTS AND SETTLEMENT. 



91 




This way at that time probably extended no farther eastward 
than the hills at Faulkner. Here the road long known as 
Barnes's Lane, and later as Jacob Pratt's Path, 65 led northward 
into the woods of the common, and by a circuitous route, along 
the swampy depths of Green's Hole, gave a rough and dismal 
way to the Salem Path by the Round World. 66 Later, a path 



65 Jacob Pratt's Path was one of the 
most delightful forest roads to be found 
in the vicinity. In 1897, I found a few 
traces of it, between Spruce and Mar- 
shall Streets ; but they appeared likely 
to be soon "improved" from the face 
of the earth. It cannot but be regretted 
that the destruction or the degradation 
of our most charming natural scenery 
has attended the growth of the city. 
In many instances an absence of taste, 
or an undue haste to build cheap houses 
has inflicted injuries which cannot be 
repaired. 



On this path, in a pleasant valley 
west of Green's Hole, was the home 
of Thomas Barnes, and later that of 
his son-in-law, Jacob Pratt. Here were 
two houses, the elder of which was used 
as a pest-house during the Revolution. 
The other, which is supposed to have 
been built soon after the Revolution, 
was demolished about thirty years ago. 
The view represents it in its latter days. 

66 The Round World was that tract 
west of Lebanon Street which was for- 
merly known as John Pratt's Plain. 
In 1662 Joseph Hills sold to Samuel 



92 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

was developed between the western Scadan hills and the Great 
Swamp to the Salem Path, which in a few years became a 
travelled way and completed the line of Salem Street to the vici- 
nity of Maplewood Square. Eastwardly it was still unsettled, 
passing the Scadan plain far north of its present course. 

The next entry in relation to highways on Mystic Side is as 
follows, and evidently refers to a way leading to the landing 
place on the South River at Island End, which then appears to 
have been known as Whitehand's Island, its later names of 
Moulton's and Mitchell's Island being as yet unborn: — 

[9 : ij d mo. 1 64 1.] Ralph Mousall & W m : Stilson appointed to lay- 
out y* highway on Mistickside to y e South river by Whitehands Ileand 
& about Luddingtons. 67 

Later in the same year, the Indian trail leading southward 
from the Salem Path at the point of rocks [Black Ann's Corner], 
being a country way, was defined by an august committee com- 
posed of the governor, the deputy governor, John Winthrop, 
and others. Two years before, the town of Boston had been 
fined twenty shillings for its defects. 68 A committee was soon 
after appointed " to set out the nearest, cheapest, safest, & most 
convenient way ; " 69 and a bridge was ordered " to be donne with 
all speede." ~° This way, changed somewhat in later years, as 
other ground was found more favorable, was the country way 
from Lynn to Winnisimmet. In Maiden, it is that portion of 
Lynn Street which runs from Black Ann's Corner to Linden ; 
and in Revere and Chelsea it is known as Washington Avenue. 
For a short distance it formed a part of the eastern boundary of 
Charlestown, as it still bounds a portion of Everett. 71 The 

Haward about forty acres, which had 67 Charlestown Archives, xx., in loco. 

been the lots of Edward Jones and 68 Mass. Colony Records, i. 285. 

Thomas Squire, "and are comonly 69 Ibid., i. 289. 

called by the name of the round O." 70 Boston Tcnvn Records, i. 4S. 

This land was bounded by the rocks 71 The following order, which was 

and a little swamp and " M r Bunkers passed by the General Court, indicates 

farme house & land." Midd. Co. Deeds, an early change in the travelled way. 
iii. 125. The little swamp, or Green's "[May 27, 1670.] Whereas the 

Hole, was a famous locality for snakes, country highway ouer some part of 

The way mentioned in the text passed Rumny marsh was Layd out long since 

along the foot of the rocky hill on the from a point of upland to the written 

northerly side of the swamp. tree and tho s d way was never made 



ALLOTMENTS AND SETTLEMENT. 93 

written tree was at the point of rocks above Black Ann's Corner. 
The " new bridge " was that over Pines River and it was long 
known as the County Bridge. It was covered with logs or plank 
until about the year 1830, when it was carried away by a high 
tide and was rebuilt of stone. 72 

Umi'] The 0rder f or thc Hi S h WayJro m the Written Tree to 

Winnet semct. 
Wee, whose names are hearunder written, being appointed by the 
Co r t to lay out the country high way fro Winnet semet towards Linne, 
have agreed that it shall go, as formerly, from the water side to the 
foote of Powder Home Hill, & from thence about the west end of the 
said hill, & over the east end of Sagamore Hill, & thence to turne up 
above the swamps to the line of partition between Charlstowne & Boston, 
ruiiing along thereby conveniently near to the great swamp, turning 
downe by the south side thereof to M Keaynes cart way over the said 
swamp, & so along in the said cart way over the brooke neare unto the 
ould bridge, & thence in the most convenient way to the New bridge 

Richard Bellingham, Go:, 
John Endecot, Dep:, 
John Winthrope, 
& Increase Nowell. 73 

The next year a committee was appointed " to view A percell 
of ground to in Hew for allow for consideracon of A Highway for 
John Grover by the North Spring ; " and grants were made to 
Increase Nowell and Robert Haile for land taken — for the way 
by Whiteland's Island, as I suspect. Later in the same year, 
Edward Mellows was granted " A percell of ground in liew of A 
Hig way that is made over his Meadow;" and Joseph Hills was 
chosen surveyor of highways for Mystic Side. 74 

Passing over one or two orders relating to minor or indefinite 
ways, we find the following : — 

[Jan. 12, 164^] M r Hill and Lieften 4 Sprague are appointed to 
settle y e Highway y* comes out of the Woods to y e Water side y! is by 

passable, but instead thereof a Causey the way was layd out first or to see & 

& bridg hath beene made in another cause the Causey & bridge that is al- 

place which hath beene made use of ready made to be sufficiently repaired 

but is now & hath beene often out of & so kept from time to time." Mass. 

repaire Jt is ordered that the select Archives, exxi. ^3. 

men of Boston shal take speedy care 72 Chelsea Pioneer, February 4, 1882. 

to make & maintaine a sufficient Causey 73 Mass. Colo?iy Records, i. 340. 

& bridge ouer the marsh & creeke where 74 Charlestown Archives, xx., in loco. 



94 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

M r Palmers Lott, & likewise the way to the Mill from Goo: Ludding- 
tons house. 75 

The house of William Luddington and its probable location 
in the vicinity of the South River have been elsewhere men- 
tioned. If there was a mill at that early period on the arm of 
the South River since known as the Mill Creek, the latter por- 
tion of this entry may refer to a short way leading down to it; 
but I use a Yankee privilege and am inclined to the opinion 
that it contemplated a settlement of the landway which led 
northward to Coytmore's mill on the Three Mile Brook — the 
unsettled and indefinite way which after many changes became 
the present Main Street. The way first mentioned in the order 
was soon after laid out; and the following entry was made upon 
the records : — 

[1644.] The Highway from y e Lotts of y e reserved Land, of y e 
200 Acres on Mistickside is to bee laid through y e . Lands of Mf Abra: 
Palmer to runne downe to the landing place over ig st . Mr Nowells 
ffarme, & the s d Highway is to bee laid out two Pole wide, & m r Palmer 
to have y e Ancient Highway in liew of the oth r 76 

I cannot determine with satisfaction the location of this new 
way. The lands of Abraham Palmer soon became a part of the 
farm of James Green and the landing place was that at Sandy 
Bank. If the way was not that which passed along the southern 
side of Bell Rock, where the meeting house was soon after built, 
it must have been a long-forgotten way which crossed the 
brow of Green's Hill or ran even farther south. That such a 
way existed I have long believed, but the records which hint of 
it are insufficient and vague. 

In the same year authority was given to lay out a way from 
the river at Lewis's Bridge, by Wayte's Mount, into the heart 
of the commons beyond Ell Pond. This is definite, and a part 
of the way we still travel ; but north of the Mount it ran far 
eastward of the present course of Main Street. Its track may 
still be traced, and will soon be noticed. 

[24. 12. 16444] It is agreed y! Tho: Line, Robt Hale & Tho: 
Pearce should lay out A convenient Highway on Mistickside from 

75 Charlestowu Archives, xx., in loco. 76 Ibid. 



ALLOTMENTS AND SETTLEMENT. 95 

y* Woods to the head of the North River & to allow for y e Highway & 
to bound the Meadows from y* Mount to Ell Pond, & to allow them 
y<i Highway in bounding y c Meadow." 

At the session in May, 1647, the Court, seeing the great 
importance of convenient and permanent highways, appointed 
Ralph Sprague of Mystic Side and Francis Smith of Reading 
" to lay out y e way fro" 1 Winnetsemet to Reading." 78 This 
was a part of a general plan by which a continuous highway 
was opened to the settlements in New Hampshire, passing 
through Reading, Andover, and Haverhill; and its survey 
brought forth the first of that long series of humble petitions in 
which are preserved much of the history of Mystic Side and 
Maiden. 

[16:3:48] To the Horfd Court. Hie Humble peti~con of sev r ll 
the Jnhabitants of Mestick side 6° others Jn Charles towne. May jt 
please you to vnd r stand, that there hath beene Lately Layd out A high- 
way from Winesemet to Redding by Appointment of the gen r ll court, 
whose orders in all things, wee most willingly as dutie binds vs 
submit vnto, Assuring ourselues that their principall Ayme is the 
publ. good : w ch vnder fauor we conc r is not consistent w th the Lying 
of that way as now it is done : for that it thwarts neere twentie 
small lotts & Allso many other lotts : w ch if by means thereof, 
the owners be forced to fence out the way A great p' of the land 
must be sould to make the fence, the owners being many of them 
pore & not able to beare the charge thereof, some of them hauing 
foure fences All readie Against comon & high way ground. Wherefore 
o r humble request is that the said Act may be recalled & that the way 
vnto wenesemet from Redding may be in the highway leading toward 
the penie ferrie, vnto the house of James Barritt & so by the towneway 
leading directly vnto winesemet, lying on the head of the fiue Acre 
lotts, by the South spring, w ch is Allso A playne, firm trodd way & but 
litle about, the w ch they now stand charged to fence Against & cannot 
secure their planting w th out it. So shall wee be bound to pray as wee 
desire dayly to doe for y r p r sptie & peace temporall & Eternall. 

J° Greeneland 
Rich. Dexter 
francis Wheeler 
George ffelt 

Jnth name of the rest?* 

77 Charlestown Archives, xx., in loco. 

78 Mass. Colony Records, ii. 192. 79 Mass. Archives, cxxi. 21. 



96 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

This petition indicates that portions of the land-ways and 
drift-ways of the allotment of 1634 had become the highways to 
Penny Ferry and Winnisimmet. The petitioners, one of whom, 
Frances Wheeler, was a widow, were inhabitants or landowners 
in the southern section, where the new way " thwarted " the 
grants above the five-acre lots by cutting across the angles made 
by the highways already in use. In answer to this petition the 
Court added to the committee the names of two inhabitants of 
the more northerly portion of Mystic Side in the following 
order, upon which the report of the committee was endorsed : — 

Vpon the petition of mistick side men Jt is ordered that thomas Line 
Junior & m r Joseph Hills shall be added to the former Comittee to take 
a newe survey of the most convenient place for the way from Reding 
to wennetsemet, & to make certificate of their apprehensions there 
about. by the gerfall Co r te 

Jncrease Nowell Sec". 
Dated the 8th m° 1648. 

Vpon S r uey for A way w th in menconed. wee App r hend it most con- 
uenient Jn All points to Lay it in the wonted roade from Redding to 
thomas Lines cornefeild & so ouer some p' of the sayd feild 2 pole 
broad on firm ground Aboue his house & so in the highway by the 
meeting house on Mestick Side Leading toward Charlestown unto the 
southerly side of Richard Adams Land : & so to the head of the fiue 
Acre lott s & vpon the head of the sayd lott s unto m r Pygraues 
\Palgrave 1 s~\ lott, & then by A southeast line on the left hand 3 rodds 
from the new fence ouer A corner of Will: Jonsons playne two rods 
broad & over John Palmors & Richard Dexters land on the southside 
of A treble marked walnut by the corner of Richard Cookes feild & so 
in the high way to the lower end of the rayle betwixt m r Bellinghams & 
Tho s Whittamors land. 10 th 2m 1649: 

Ralph Sprague 
ffrancis Smith 
Joseph Hills 
Tho? Line. 80 

As three of the committee were Mystic Side men and no less 
subject to the weaknesses of humanity than those who compose 
like committees of the present day, it may be that some 
" private infest," or at least a regard for the " conveniency " of 

80 Mass. Archives, cxxi. iS.' 



ALLOTMENTS AND SETTLEMENT. 9? 

their fellow inhabitants, may have influenced them. That the 
Court so conceived is evident, for the only action taken upon 
the report is indicated in the following order: — 

[May 2, 1 649. J Seeing it concernes this Co r te to p r vide the best 
high wayes to be layd out fro'" towne to towne for publike use, w ch con- 
cerne all the posterity as well as o r selves, & therefore that no private 
infest should hind r it, & forasmuch as the way fro m Reding to Winnet- 
semet last layd out is thought to be lesse behooffull for the country then 
the form r way layd out by ord r of this Co r te, M r Robt Clements, John 
Osgood, & Franc is Smith are hereby authorished & appointed to lay out 
the way, as men most indifPent to lay out the same. 81 

As these men were of Haverhill, Andover, and Reading, in 
the order of their names, they were in the meaning of the 
record " indifferent " men, and so they really proved ; for in 
165 1, when Osgood and Smith died, the way was still unsettled. 
In the meantime Maiden had become a town and its corporate 
history had begun ; but before we turn to that we may with 
propriety continue the story of the " great country road " to the 
time when it became a well-defined and settled way. Nothing 
having been done, the Court passed the following order, and 
the road was laid out in accordance : — 

[May 27, 1652.] Whereas this Court did long since appoynt sundry 
p r sons to lay out the way from Reding to Winesemett, which is not yet 
determined, & some of the p r sons mentioned in the sd order are dead, 
and forasmuch as it was ordred by Cambridge Court, that it should 
forthwith be done by the townes of Redding & Maiden, it is now 
ordred by this Court, that the laying out of the sd highway shalbe done 
by the townes of Redding & Maldon, according to the law in that case 
provided, any act of this Court to the contrary notw th standing. 82 

[September 10, 1653.] Thomas Marshall, John Smyth, & John 
Sprague, beinge chosen to lay out the country high way betweene 
Reddinge & Winnesemett, do lay it out as followes : from Reddinge 
towne, through Maldon bounds, betwixt the pond & John Smyths land, 
& so by the east side of M r Joseph Hills land, to New Hockley Hole, 
& so in the old way by the Cow Pen, & thence along on the east side 
of Thomas Coytmores lott, by Ele Pond, in the old way, to Thomas 
Lynds land, then through the first feild, & so by the feild by his howse, 
from thence, on the old way, by Maldon meeting howse, through the 

81 Muss. Colony Records, ii. 27 1. 82 Ibid., iii. 274. 

7 



98 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

stony swampe, from the road there vpp betwixt Richard Addams & 
John Vphams lottes, into Charlstowne bounds, through W m Johnsons & 
Richard Dexters land into y e way by the South Springe, & so on the 
south side of Tho Whitamores howse into M r Bellinghams land, into the 
way that goeth to the fferry : the sd way to be fower pole broade, in 
good ground, & six or eight where need requires. 83 

This highway, although many of its landmarks have long 
been forgotten, may still be traced. From Lewis's Bridge to 
Wayte's Mount, passing in a still older way, it was Main Street 
as it now exists, except that it was narrower and more crooked. 
On the hillside by the First Baptist Church it has been widened 
towards the brook by a broad terrace, and many eccentric elbows 
have disappeared. Beyond Wayte's Mount, it turned to the 
eastward, to avoid the meadows, and followed in the Salem Path 
to a point represented on the map of 1885 by the line between 
the land of O. W. Ennis and Forest Dale Cemetery. Here it 
left the Salem Path and ran northerly until it came to the still 
unsettled and rocky hills which cover that section, through which 
it ran with many windings as the ground presented more or less 
difficulties. Here, until they were obliterated by the laying out 
of the cemetery, the traces of the old way were very distinct. 
Although disused for more than a century and a half, its marks 
were seemingly those of yesterday, and the curious pedestrian 
might cross a little brook on a rude stone bridge which served 
the men of 1653. It could be followed with certainty to the 
south-west corner of Wyoming Cemetery ; and it reappeared on 
the north side of Sylvan Street, opposite the north-east entrance 
of the cemetery. Here, in 1894, it Was still clearly defined, 
winding around the eastern side of Boston Rock, where there 
remained a low rough wall laid on the lower side of the road to 
keep the way from washing out. A little farther on it unites 
with a modern street, which occupies the ancient way and is 
known as Linwood Avenue — an unmeaning and pretentious 
title like many others, beneath which are buried older and better 
names. From Linwood Avenue it passed easterly over a portion 
of Lynde Street to Louisburg Square, where the John Lynde 

83 Mass. Colony Records, iii. 330. 



ALLOTMENTS AND SETTLEMENT. 99 

house, a relic of the eighteenth century, long stood beneath its 
magnificent elm. South of this point, Lebanon Street is a 
modern road, 84 but northerly it is the old way to its junction 
with Green Street at Ell Pond, where a common watering and 
fiaxing place long remained until by some means it became 
private property. Beyond Ell Pond, the great road followed 
the present Green Street by a circuitous route, perhaps to pass 
" along on the east side of Thomas Coytmore's lott," to a point 
near its northerly junction with Main Street; thence it followed 
the direction of that street, running mostly east of it until it 
came into Reading bounds. 

South of Pemberton's Brook, the course of the old way is not 
so clear. Whether at first it went directly over Lewis's, or 
Bailey's, Hill to the meeting house at Bell Rock, or passed 
around it, in the old way to the landing-place at Sandy Bank, is 
uncertain j 85 although I am quite sure that a way over the hill 
was in use a few years later. Leaving Bell Rock, it traversed 
the ministry land and passed over the line of the present Cross 
Street near the corner of High Street; from whence it ran up 
the hill to the house of James Green, a portion of which still 
exists, though concealed by a later structure, in the Perkins 
house on Appleton Street. Here some traces of the old way 
were to be seen as lately as 1850. South of the Perkins house 
was the Stony Swamp, a tract of land which has been reclaimed, 
but which formerly showed many traces of its early condition, 
around which the road ran to Bucknam Street at the point where 
it is crossed by Bradford Street. The latter street for a short 
distance eastward is laid over the old way ; and on the higher 
land near by could be seen, forty years ago, an old cellar which 
was once covered by an early home of the Dexters. 86 That 
part of Bucknam Street which lies south of Bradford Street, and 

84 Lebanon Street, from Forest Street afterwards known as Poor House Lane ; 
to Upham Street, was laid out as a town Burying Ground Lane ; Marsh Street, 
way, "from Isaac Upham's house to 1846; and Madison Street. 

John Pratt's house," in 1S39. When 86 This house is said to have been 

the streets were named in 1846, the the birthplace of the eccentric Lord 

whole way from Salem Street was Timothy Dexter. He was son of Nathan 

called Back Street. and Esther (Brintnall) Dexter, and was 

85 The old way to Sandy Bank was born January 22, 174^. 



100 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

was once known as Bucknam's Lane, has nothing of the rural 
beauty which it formerly possessed. From a narrow, winding, 
country way, lined with wild roses and berry bushes, it has be- 
come a broad and straight suburban street; but it is, neverthe- 
less, the old way of 1653, which, passing into Norwood Street, 
found, in Everett Square, once known as Oakes's Corner, the 
"firm trodd way" from James Barrett's house to the South 
Spring. Onward it is all the old way by the South Spring, now 
hidden, and the site of Thomas Whittemore's house until it 
crosses the old Boston line and passing along the lower edge 
of Powder Horn loses itself " into the way that goeth to the 
fferry." 

It appears that the new way was not entirely satisfactory in its 
northern part; and in 1655 the General Court "suspended from 
being made vse of for present" a portion of the " Highway by 
Maulden " until " this Court shall take further order, that so 
. . . present contentions and sujtes of lawe may be prevented." 8T 
Sixteen years later some part of the way near Boston Rock 
became unsettled and was defined by order of the County 
Court. 

This 19 September 71. 

In Order to what the County Court held at Charlestown the of 

June 167 1 who hath Chosen and impowered James grene Josias Con- 
uers and Jonathan Poole to state the hyway now Jn question towards 
Redding nere Ensigne Thomas linds being in his grounds : : we Whos 
names are aboue mentioned do therefore Se Cause to remoue the 
hywaye from where Jt did former ly that Js to say through the Oald 
feld to the place vnder the rocks where the waye now lyes. Witness 
our hands. James Grene 

Josias Conuars 
Jonathan Poole 88 

87 Mass. Colony Records, iv. (i.) 237. 88 Midd. Court Files, October, 1671. 




H ,WM:^ 






CHAPTER IV. 



CHURCH AND TOWN. 

ALL the elements out of which an independent community 
could be made might be found in 1648 on Mystic Side. 
From landowners, merely, men had become planters ; and their 
rude houses, rough and of a temporary character as many of 
them undoubtedly were, might now be found scattered along the 
plains and upon the uplands of the rivers from Moulton's Island 
and the Mystic to the forests around Wayte's Mount and Bos- 
ton Rock. I do not think that settlers had advanced beyond 
the house of Thomas Lynde, above Wayte's Mount, although 
one or two may have gone beyond Ell Pond towards the 
headline, where Thomas Green soon after planted and founded 
the little forest-bound neighborhood of the Greens of the 
Woods. If so, they had met the tide of civilization coming 
from Lynn and settling around the ponds in Reading. There 
is reason to believe that Joseph Hills had built his house, if he 
had not found it already built by Coytmore, at the corner of 
Salem and Main Streets, where his well-known well yielded 
its cooling draughts to man and beast until 1894. His son-in- 



102 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

law, John Wayte, who soon after added to his grant of eight 
acres portions of the Coytmore lands, may have built his house 
farther north, where he died, at the foot of the rock which bears 
his name. 

On the highland, since known as Bailey's Hill, John Lewis 
had settled on his five-acre lot " in y e common field," and given 
his name to the bridge at its foot, which it retained until within 
a few years, when the brook lost its ancient character and the 
passage beneath the street became a culvert. Not far from 
Lewis, in the vicinity of Bell Rock or farther south, beyond the 
meadow, on Green's Hill, was William Brackenbury, a promi- 
nent man, who is 

ryp'&^vC* 02L?<*&Q^C\asW supposed to have 

been one of the 
earliest to plant on the banks of the North River. The improb- 
able tradition " that he occupied what is known as the Russell 
[Nowell] farm," 1 owes its origin, perhaps, to his ownership of 
land adjoining the Wilson grant. 

. On the highlands near Sandy Bank, where land was reserved 
for a landing place and a burying ground, a few families had 
settled, the first of those who advanced into the country towards 
the head of the North River. Traces of habitation might be 
found there within my memory, and a few hardy flowers, first 
planted by hands that were long ago folded and forgotten, still 
lingered around the hollows that alone remained of those early 
homes. Farther east on Green's Hill, James Green had built 
on the Graves lot the house of which a portion, as has been 
mentioned, is still standing on Appleton Street. Far south of 
Sandy Bank in the easterly vicinity of the North Spring, we may 
place Rowland Lahorne and his Sabbath-breaking wife, Flora, 
with their " House having a cubbord and Bedstead in it; " 2 
and near by was Philip Atwood's house and garden. The 
Bucknams had not yet settled near Willoughby's lot in John- 
son's Plain ; but Edward Carrington had apparently built on 
his land near by, which, having received additions, he afterwards 
described as " all that is mine or that may be called mine on 

1 Bi-Centennial Book of Maiden, 239. 2 Midd. Court Files, xi. 10. 



CHURCH AND TOWN. 



103 



Mistick side from the Pennie ferry to Lewises Bridge." 3 This 
land, descending to his son-in-law, Stephen Paine, was long 
known as the Paine farm, more recently as the Simon Tufts 
farm. Of the two ancient houses formerly standing upon this 
farm, one of which has recently been demolished, that which 
may still be seen beneath the hill by the side of Main Street, 
south of Winthrop Street, in Everett, was the elder, and was 
probably built by Edward Carrington. The other house, upon 
the hill above it, was built by the Paines. 




William Sargeant, a haberdasher and a preacher, who is de- 
scribed by Edward Johnson as a " godly Christian," was upon 
the pleasant highland in Everett which long bore his name, 
but which has since been known as Nelson's Hill from a 
later resident, the Rev. Ebenezer Nelson of the First Baptist 
Church ; and James Barrett, with his house at the present cor- 
ner of Main and School Streets, has been mentioned. At 
Moulton's Island and upon the highlands above we have seen 
Thomas Moulton and his neighbors, John Greenland and George 

3 Carrington's Will, 1684, Midd. Pro- in this chapter. In that of the Paine- 
bate Files, in loco. Views of the two Tufts house, the roof of the other is 
houses mentioned in the text are given seen over the hill. 



104 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Felt, and the other petitioners of 1640; and it is very probable 
that Seth Sweetser had early crossed the Mystic as a settler, 
landing at Wormwood Point, which became his place of habita- 
tion and received his name. Others may be located as inhab- 
itants of Mystic Side with a degree of certainty, and of others 
the presence as sojourners can only be ascertained. 

It has been seen that the land which was reserved for those 
who came with another minister had been diverted from its 
original purpose; but it is probable that it was intended from 
the first that a church should be formed on Mystic Side when it 
had received a sufficient number of inhabitants. 

Meanwhile, the settlers had formed a part of the church of 
Charlestown, from which they received the ordinances and to 
which they carried their infants for baptism. The distance and 
the difficulties which lay between their homes and the meeting- 
house across the wide river were great, and in the winter season 
must have been all but insurmountable, save to the strongest. 
What time the new church was formed and the circumstances 
which attended it are alike uncertain. It was a small gathering 
and in some respects a most forlorn one; for while the fathers 
may have been rich in spiritual gifts, in material means they 
were poor indeed. Religious services may have been held on 
Mystic Side and some steps taken towards a church organiza- 
tion in 1648, under which date John Josselyn wrote, "A Church 
gathered at Maiden Mr. Sarjant pastor ;" 4 and Edward Johnson 
says : — 

About this time the Town of Maiden had his first foundation stones 
laid by certain persons, who issued out of Charles-Town, and indeed 
had her whole structure within the bounds of this more elder Town, 
being severed by the broad ipreading river of Mistick the one from the 
other, whose troublesome passage caused the people on the North side 
of the river to plead for Town-priviledges within themselves, which 
accordingly was granted them; the soyl is very firtile, but they are 
much straitned in their bounds, yet their neerness to the chief Mar- 
ket Towns, makes it the more comfortable for habitation, the people 
gathered into a Church some distance of time before they could attain 
to any Church-Officer to administer the Seals unto them, yet in the 

4 Josselyn, Two Voyages to Neiu England, 264. 



CHURCH AND TOWN. 



105 



mean time at their Sabbath assemblies they had a godly Christian 
named M. Sarjant, who did preach the Word unto them, and after- 
wards they were supplied at times with some young Students from the 
Colledg. 5 

That the gathering of the church was not accomplished with- 
out difficulties and, perhaps, some irregularities, is indicated by 
events which will be considered elsewhere. That they " treated " 
with several clergymen without success is known. Michael 
Wigglesworth wrote in 1658: — 

Consider how long y e hand of y e Almighty hath been stretched out 
. . . frustrating yo r endeavo r s after one, crossing & disappointing yo r 
hopes in anoth r , & it may be in a third, keeping you with in a forlorn 
condition, & altogeth without a minister, or at an uncertain pass with- 
out an officer; so y l it was long before you enjoyed Christ in all his 
ordina n ces. 6 

The M. Sarjant of Johnson was William Sargeant, who has 
already been mentioned, a lay -^ 

preacher and a ruling elder of J$fQl$fd §Wu**i#* 
the church, who led in religious O 

services and exhortation, but was not allowed by ordination to 
perform the rite of baptism and to administer the sacramental 
bread and wine." Joseph Hills is also mentioned as a ruling 
elder soon after. 8 



5 Johnson, Wonder-working Provi- 
dence, 211. 

6 Mass. Hist. So. Proc, May, 1871, 94. 

7 " [November 14, 1639.] William 
Sergeant late of Northampton haber- 
dasher of Hatts and now of Charlestown 
in New England planter & Sarah his 
wife late the wife of William Minshall 
of Whitchurch in the County of Salop 
gent. Deceased, are both blessed be 
God in full life & good health at the 
time of the making hereof." Lechford, 
Note- Book, 137. 

Extensive researches of John S. Sar- 
gent of Chicago, the results of which 
were generously placed in my hands for 
use long ago, and which have since been 
given in full in Sargent, Sargent Geneal- 
ogy, show the social position and descent 
of this "godly Christian." Hugh Sar- 
geant, of Courtenhall, Northampton- 
shire, gent., was born about 1535 and 
died February 23, 159?^. His wife was 



Margaret Gyfford. Their son, Roger, 
maried Ellen Marcharmes of Finedon, 
January 3, is 8 '/^. He was a linendraper 
and mercer at Northampton and was 
mayor of that city in 1626. His wife 
was buried, October 21, 1645; an ^ he 
was buried, July 16, 1649. William was 
the seventh child of Roger and Ellen, 
and was baptized at Northampton, 
June 20, 1602. He became a freeman 
and married, (1) Hannah; (2) Marie; 
(3) Sarah, widow of William Minshall. 
He came to New England in 163S and 
was admitted to the church at Charles- 
town, March 10, 163%. 

Elder Sargeant removed to Barn- 
stable in, or prior to, 1658, being made a 
freeman of Plymouth Colony in that 
year. He died, December 16, 1682, 
leaving his Maiden lands to his eldest 
son John, who became the ancestor of a 
numerous progeny. 

8 Midd. Court Files, ii. \6\. 



Io6 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

The gathering of the church was the beginning of political 
life, for in it lay the roots of all secular as well as ecclesiastical 
authority. Out of it came the town and the state ; and on its 
usages were based the usages and forms of primary assemblies, 
elections, and courts. Church members were the only freemen 
of the Colony. As early as 1631 the Court ordered: — 

To the end the body of the commons may be p r serued of honest and 
good men, it was . . . ordered and agreed that for time to come noe 
man shalbe admitted to the freedome of this body polliticke, but such as 
are members of some of the churches within the lymitts of the same. 9 

They alone could vote in town and colony affairs and hold 
office. Nor could they avoid the privileges which were con- 
ferred upon them; for it was ordered, "concerning members 
that refuse to take their freedom, the churches should bee writ 
unto, to deale w th them." 10 They who had taken the residents' 
oath might hold lands and become members of " any trayned 
band ; " but, although they might vote for such officers, they 
could not become " captaines, or other inferio r officers . . . for 
it is the intent & order of the Court that no person shall hence- 
fourth bee chosen to any office in the commonwealth but such 
as is a freeman." u 

Having then the beginnings of municipal existence, measures 
of separation were soon taken by the freemen of Mystic Side. 
An apparently misplaced leaf in the Charlestown Records bears 
an agreement, which must have been written in 1648. It con- 
tains the first intimation of a division; although it is not clear 
that the intention was not to settle the bounds as between two 
churches for the purpose of laying ministerial rates rather than 
to found a new town. The names of the signers, as they are 
the first to appear in this connection, may be considered as 
those of the fathers of Maiden. 

Wee whose names are heer vnder written weighing w th our selus 
what may most promote the glory of God, and conduce to the increase 
of brotherly Love and Peace : wee according to the Churches aduice 
are willing to Suspend o r gathering till next third day a month certaine 
in which tyme we alsoe promise to apply our selus to the setling of the 

9 Mass. Colony Records, i. 87. 10 Ibid., ii. 38. u Ibid., i. 188. 



CHURCH AND TOWN. \OJ 

bounds betwixt the town and vs : and if wee and their Agents cannot 
agree it, we agree to chuse twoo or three men for each partie to doe it 
Joseph Hill[s] James Greene 

Ralph Sprague Abraham Hill 

Edward Carrington Thomas Osborne 

Thomas Squire John Lewis 

John Waite Thomas Caule 1 ' 2 

It is probable that this document contains the names of all, 
or nearly all, the male members of the infant church. How 
long a delay occurred cannot be ascertained ; but on the first 
day of January, 164S9, the inhabitants of Charlestown chose a 
committee 

to meet with the 3 chosen brethren on Mistike Syde ... to 
confer with them about the bounds of the land and division therof 
between vs and them and all particular cases pertaining theretoo, And 
to give report therof vnto the Generall towne at the next publike 
meeting of the towne. 13 

There are two copies of the result of the work of the commit- 
tees ; one in the Charlestown Records ; and a second in the 
Middlesex Registry of Deeds, put upon record, January 4, 
i6g/4, from a defaced original, which was apparently the copy 
of the agreement which was retained by the Maiden committee. 
I print the preamble to the Maiden copy and the whole of the 
Charlestown copy that both may be preserved. 

Charlestowne & Mistickside. Agreement respec? their Bounds Viz 1 . 

Rich d Sprague Ralph Mousall W m Stilson & Robert Halle were De- 
puted and Authorized by & on y e behalfe of the Jnhabitants of Charles- 
towne on y e one part as by a certain writing bearing date y e 26 day of 
y e first m°: 1649, agreed in a publick Town meeting doth appear, And 
Will? Sergeant. Jo s Hills Ralph Sprague & Edward Carrington were like 
wise Deputed and authorized by and on y e behalfe of the Jnhabitants of 
Mistick Side on y e other part as also by a writing dated y e last of y e i s . 1 
m? 49 : agreed at a publick meeting of theire said Jnhabitants [as] doth 
also appear to agree and settle the bounds both of Jmpropriate and 
Common Ground betwixt y e Jnhabitants of Charlestowne and y e Jn- 
habitants of Mistickside. Jt is agreed and Concluded by y e Commis- 
sioners for both parts as followeth That in Consideration the brethren 
on Mistick side are by the Providence of God shortly to go into a 

12 Charlestown Archives, xix. 23. ls Ibid., in loco. 



I08 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Church Estate by them selues, and for y e more Comfortable proceed- 
ing, and Carrying on of that worke of Christ amongst them Jt is granted 
and hereby agreed, that all y e Land both Allottments and Common on 
y e north side of the High way from y e written tree, &c. 

A True Coppy of the Propositions concluded bettweene us the In- 
habitants of Charlestowne who were appointed Commission? heerein 
by yf whole Towne : And of brethren on Mistickside (or Maulden) who 
were appointed Commissio r . s by theire whole Towne heerein the seaven- 
teenth day of the second month, (or Aprill) 1649. 

To y e end the Worke of Christ, & the things of his house there in 
hand may bee the more Comfortably carryed on. It is agreed as fol- 
loweth. 

i st . That all the Land both Allottments & Common on yf North East 
side of yf Highway from [the] Written Tree to the Bound Marke bet- 
twixt M r Nowells & M T . Cradducks ffarmes, & so besides Meadford ffarme 
& Wobourne, & thence to Readding [to Charlestowne] head Line & 
[so] to the written Tree are to bee measured at the Joynt charge of 
both parties, after the allowances made to [some] Wobourne men [as 
y Committee in that thing shall determine] & [also to] Meadford ffarme, 
as the Court shall determine, then the rest to be equally devided ; bet- 
twixt the Towne & mistickside y p Bounds to beginn at [Stcphen~\ ffosdicks 
Southwest Corner. 14 

2ly : That all the Timber & Wood behind Leiften nt [Ralph] 
Spragues Lott & the rest of y e . Lotts within Spott Pond Brooke riming 
to the Mill shalbee & remaine to the use of Charlestowne over & above 
all y! within theire Line [of Common, Excepting] & [alwaies reserved'] 
for the use of the [Mistick side] Inhabit 1 "" within [y Compass qf~\ y e s d 
Brook & no other [from- such time as f partition aforesaid is settled.] 

-ly : That M r Joseph Hills sixty Acre Lott, & M r . [William] 
Serieants forty Acre Lott to bee deducted also out of Mistickside's p r por- 
tion of Common, & y! for Partition of Townes [touching Jmpropriated 
Lands,] the Line shall runne from the uttmost head Corner of Thomas 
Whittamores five Acre Lott (some time M r . Nowells) on the head of 
the five Acre Lotts, to M* [ William] Serieants garden, & along by his 
fence till it comes on A straite Line with Rich d Pratts Northside Line, 
& so upon the same Line to y' North River. 

14 Fosdick's lot was the last but one Corner, to the mark between Nowell and 

in the allotment towards the common Cradock was the Salem Path ; and a 

between Cradock's grant, or Medford, division of the lands north of it to Read- 

and the lands of Mystic Side. As has ing line, as provided in this article, fixed 

been stated, it was afterwards occupied the western line of Maiden through the 

by the Maiden Alms House. The high- Middlesex Fells to Smith's Pond, 
way from the written-tree, at Black Ann's 



CHURCH AND TOWN. 109 

4ly : That the Inhabit"'! without the [said'] Line shall have Liberty 
to water theire Cattle at the North Spring after Havest time p r vided 
they damage no mans Meadow or Corne [notwithstanding any fence 
that may be erected.] 

5ly : That Mf Wilsons & Mf Nowells ffarmes shall remaine to 
Charlstown. 

61y : That the Inhabit" 15 on Mistickside shall beare A p r portion of 
y e . Charges imposed on Charlstowne touching y* Castle as form r ly they 
have done, dureing the p r sent engagem' 

7ly : That the Inhabit" 1 ' of Mistickeside shall beare theire p r portion 
of all Towne charges propper to the Towne in gen" to this day. 

S ly . That the Inhabit"'' of Mistickside shall beare A p r portion of yf 
Charge of the Battery in Charlstowne as formerly forever, unlesse the 
Towne see cause to slight it : 

o' y . All the Inhabit"'? on Mistickside now resident to Common 
theire Cattle with them, but if any oth r shall settle henceforth w' h in the 
Towne Line they are heereby exempted Commonage with them on 
Mistickside. 

io' y ffor farthf Incouragem' of y e . worke affores d wee acquitt the 
Inhabit"' 5 , within the Line of Charlstowne from Church charges, for 
three yeares next ensueing & noe more. 

n ly . for the Common ground on Mistickside bettwixt the fferry and 
the Mill Bridge, after Sufficient Landing places at sandy Banck, & A 
burying place also there [Excepted :] Also it shalbee at the disposeing 
of Charlstowne to sattisfy Highwaies, & answ r Just engagem' 5 bettwixt 
the fferry & the Mill Bridge. 

i2 ly . And if Charlstowne p r portion of Commons shall need High- 
waies & Landing places out of y e . Proportion of Mistickside it is heereby 
granted them, & concluded on : wittness o r hands the day & yeare 
aboves d 

The Comissio rs The Comissio rs 

names for for Mistickside 

Charlstowne were were 

Rich" Russell W m Serieant 

FFRA? WlLLOUGHBY JOSEPH HlLL[sJ 

Rich d Sprague Ralph Sprague 

Ralph Mousall Edw d Carrington 

\V M Stilson 
Ro-bt Hale 

Memorand it was agreed by the Committe within mentioned before the 
signement by the whol Committe in referrence to the sixth [1 i th .] Article 
y l . the two landing places at Sandy Banck shalbe divided in this man- 
ner namely the uper banck at the Tree formerly apportioned & marked 



110 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

by Ralph Mousall, Robert Hale & Joseph Hills. The lower in the 
middle of the Land by A just measure betwixt William Brankenbury 
and the marsh ground. And that the halfe part next William Bracken- 
bury 5 & y' part above the Tree at the uper place shalbe and remain in 
proprietie unto the towne of Maldon for ever; And the other two parts 
shalbe & remaine in proprietie unto the use of Charlestowne for ever 
provided that no part of the Land behinde the said Landing places, 
namely bounded by the said Ralph Mousell, Robert Hale and Joseph 
Hills be no time disposed to any other use but for landing & laying of 
Wood, Timber, fframe 5 of house 5 , hay & other things, nor to hinder 
highwaye 5 for the use of each Towne : Also to the Seventh [9^] Article 
it is Agreed y* it be understood & intended to give interest in the Com- 
mon of Maldon for Timber, Wood & Cattle to the Inhabitants now 
resident and to their naturall Children y 4 Shall hereafter live in any of 
the house 5 of the present Inhabitants or upon the land belonging to 
them provided the number of dwelling house 5 be no time more than are 
now extant there. 

And for a cleer determination of the Eight [6 11 !] Article touching the 
Castle it is agreed y l the proportion for Maldon shall be A ninth part 
of the charge thereof dureing the present Engagement as is expressed. 
Also to the Eleventh [12 th ] Article it is agreed that the Commons of 
Charlestown shall have need full highwaye 5 through proprietie 5 as well 
as the common ground in Maldon. Also it is agreed y l where ever the 
word Mistickside is mentioned for distinction from Charlestown it is 
intended & shall henceforth be understood to denominate the town of 
Maldon. Witness our hands the fourth of the fourth month, one Thous- 
and Six hundred ffifty one. 

Joseph Hills In the presence of 

William Sergeant James Garett 

John Wayte being chosen John Uppame 

in the Roome of Lieut Sprague 
Edward Carrington 

Touching the Alowance for Meadford farme mentioned in the first 
Article. It is agreed & concluded by the Commissi" 5 here under 
written that there shalbe deducted out of y e tract of land mentioned in 
the said Article. One hundred twenty five Acre 9 of Land before y e line 
of divission betwixt the two Towne 5 Common 5 . 

Stephen Pain aged fifty Eight years or thereabouts doth testifie and 
say that this Jnstrument here produced was seen by y e abouesaid p r son 
w th the names of the Committee men to it, before they were defaced, 
and that they were Subscribed by y e Clerk of a True Coppie, w th y e pri- 
viledged Housen that belongs to Maldin common for Timber, Wood & 



CHURCH AND TOWN. Ill 

Cattle, namely Edward Carrington & Thomas Molton, James Pemmer- 
ton, Richard Dexter, John Greenland, James Barrett, and severall other 
{families, that he can & doth Attest to : 

Xb r : 29: 1691 : Charlestowne : 
At y e Adjournm 1 of y e Court 
Sworn Jn Court by Stephen Pain 
Att s Sam": Phipps Cler 

John Pratt aged 35 years or thereabouts testifieth and said, that 
these articles concerning y e p r viledge housen on mistick side, that haue 
pViledge in Maldon common, for Timber wood and Cattle, w th y e names 
of severall houses, as Edward Carrington, Richard Dexter, James Bar- 
rett, and severall others, this was brought to me to convince me that J 
had no priviledge in maldon common, because J was a Tennant, and 
not an heire of that J lived on & further saith not : 

\Swom to as above, ,] 15 

Having made a definite and, apparently, an amicable agree- 
ment with their Charlestown brethren, the men of Mystic Side 
now carried their petition to the Court; and the following 
entries on the records of the Colony, indicating the action of 
the Council and the consent of the Deputies, form the simple 
act of incorporation under which the town of Maiden existed 
for two hundred and thirty-three years. 

1-1649:-! Upon the petition of Mistick side men, they are 

Midori granted to be a distinct towne, & the name thereof to 

be called Mauldon. 

r 1649: "| In answer to the petition of seu r ll inhabitants of 

Misticke Misticke side, their request is graunted, viz., to be a 
named distinct toune of themselves, & the name thereof to 
be Maulden. 16 



Maulden. 



15 The first part of this document, to ment as it was understood by the inhabi- 

" A True Coppy of the Propositions," is tants of the two sections, 

from the Maiden copy, Midd. Co. Deeds, 16 Mass. Colony Records, ii. 274 ; iii. 

xi. 83. The second part, to " Memorand 162. The next year the town was granted 

it was agreed," is from the Charlestown a brand mark. 

copy, Charlestown Archives, xx. 151, 153, "[1650 23 May.] Maldons marke. 

with additions, in italics, from the Mai- Vppon the request of the inhabitants 

den copy. The " Memorand," following of Maldon, the Court hath appoynted 

the names of the commissioners, is from that : M_ : shalbe the brand-marke for 

Charlestown Records, v. 5. The affidavits theire towne." Mass. Colony Records, iii. 

of Paine and Pratt are recorded with the 188. 

Maiden copy, Midd. Co. Deeds, xi. 83. It will be observed that in the record 

William Mellins, " aged 21 years or there of the Council the new town is given its 

about," testified to the same effect, proper name of Maldon, which it does 

This collation must give the full agree- not receive in the Deputies' record. Its 



112 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



The financial settlement between the towns is the subject of 
at least two entries in the Charlestown Records: — 

That w c ! 1 o r Brethren of Maulden are to allow theire p r portion of to 

this Towne for Debts oweing when they went from us : vizt 
oweing to the Cap tn of the Castle when or brethren 

went away 22:2:11 

To Mr Long for diett 5:6:4 

To Mf Mellows 15:0:0 

To Wido: Rand 10:8:0 

To M r Nowell for a man at Castle 2:10:0 

To Laurance Dowce 6:0:0 

To goo: Tedd 6:4:0 

To ffoxes & Wolves 9:0:0 

To M 1 . Norton for charge about yl Castle 6:0:0 

To A Petition about Meadford 0:10:0 

To o r Eld r . s allowances 4:0:0 



To the Trayning place 20:0:0 

To Cap m Davenpord from the 9: month 1648 to the 

ffifte moneth 1650 31:4:0 

The bills w c . h are paid to Charlstowne by o r . brethr: of Maiden since 
the 10: of the X: month 1653 when was due to Chads Towne from 
y*: Towne of Maulden thirty five Pounds thirteene shillings 

Imprimis paid to bro: Pentecost 

paid by A bill to bro: Stilson 

paid by A bill to Rowse & Morley 1 2 Cord of Wood 
paid to Welch 1 2 Cord of Wood & in A bill . . 

paid 1 6 bush". 5 of Turneps at 1 6 d 

paid by knower 39^ bush lls of Indian Corne . . 

paid by knower in Tobacco . 

paid to Robt Hale in Cord Wood 

The 14 : of y* xj : 1655 17 





li 


s 


d 




: 


19: 











1 1 




2 : 


14: 







4 = 


1 : 


7 




1 : 


1 : 


4 




4: 


10 : 


5 




: 


1 2 : 


4 




10 : 


t2 : 


6 




2 5' 


12 : 


1 



origin in the name of the English town 
has been noticed. Although the form, 
Maiden, was used and perhaps generally 
so, from the beginning, the usage of many 
of the best informed and more careful 
people favored Maldon. Deacon John 
• Shute, who was town clerk for thirty-six 
years, and who was one of the most 
careful of scribes, employed the incor- 
rect form in the earlier portion of his 



term; but in 1743 he adopted the other 
and invariably used it thereafter in his 
records. When he closed his books and 
his term at the annual town meeting, 
March 6, 1769, Maldon departed from 
the records. The propriety of placing 
it, in memoriam, upon the town seal was 
once considered, but the proposition met 
with little favor and no success. 

17 Charlestown Archives, xx. 180, 186. 



CHURCH AND TOWN. 1 13 

The line between the two towns, on the southerly side of 
Maiden, ran from the head of the five-acre lots near Powder 
Horn Hill north-westerly to the North River, which it appears 
to have met near Sandy Bank. This division left to Charles- 
town the territory now occupied by the south-western portion 
of Everett, which retained the old name of Mystic Side, and its 
inhabitants were known as "our Charlestown neighbors." 
Practically, they were a part of the new town, having their 
religious and social privileges with its inhabitants, and burying 
their dead in its graveyard at Sandy Bank. 

Not unlike the people of Mystic Side, in relation to Maiden, 
were the planters in that section of Charlestown which lay along 
the western banks of the North River and Three Mile Brook, 
separating Maiden from Medford for many years, and many of 
those who had settled at Winnisimmet and Rumney Marsh and 
on that narrow and peculiar strip of six hundred acres which 
began at Bride's Brook, near Black Ann's Corner, and ran along 
the eastern side of Maiden to the Reading line. These, like the 
Charlestown neighbors of Mystic Side, worshipped, married, and 
were buried with the Maiden people. So intimate were their 
relations that it is sometimes difficult to separate them from 
their Maiden neighbors ; and the names of Floyd, Breeden, 
Boardman, Blanchard, and Tufts, although the names of settlers 
beyond the proper bounds of Maiden and Mystic Side, may 
become as familiar to the Maiden antiquary as those of Wayte 
and Hill, or Upham and Green. Some of the few inhabitants 
of Medford, who were without a meeting house until 1696, were 
also members of the Maiden congregation, if not of the church. 

A vivid impression of the scattered condition of the popula- 
tion of Middlesex and a part of Suffolk in 1649 ma Y De gained 
if it can be realized that the little church of Maiden, with hardly 
more than a score of members, stood alone in the midst of the 
" uncouth wilderness," which stretched from the Mystic to 
Reading and Woburn, and from the Abousett and the sea to the 
frontier settlement and church at Concord. 18 

18 The year 1649 was rendered mem- land by the deaths of John Winthrop and 
orable in the annals of early New Eng- Thomas Shepard, and by "innumerable 

8 



114 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

There are no records of the town before 1678. A "first town 
book" was in existence in 1701, but no member of the living 
generations ever saw it. 19 In its absence the perplexed anti- 
quary must gather from widely scattered sources the story of 
the birth of the town and its early years of growth. The 
authorities are documents and records, often indefinite and 
unsatisfactory — papers made for a purpose soon past, and not 
intended to convey information to a distant age; but in the 
vagueness and uncertainty of the light which they shed we may 
see a sparse and sturdy population, ever working and praying 
amid discouragements and fears, overcoming a wilderness and 
laying deep the foundations of the institutions we enjoy. 

Of the acts of the town in its first essays at self-government 
we know but little. Joseph Hills, who had already served as 
Speaker of the House of Deputies, was chosen deputy, or 
representative to the General Court at the first election. John 
Wayte appears as clerk of the writs, filling the place of a town 
clerk at a time when that office did not exist by name; 20 and 
Thomas Squire, John Upham, William Brackenbury, John 
Wayte, and Thomas Call, appear in 165 1 as the first board of 
Selectmen of which we have knowledge. At the same time, 
Richard Adams filled the not unimportant office of constable. 

If the record of the early years of the town could be read, we 
would find that those were the days of small things. But small 
as they might seem to us, these things were of the utmost 
importance to our fathers. Regulations for the fencing of 
common lands against private grounds, the adjustment of 
indefinite bounds, the settling of highways and townways, the 
care of the flocks and herds by public shepherds or herdsmen, 

hosts of catterpillars, which destroyed the 19 It is mentioned as "y e first Town 

fruits of the earth, in divers places, and book " in the report of a committee on 

did eat off the leaves of trees, so as they " y e Country Rhoads," recorded in the 

looked as bare as if it had been winter; Town records in 1701. The missing 

and in some places did eat the leaves volume was advertised in 1862 and a 

from off the pease straw, and did not eat liberal reward offered for its recovery, 

the pease." This was followed the next 20 The duties of a clerk of the writs 

year by a great mortality among children, and the gradual merging of the office in 

and by " new diseases the fruits of new that of the town clerk are noticed in the 

sins." Morton, New- England's Memo- chapter on town officers. Captain John 

rial, [1826] 144, 146. Wayte held the office from 1649 to 16S4. 



CHURCH AND TOWN. 115 

the hanging of gates across public ways, and like matters were 
the staples which formed the fabric of town business. Mixed 
with it all was the care which maintained church privileges and 
fostered the school, that through ignorance the cause of religion 
might not decline. 21 

Having a church and a town government, the people of Maiden 
waited not long for another accompaniment of English popula- 
tions, as is shown in the following petition : — 

To the hon r d Cortfor the counti of Midlesex Wee whose names are 
herunder written doe well App r ue Thomas Skinner for Keeping An ordi- 
nary for the Accomodation of Travellers & such like accasions : humbly 
desiring he may by you be licenced herunto for our Town of 
Maldon 22 : 1 : m°. 1651 : 

Thomas Squire 



Jo. Vppam 
Will Brakenbury 
Jo. Wayte 
Tho. Call 



Selectmen 

Richard Adams Const. 22 



John Hathorne, however, who had come to Maiden from 
Salem, and whose action as a witness in the Matthews troubles 
apparently gained him the favor of the authorities as well as the 
displeasure of his neighbors, received the appointment from the 
General Court to which he had petitioned. 

P651 : i n ans r t t ne petition of John Hawthorne, this Courte 

L23 May. J .... l J . .... ., 

judgeth it meete to encourage and appointe him, the sajd 

John Hawthorne, to goe on and keepe the ordjnary at Maiden. 23 

It may be presumed that the ire of the Maiden people was 
visited upon their offending townsman, for his business does not 
seem to have prospered and he remained here but a short time. 
As early as during the succeeding November he removed to 
Lynn, where he was guilty of practices which received the atten- 

21 A Puritanic reason, but a good and and Corrupted with false closses of deceiv- 

righteous one. Said the law-givers : — ers, to the end therefore that learning may 

" // being one chief project of Sathan not be Buried in the graves of our fore- 

to keep Men from the knoivledg of the fathers in Church dr» Commonwealth, the 

Scripture, as informer times keeping them Lord attesting our endeavours. It is there- 

iu unknown tongues, so in these Latter fore Ordered etc." Lawes and Liberties, 

times by perswading from the use of [1660] 70. 

tongues that so at least the true sence and 22 Midd. Court Files, i. II. 

meaning of the Origi nail might be Clouded 23 Mass. Colony Records, 4 (i.) 47. 



Il6 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

tion of the General Court. 24 The next year the following 
record appears : — 

P^m 1 ^ n ansr t0 t ^ e P et ^ on °f tne inhabitants of Maiden, the 
Courte doth graunt libertje and licence to Thomas Skinner 
to keepe an ordinary there, in the roome and stead of John Hawthorne, 
who was formerly licensed there. 25 

Later the selectmen asked and received a broader license for 
" our Bro r ," as is shown in the following petition and reply : — 

To the hon r d Court 
Wee whose Names are vnderwritten, Desyre that our Bro r Thomas 
Skinner, may be lycenced to sell Strong waters And Wine to Supplie 
the necessitys of the Towne, and Travellers, paying the Accustomed 
fees. John Vppam 

Will Brakenburv 
Maiden 30* of Tho 5 ! Green \ selectmen.™ 

y^ 10 th mo 1653 Joh Sprague 

Joh. Wayte 

[3. (n) 1653.] Vpon the request of the Select Men of Mauldon, 
This Court doth grant Licence vnto Tho: Skinner to retale strong 
waters in there Towne. 27 

As Thomas Call was the first beer seller of Mystic Side, so to 
Thomas Skinner belongs the doubtful honor of being the first 
recorded dealer in " strong waters" in Maiden. Although the 
latter remained in life and in Maiden until 1704, he appears 
to have soon retired from the "Ordjnarie" business. The 
following petition lies in the Court files : — 

To the honoured Court at Charlet . 16. 4" 1 m°. 1657: The Town 
of Maldon being destitute of An Ordinarie keeper for Accomodating 
the Town and Countrie. Jt is the desire of the Selectmen of the sayd 
Town : that A Bro' of the Church there : namely Abraham Hill may 
by this Court be licenced to keep an Ordinarie there. As Allso to 
draw wine for the better Accomodating both the Church and Countrie 

Joh Wayte 
The Court consents John Sprague 

hereto 23. 4. 1657. John Vphame 

Tho: Danforth Record* Will Brakenbury 28 

24 He was a brother of Major William 25 Mass. Colony Records, iv. (i.) 89. 

Hathorne of .Salem, whose abilities and 26 Midd. Court Files, i. 15. 

services rendered him prominent in the 27 Midd, Court Records, i. 48. 

infant state. For the offences of the 28 Midd. Court Files, vi. 27. Abra- 

Malden inn-holder at Lynn, see Mass. ham Hill was "tennent and keeper of 

Colony Records, iii. 299 ; iv. (i.) 134. y e corn-mill" on the Coytmore property; 



CHURCH AND TOWN. WJ 

A similar petition, made two years later, is worthy of repro- 
duction for the information which it may give us in its final 
clause. 

Jt is the Request of the Select men of Maldon to the hon r d Court at 
Cambridge that Abr. Hill may be lycenced to sell strong liquo r s in the 
s d Tovvne for the necessary supply of Travelled as allso for the Inhabit- 
ants that p r sons may be p r vented from keeping such quantities in their 
priuate Houses, the abuse whereof haue proued of uery euill conse- 
quence. 
5": 2'"° 1659: John Vppam 

WlLLM BRAKENBURIE 

John Sprague 
Tho* Green 
John Wayte 29 

The house of Abraham Hill was on the easterly side of the 
Great Road, near its junction with the Medford Road, which, at 
first, was merely the way to the mill. The bridge by which the 
latter road crossed the Three Mile Brook, the Mill Bridge of 
1649, was early known as Hill's Bridge and so remained until 
recent years. After the death of Abraham Hill, his widow, 
Sarah — herself the daughter of an innkeeper, Robert Long of 
Charlestown — kept the ordinary until 1679, when she was suc- 
ceeded by her son Jacob. 

It has been seen that the early innkeepers were licensed to 
sell wine and strong drinks. The evils of license were not long 
in appearing. Drunkenness was of frequent occurrence and 
many sins which drunkenness might often incite were not un- 
known. As a remedy the County Court passed the following 
order: — 

and his house stood on that portion of City Hall which was later known as 
the Coytmore land which had come into Hill's Tavern. The early house must 
his possession by some unrecorded pur- have been farther south, I think, some- 
chase. All the land west of the easterly where between the present Irving Street 
line of the High School land, between and Harvell's Brook. 
Salem and Main Streets and the brook 29 Midd. Court Files, viii. 2. Licenses 
at the railroad, was included in this were granted for one year only by the 
parcel, and remained many years in County Court, upon the " Approbation 
the possession of the Hill family. The of the Selected Townsmen." Lawes 
house which became the tavern in 1657 and Liberties, [1660.] 43, 46. 
was not that house on the site of the 



I IS HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

[October 4, 1659.] This Court doth order y' all y e inkeepers 
within the limitts of this Coun. shall henceforth be p r hibited selling of 
strong waters by retaile. 30 

I think this prohibition must have been soon withdrawn, or, 
like many Court orders, it fell into disuse. Licensed sales of 
spirits and the milder forms of intoxicating drinks were allowed 
by the colonial law, but they were strictly guarded. Samuel 
Sprague of Maiden was fined twenty shillings and costs, in 
1672, for " retayleing cider without license, & at vnreasonable 
times enterteyneing persons in his family." 31 

Our forebears in their early essays at government showed at 
times a disregard of their civil obligations that gained the atten- 
tion of the County Court. It was a grievous neglect of duty 
that caused the following entry in the records of the Court: — 
"4. 8 rao 1653: Mauldon for deffect in stocks is fined five shil- 
lings." 32 Nor was that much less in 1655, when the town was 
presented for the lack of scales and weights. 33 In 1658 de- 
fective ways called the selectmen to answer to the Court, and 
in due time the offence was condoned. Whether it may have 
been from inability to meet the requirements of the law or a 
thoughtless neglect, many times did the selectmen, or a special 
committee, have to wend their weary ways to Cambridge or to 
Charlestown to appease the wrath of the Court, escaping some- 
times by a confession of guilt and a promise of better care; 
meeting sometimes a fine, the burden of which must have been 
harder to bear than threats or reprimands. 

Nor were these shortcomings confined to the people in their 
corporate capacity; for their social and private matters fur- 
nished a plentiful harvest of suits and " small causes," which 
must have kept the little town in a fever of excitement from one 
year's end to another. Breaches of morals and minor lapses 
from duty or rectitude were not infrequent. While these 
things are sometimes whimsical, seen through the quaintness of 
the records which have preserved them, they are sometimes of 
a darker nature. Whether whimsical or sad, they prove, always, 

80 Midd. Court Records, i. 191. 82 Ibid., i. 45. 

81 Ibid., iii. 34. ** Midd. Court Files, x. 2. 



CHURCH AND TOWN. 119 

that the much lauded virtue of those early days was in its weaker 
moments no better than its sister of to-day. A few cases may 
be cited. 

If Robert Burden, whose surname became Burditt, and Sarah 
the wife of William Bucknam, with whom Burditt boarded, had 
not drawn upon themselves the admonition of the Court, " for 
severall imodest and suspitious cariages in their familiarity to- 
gether," in 1652, 34 much evil might have been prevented ; for, 
aside from the wicked tendencies of their actions, they set the 
neighborhood by the ears. The list of those who testified in 
this case is nearly a roll of the men and women of Mystic Side. 
A suit by Bucknam against his neighbor William Marble, other- 
wise Mirable, appears to have had some connection with this 
affair; but a more important case was that of Joseph Hills. 
Mr. Hills, in his capacity of general adviser and man of business 
for the neighborhood, unfortunately pleaded the cause of the 
indiscreet wife before the Court. To this Thomas Squire re- 
ferred as " the base buissines of Bucknam's wife." Mr. Hills 
was a ruling elder ; but that did not hinder the disrespectful 
Squire, passing from the affairs of his neighbors to his own, 
from calling him, " Alexander the Copper Smith who hath done 
me much harm." He said that 

M r Hills at his daughter Harris her wedding, in the hearing of 
Mf Sims, Brother Line Leiutenant Wayte & others : did say that his 
wife must be his Master and that since that speech of m r Hills & by 
means thereof he neuer had quiet day with his wife. 

" Upon seuerall Lords days in the publique Assembly in the 
meeting-house in Maldon," he uttered " his euil and reuiling 
speeches against the Elders and especially against m r . Hills." 
Among other things he said : — 

That his wife had stollen his goods and that m r . Hills children had 
receiued them, and farther Sayd what shee had giuen to m r Hill hee 
knew not. 

That m r Hill was not fit to be Rouling Elder for hee took part with 
A theif .... 

That m r Hill is one day in the desck and the next day pleading 

34 Mid J. Court Records, i. 31. 



120 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

baudie buissines in the Court, will you say that hee is an honest man? 
doe you think that hee is an honest man? or words to that effect. 

is hee fitt to sit in the place of A ruling Elder that will plead the 
cause of rogues. 35 

Of course a suit for slander followed. In the meantime, 
Bridget, the wife of Squire, went to the Court, complaining of 
bad treatment. She had lived twenty years with her husband 
and was now aged and weak and in fear of becoming a burden 
upon the town or the church. This was bad enough, but Thomas 
Squire, with William Marble, had filled the measure of iniquity 
by defaming the government in the person of Richard Belling- 
ham, the deputy governor. 315 How he was punished and how 
the wisdom of those days furnished a means of working off a 
fine, when money was wanting or the culprit was not sensitive, 
appears in the record of the Court: — 

[3 (11) 1653] m r Joseph Hill, Plant against Thomas Squire Deff in 
an action of Deffamation, the Jury findes for the plaintiffe Damage Ten 
pounds, and costs of Cort. one pound 17 s 6 d Provided in Case the 
Defft shall at Mauldon meeting house, upon their Last Lecture day in 
march next, make such an acknowledgment of his offence, before the 
publique assembly after Lecture, as shall in the Judgment of M r Edward 
Collines, Tho: Goold, Edw. Winship and Tho: Wilder, be a satis- 
factory acknowledgment of those Slanderous Speeches and imputations 
witnessed in Cort agst the Deff? concerning the plaintiffe, then the 
Deffl to be abated fine pound of the aforesaid io! 1 37 

Henry Swillaway was the unfortunate servant of Peter Tufts, 
who " beate his man with the greate end of A goade Sticke," 
and " said that he would tie him to a tre and beat him for he 
was his moneie." Under such provocations, it is not strange 
that the servant began to retaliate and " abused " his master 
and " his dame in blose and words." Thomas Mudge saw him 
" strike his master upon the brest with his hand ; " and Mary 
Mudge testified : — 

that she being at Goodman Torfs of an arand : Gudie Torfe and 
she hereing the Dine in the yard, we went out of the dore, and his 
man had got vp a great stone and held it vp to thro at his master, as 

35 Midd. Court Files, ii. x IbiJ. 87 Midd. Court Records, i. 46. 



CHURCH AND TOWN. 121 

I conseved, but when he se me he threwe it doune ; I further Testifie 
I herd him cal his master base Rouge. 38 

It may be supposed that neither Goodman Tufts nor the re- 
bellious Swillavvay could desire to keep close company for a 
long time, and accordingly the latter became servant to John 
Bunker. He was soon after brought before the Court by his 
late master for his miscarriages; but, in the end, the master 
got more justice than he liked. James Barrett, his neighbor, 
said : — 

J James Barot aged about 40 yeres or ther aboutes J doth heare 
testifie that J herd goodman tufes sai that he had not Justis before the 
Debeti Gove: in the cas betwen him and his man and for his man was 
wrong out of his hand Therefor he wod make it apear at this corte : 39 

Thus was government, in the person of Richard Bellingham, 
again defamed as it had been aforetime by Thomas Squire. 
Peter Tufts was speedily convicted and humbly acknowledged 
his sin, with the wish that it might 

not only be a warneing to myselfe for the future, unto a greater 
watchfulnes over all my words & wayes, but also a meanes to detere all 
others that either have or may heare here of, from all offenses of this or 
the like nature. 40 

Well would it have been for the goodman if " Gudie Torfe " 
had profited by the experience of her husband ; but her woman's 
nature could not control her tongue, which soon brought her to 
grief. James Barrett and William Luddington had been wit- 
nesses in the Swillaway case, and it was for slander against them 
that she was found guilty. The penalty was 

damages ten shillings apeece, & an acknowledgm 1 to be made by 
the deff' at Mauldon, vpon the Lords day in the after noone, within 
the space of thirty dayes next ensueing, and to be made after the pub- 
licke exe r cise is ended, before the congregation depart in mann r fol- 
lowing, viz! in these words. That whereas J Mary Tufts am legally 
convicted of slandering & wronging James Barrat, & William Ludding- 
ton, or any other whom my words might reflect vpon, by speaking 
Rashly, irregularly, & sinfully, J am heartily sorry, & doe desire to be 
humbled for the same, & in case of non observance to doe as above 
p r mised either to pay y e said ten shill. apeece, or makeing such 

88 Midd. Court Files, viii. 39 Ibid. 40 Ibid., 3. [1659.] 



122 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

acknowledgm! both for mann r &time : the Jury do find that y e deff* shall 
pay vnto y e pts fifty shill apeece, & costs of Court, thirty one shill & 
two pence. 41 

When George Knower " P r phaned the Sabbath " and struck 
" James Barratt on the Sabbath day," he forced Barrett to 
become a " Coacter" to the extent that he "fetched bloud on 
Knower." For this companionship, they were fined thirty 
shillings and twenty shillings respectively, with costs of Court. 4 * 2 
This was a neighborly broil, which appears to have been not 
uncommon. Of a like nature was the case of Thomas Shepherd> 
who called Samuel Sprague " a bays uilliane," and said " when 
euer I see you mye spirit Rises at you & Whereuer I meet with 
you I shall Remember you." A boy, Thomas Mudge, " did 
heare Thomas Shepherd : strike Samuel : Sprague two blows." 
To the credit of Sprague, he struck not back, but said " what 
dost thou meane to playe the foole: I: am Resolved: I: will: 
not strike : " although the other dared him with many " Reuiling 
Speaches." 43 

John Pemberton of Maiden was found drunk in the street in 
Boston and was put into the stocks; but he took a drunkard's 
revenge in beating his wife. 44 For the latter offence, he was 
presented by the grand jury; nor was he without companion- 
ship, for at the same Court James Fosdick was fined ten shill- 
ings and costs, " for rude cariage with some others in the night 
time, at Mauldon, & for contempt." 45 Of a different class, 
but more fruitful of evil results, was the offence of Thomas 
Dickerman. 

[December 19, 1676.] Thomas Dickerman appearing before 
y e Court to answf the p r sentm l of y e Grand Jury for neglect of family 
goverm 1 made answ r that he bound out his daughter, whose miscariage 
was the cause of y e compP & was discharged. 46 

Well would it have been for the daughter had the discharge 
of the father released her from the effects of his negligence. 

41 Midd. Court Records , i. 200. [1660.] Dickerman, the mother, died May 10, 

42 Ibid., i. 147. i67i,may go far to excuse the father; 
48 Midd. Court Files, xvii. for paternal government has often failed, 

44 Ibid., xxii. 7. [1671.] since the world began, to fill the place 

45 Midd. Court Records, iii. 12. of maternal love. 

46 Ibid., 160. The fact that Elizabeth 



CHURCH AND TOWN. 1 23 

She appears to have borne in her character the results of the 
paternal fault, for which she sorely suffered, if the cruel sentence 
in the following record was executed. 

[April 2, 1678.] Elizab: Dickerman serv 1 unto Jn° Starky appear- 
ing before y e Court, & convicted of setting her masters house on fire, & 
of meditating & contriveing to put copperas into y e victuals of one of 
her fellow serv ts Shee is sentenced to be severely whipt twenty stripes 
at Cambr. & within one month to haue twenty more inflicted upon her 
at Mauldon. 47 

There was one Paul Wilson, a rollicking blade, whose evil pro- 
pensities brought him often to the notice of the Court. After 
a real estate transaction, which eventually involved the Rev. 
Michael Wigglesworth in law and losses, he appears to us as a 
drunkard. Being, by his own confession, convicted of excessive 
drinking, he was fined. 48 Two years later he was convicted of 
" disorderly carriage " at Charlestown, where on the evening of 
a day of public thanksgiving there was gathering into companies, 
fences were pulled down and burned, and a house was tumbled 
into the river. For his participation in this frolic, he was sen- 
tenced to pay a fine of thirty shillings and the costs of Court, or 
to receive five stripes. 49 

Priscilla, the daughter of Deacon John Upham, was, in 1658, 
about sixteen years old, while Paul Wilson was about nine 
years her senior. It is evident that the suitor was not held in 
high esteem by the watchful father; but in spite of the paternal 
frowns, the claims of love were pushed with ardor. John Mar- 
tin, a cousin of Priscilla, said that Wilson told his uncle, "that 
if he could get or had gotten the Affections of a maid and he 
could as for the maid he would haue her do al her ffreindes or 
all the men in new england what they can." 50 As a natural 
consequence, Deacon Upham entered a complaint against the 
lover, " for violent soliciting his daughter against his will; " and 
the offender was duly admonished at the County Court. At 
the same time, he was bound in ten pounds, " y\ he will no 
more frequent the Company of Priscilla Vpham, nor by no 

47 Midd. Court Records, iii. 21S. 49 Ibid., i. 274. 

48 Ibid., i 206. [1660.] w Midd. Court Files, vii. 6. 



124 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

means whether direct or indirect, make any more adresses vnto 
her without her fathers leave first orderly had & obteined." 61 

In connection with this case is the story of a serenade, which 
is both quaint and diverting, as told by the brother of Priscilla, 
Phineas Upham, whom we shall hereafter know as the gallant 
soldier who fell in Philip's War. He had recently married 
Ruth Wood. 

Upon the last day of April [1658.] in the night at too of the cloke 
after midnight ; There was a noise heard by Phinehas Vpham and his 
Wife At the side of the house ; by which they ware awakned out of 
their sleepe his wife being awakned first was strucke with agreat feare : 
Wee heard rausicke and dansing which was no smal disturbance to us : 
And they came harkeing unto our window where wee lay ; which they 
did three times ; between which times they danced and played with 
their musicke : with much laughter. 

Three days after this affair, Paul Wilson went to the house of 
Phineas Upham and acknowledged that he was one of the 
revellers, when 

It was farther demanded of him what musicke they had among 
them ; whether it was not a kit, or a Jewsharpe ; who answered no, Jt 
was a Smal Vial ; Ading also you could not know us by our Voices, for 
wee said at our departure nothing, but two of the cloke and a faire 
morning. 5 ' 2 

Paul Wilson, becoming an inhabitant of Charlestown, married 
after a number of years, had a large family and died at a good 
old age ; while the fair Priscilla married Thomas Crosswell of 
Charlestown and brought him a family of twelve children. 

While we may deplore the weaknesses which marred the Arca- 
dian simplicity of those early days, we are indebted to them for 
the records that give to us many a vivid picture of colonial life. 
Witnesses, in quaint, archaic terms, have left us unnumbered 
items of family history, of local description, or of lively neigh- 
borhood gossip, that would not otherwise have been preserved. 
Thus, even the follies and wrangles of our fathers become of 
interest to us of the latter times and enliven or illumine the 
history of the little town which had now taken its place in the 

51 Midd. Court Records, i. 156, 157. '° 2 Midd. Court Files, vii. 6. 



CHURCH AND TOWN. 1 25 

sisterhood of towns that made the Colony of the Massachusetts 
Bay. It was not these cases alone which made up the daily life 
of the settlers at Mystic Side and Maiden. These were of 
minor importance in the general life of the community; for 
around and above them was a life of busy work creating out of 
hard conditions the humble homes in which were nourished 
industry and virtue. Under the influences of this daily life, the 
wilderness gave place to cleared fields, on which the yearly 
harvests smiled ; while the beasts and game of the forest re- 
tired before the flocks and herds of civilization. 

At this period, one who had known the story of the settle- 
ment and the town from the day when the first comers crossed 
the Mystic, who had looked across the South River to the 
pleasant shores of Sweetser's Point before the Spragues had 
followed the Indian trail from Salem through the forests of 
Scadan — Samuel Maverick, who had fortified the house at 
Winnisimmet in 1625, wrote: — 

Mauldon. — Two miles above Winnisime Westward stands a small 
Country Towne called Mauldon, who imploy themselves much in ffur- 
nishing the Towne of Boston and Charles Towne with wood, Timber 
and other Materials to build withall. 53 

63 Briefe Discription of New England, Samuel Maverick, in 1660, and was 
in N. E. Hist, and Geneal. Register, xxxix. discovered in the British Museum by 
38. This was undoubtedly written by Henry F. Waters, in 1SS4. 



CHAPTER V. 

MARMADUKE MATTHEWS. 

HARDLY had the men and women of Maiden begun to enjoy 
their new privileges before troubles came from the bless- 
ings for which they had labored. So characteristic of the times and 
the people were these troubles, and so important were they in 
their progress and results, that no apology need be made for the 
minuteness with which I shall record the first instance of resist- 
ance to the constituted authorities by the people of Maiden. 

We have seen that the new town came out of a wish for an 
enlargement of religious privileges, as the Colony itself was the 
accomplishment of a similar desire. Cotton Mather says : — 

Briefly, The God of Heaven served as it were a Summons upon the 
Spirits of His People in the English Nation ; stirring up the Spirits of 
Thousands which never saw the Faces of each other, with a most 
Unanimous Inclination to leave all the Pleasant Accommodations of 
their Native Country, and go over a Terrible Ocean, into a more Ter- 
rible Desart, for the pure Enjoyment of all His Ordinances. 1 

We shall see how the religious element made all others sub- 
ordinate to itself; how it colored and influenced all the thoughts 
and actions of the people ; so that it cannot be separated from 
the history of this, or any other, New England town, until 
within a recent period. It was an essential part of the Puritan 
life and mind. In themselves a protest against the excesses of 
the established church, the founders of the Colony of Massachu- 
setts Bay carried to the extreme the beliefs and practices which 
made them a peculiar people. Coming out of a church which 
was dominated by the state, they sought to found a state 
which should itself be circled and guarded by the church. 2 

1 Mather, Magnolia, i. (4). Court, 1637, forbidding habitation with- 

2 " In Winthrop's Reply to Vane's out allowance of the magistrates, occurs 
Answer to his Defence of an order of a most remarkable sentence, giving us a 



MARMADUKE MATTHEWS. \2J 

Naturally, although disregarding time and place, they built 
upon the model which God had before prepared for a people in 
whom they saw a similitude of themselves and whose experiences 
they often compared to their own. Their laws, their customs, 
and their manners were animated and limited by the teachings 
of the Scriptures ; more by the harsher laws of the Old Testa- 
ment, literally understood, as the exponent of a material 
hierarchy, than by the milder precepts of Jesus Christ, whose 
kingdom is a spiritual dominion of peace and love. In their 
statutes the code of Moses, with its strict and merciless justice, 
left no room for laws tempered with Christian forgiveness and 
brotherly care. Their^ new commonwealth was of the Lord and 
they were a new Israel, a chosen people, for whose inheritance 
the hand of God had prepared a new Canaan in the land of the 
heathen. 

No such a scheme of government had existed since the days 
of Samuel the Prophet Judge ; in some respects no such a 
government had ever existed. It was the embodiment of Theo- 
cracy without its purity; a government of God, evolved from 
the minds and pervaded by the prejudices of men. A philo- 
sophic mind might have foretold no long life for such a system ; 
and, in fact, with all the sincerity and earnestness of its founders 
and supporters, it remained in its integrity not many years. It 
was already in its decline when the church of Maiden was 
gathered. It remained a shadow many years; but the gradual 
strengthening of the state apart from the church, the adop- 
tion of the half-way covenant, the intrusion of the Baptists 
and other antagonistic sects, the decline of clerical authority, 
and the many adverse influences by which dogmatism and con- 
key to the singular ecclesiastical policy suffrage in the choice of their own rep- 
of the Puritans. The sentence would resentatives in the Commons to /re- 
appear to have been incidentally writ- holders. Puritanism restricted the right 
ten, but it is of emphatic importance, of suffrage to Christians. It tried to 
' Whereas the way of God hath alwayes evolve a state out of a church. There 
beene to gather churches out of the world, have been many more fanciful, many less 
■now the world, or civill state, must be inspiring aims than this, proposed in the 
raised out of the churches.'' This explains great schemes of men." The Rev. Geo. 
everything to us in the religious institu- E. Ellis in North American Review, 
tions of our ancestors. The English lxxxiv. 453. 
Magna Charta restricted the right of 



128 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

servatism may be surrounded, limited its operation and num- 
bered its days. 

Its mistakes were many; but all was not weakness and error 
in the Puritanic system and in the institutions and laws which 
grew out of it. There were in it arteries of healthy life, which 
remain to-day as pure as when they first flowed full of the faith 
and liberty of Puritan hearts. It was a life filled with the spirit 
of a people who, emancipating themselves from the spiritual 
authority of the state in the old world, in a new world came at 
last to throw off the political authority of the church; and who, 
through trials and dangers, building, perhaps, better than they 
knew, in pain laid deep and sure the foundations on which we rest. 

There are those who affect to believe that the works of our 
fathers were stable from the beginning and that the religious 
polity and civil condition of New England were steady growths 
from firm and far-reaching roots. No historical belief can be 
more false ; for during the colonial period, at least, both the 
ecclesiastical and the political records show a long series of ex- 
periments and mistakes — a blind groping. The glory of those 
days is that there was a constant approach toward better things. 
One by one, after many weary and disheartening conflicts of 
tongue and pen, old prejudices and errors were laid aside. There 
was a sturdy element of conscience and common sense in the 
body of the people, which, in the end, proved stronger than 
courts and synods or magistrates and ministers. We owe noth- 
ing to the errors of those who came before us, nor to their 
institutions which time has destroyed; but to the freedom of 
thought, to the free will, and the ability to work and watch and 
wait, we owe all that makes the present full of good and the 
future promising. Out of the hearts and thoughts of the Puri- 
tans, and not out of the imperfect works which they or their 
children rejected, came the good seed and the plentiful 
fruitage. 

By the year 1650 the state had gradually strengthened its 
authority over the churches; and the churches, on the other 
hand, were perfecting that system of councils which, as a con- 
servator and lawgiver in ecclesiastical polity, has come down to 



M ARM A DUKE MATTHEWS. 1 29 

the present day. Besides the civil power and that of the coun- 
cils, or the combined churches, there was another interest which 
was anxiously watching its rights. That interest was composed 
of those who recognized the individual right of the churches to 
govern their own affairs, as in the settlement of ministers and in 
cases of discipline. 

The early churches were self-formed — democratic and inde- 
pendent. 3 They formed their own compacts and rules and 
settled pastors of their own choosing, sometimes, even, ordain- 
ing by means of some of their own laymen, as at Woburn in 
1642. 4 After a little while, as a new church was formed, or 
grew out of another, it became the custom to ask the advice and 
presence of the elder churches at the gathering and their assist- 
ance in the ordination and settlement of ministers; but a jealous 
care was taken to protect the interests and independence of the 
individual church ; and its identity as a free agent was not lost 
in the convention or council which assembled. But in 1636 
the General Court began the exercise of that authority which in 
time it was to wield with a master hand, by the passage of the 
following act : — 

[1635/6: 3 March.] Forasmuch as it hath bene found by sad 
experience, that much trouble and disturbance hath happened both to 
the church & civill state by the officers & members of some churches, 
w ch have bene gathered with in the limitts of this jurisdiction in a vndue 

3 It was settled that a church ought Frothingham, History of Charlestown, 

not to be of a greater number than could 70 ; iV. E. Hist, and Geneal. Reg., xxiii. 

conveniently meet in one place, nor so 190 ; Upham, Second Century Lecture 

few as to hinder church work. Cf. (Salem), 67 ; Robbins, Second Church in 

Platform of Church Discipline, iii. (4). Boston, 209 ; Sewall, History of Woburn, 

The earlier church covenants contained 21. The General Court declared in 1646, 

no declarations of doctrine — a strong in allusion to the church covenants of 

contrast to the practice of later years the Colony: — " What ever the severall 

when points of doctrine were considered expressions may be, this sufficeth us 

to be all-important. A simple promise (which we conceive to be intended by 

"to walk in all o r wayes according to them all) that in this covenant we pro- 

the Rules of the Gospell, — and in all sin- fesse our engagement of relation to God, 

ceer conformity to his holy ordinances : and one to another, in all the duties 

and in mutuall Love and Respect each which belong to the publick worship of 

to other : so near as God shall give us God, and edification one of another, 

grace," bound them together as brethren according to the rule of the gospell." 

''into one congregation or church, under Hutchinson, Collection of Papers, 215. 
o r Lord Jesus Christ our Head." Cf. 4 Johnson, Wonder-working Provi- 

Emerson, First Church in Boston, 11 ; deuce, 179. 

9 



130 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

manner, & not with such publique approbation as were meete, it is 
therefore ordered that all persons are to take notice that this Court 
doeth not, nor will hereafter, approue of any such companyes of men 
as shall henceforthe ioyne in any pretended way of church fellowshipp, 
without they shall first acquainte the magistrates, & the elders of the 
greaf parte of the churches in this jurisdiction, with their intentions, & 
have their approbation herein. And ffurther, it is ordered, that noe 
person, being a member of any churche which shall hereafter be 
gathered without the approbation of the magistrates, & the greater 
parte of the said churches, shalbe admitted to the freedom of this 
commonwealth. 5 

This law, which might have been styled an act to ensure 
Uniformity, was considered by many as containing the " seeds 
of usurpation on the liberties of the Gospel." 6 That it aimed 
at the destruction of Independency is evident: it accomplished 
more; for the "seeds of usurpation" germinated and became 
both healthy root and vigorous branch. In a few years the 
Court dominated the Church and discussed discipline as well as 
morals, while it ordered councils to compose breaches and dis- 
cords and procure peace and quietness for the churches. 7 

There was a twofold aspect to the trouble which came upon 
the Maiden church ; or rather, there were two cases which anti- 
quaries have confounded as one. There was an offending 
clergyman, who had essayed to exercise free thought; and 
there was an offending church, which had settled a pastor with- 
out the approbation of " the magistrates, & the elders of the 
great 1 " parte of the churches." To understand these cases it 
will be necessary to remember that, at the time when the 
Maiden church was gathered, the civil power was exercising 
paramount authority over the churches; that the combined 
churches, or their ministers, were striving to regain their 
authority and enforce uniformity by means of councils ; and 
that individual churches, with the ancient Puritanic traditions of 

5 Mass. Colony Records, i. 168. Also: this body polliticke, but such as are 

"[1631, 18 May] To the end the body members of some of the churches within 

of the commons may be p r serued of hon- the lymitts of the same." Ibid., i. 87. 
est & good men, it was likewise ordered G Cf. Clarke, Congregational Churches 

and agreed that for time to come noe in Mass., 21. 
man shalbe admitted to the freedome of 7 Mass. Colony Records, iv. (1), 225. 



MARMADUKE MATTHEWS. 131 

Independency, were seeking to maintain freedom of choice and 
action. 

In the midst of this confusion of civil and ecclesiastical affairs, 
by the providence of God, the brethren of Mystic Side went 
into a church estate. It has been shown that there were diffi- 
culties in the way of procuring a pastor or teacher, and that for 
some time the seals were administered by a layman and by 
students from the college. It appears that at least nine clergy- 
men and church officers were called without favorable results ; 
that the Roxbury brethren interposed between the Maiden 
church and Mr. John Wilson, 8 who went to Dorchester as 
colleague with the Rev. Richard Mather; and that the mem- 
bers were denied the ordinance of baptism by a neighboring 
church. These facts might be taken to show that something 
was wrong at the beginning ; and a remark by Hutchinson 
indicates that the church was " gathered without the allowance 
of the magistrates." 9 Beyond these indications, however, there 
is no proof that any unusual occurrence was connected with the 
matter; and the causes of the coolness which seems to have 
held the elder churches apart from their younger sister are 
hidden from us. 

An American antiquary making a pilgrimage of love to the 
Old England of his fathers, more than half a century ago, found 
the following entry in the matriculation books of Oxford 
University : — 

Colleg. Omnium animarum 20 Feb. 1623 Marmadukus Mathews 
Glamorgan, fil. Mathaei Mathews de Swansey in Com. pred. pleb. an. 
nat. 18. 10 

Of the youth and early life of this son of Matthew Matthews 
of Swansea in Wales, who entered All Souls College at the age 
of eighteen, nothing is known, until at the age of thirty-three he 
arrived, with a company of west-country people, in a ship of 
Barnstaple, at Boston, September 21, 1638. n His wife, 
Katherine, came with him, or followed soon after, and joined 

8 Son of the Rev. John Wilson of 10 Savage, Mass. Hist. Coll., xxviii. 
the First Church in Boston. 250. 

9 Hutchinson, History of Massachu- n Winthrop, History of New Eng- 
st'tts-Bay, i. 423. land, i. 273. 



132 HISTORY OF MALDEN, 

with the Boston church in the following February. In the 
same month, he " tooke the ooath of allegiance to the Kiner, 
and of fidelitie to the gou 11 . 1 " of Plymouth Colony; and during 
the next year, he is found among those " that are p r posed to 
take vp their freedome at Yarmouth." 12 

To the latter place he went among the earliest settlers, and 
became their first minister. He was admitted as a freeman of 
the Colony, September 7, 1641. 13 It is said, with no authority, 
that he was a schoolmaster, " but exercised the ministerial 
functions ; " 14 and Baylies, with as little authority, says that he 
" had some learning but was weak and eccentric." 15 On the 
contrary, he was commended by those who were able to speak 
of him with knowledge. Governor Winthrop calls him " a 
godly minister;" 16 and Nathaniel Morton names him in a list 
of the "specialest" of those whom he nominates as "worthy 
instruments," and of whom he says: — 

About these times the Lord was pleased of His great goodness, 
richly to accomplish and adorn the colony of Plymouth (as well as 
other colonies in New-England) with a considerable number of godly 
and able gospel-preachers, who then being dispersed and disposed of 
to the several churches and congregations thereof gave light in a 
glorious and resplendent manner as burning and shining lights. 17 

When Matthews left Yarmouth is not known ; but, probably, 
it was not before 1648, as his successor, Mr. Miller, had not left 
Rowley in that year, or, perhaps, a few months later. 18 From 
Yarmouth he went to Hull, which was then a thriving settlement 

12 Plymouth Colony Records, i. 107- p r sence w"' the ma trats , did hold vp his 
J o8. hand, & eyed, Fye, fye ! for shame ! " 

13 Ibid., ii. 23. Plymouth Colony Records, i. 135. 

14 Freeman, History of Cape Cod, ii. w Winthrop, History of A T ew Eng- 
180. land, i. 273. 

15 Baylies, Historical Memoir of New 1T Morton, New-England's Memorial 
Plymouth, i. 315. This writer may have (Ed. 1S26) 131, under the date of 1642. 
seen the following: '-[7 October, 1639.] ls I am of the opinion that trouble 
Edward Morrell, being sworne, deposeth preceded his departure from Yarmouth. 
& sayth, that W'" Chase (at his return Michael Wigglesworth, writing in 1658, 
hoame from the Court when M r Mat- at a time when the facts were well 
hewes & hee were here together) did re- known, speaks of him as one who " had 
port that M r Mathewes had nothing to been excommunicated at one place, dis- 
say for himself, & that he marvailed how liked & discarded at anoth place, once 
any durst joyne w ,h him in the fast, & (if not oftener) censured in y e court." 
further said that some being then in Mass. Hist. So. Proc. May, 1S71, 95. 



MARMADUKE MATTHEWS. 1 33 

of traders and fishermen, where he " continued preaching, till 
he lost the approbation of some able understanding men, among 
both Magistrates and Ministers, by weak and unsafe expressions 
in his teaching." ia 

Besides losing " the approbation of some able understanding 
men," it appears that he ran a greater risk — that of banishment. 
George Bishop, the Quaker, writing before 1661, tells the 
story : — 

And it's like Governour John Wintrope, Senior (who was an honest 
Man, and had some Hand in this, being drawn to it by your Priests) 
was made sensible of it on his Death-Bed, when old Ditdly, a Man of 
Blood, and the rest of you sent to the said John Win trope, to set his 
Hand to a Paper, for the Banishment of one Matthews, a Welch-man, 
a Priest ; which he refused, telling them, He had had his Hand too 
much in sueJi things already.™ 

Hutchinson also narrates this incident, mentioning " an 
heterodox person " in the place of Mr. Matthews. 21 The story 
seems worthy of belief; and that neither Hubbard nor Mather, 
the fullest chroniclers of that period, speak of it may be attrib- 
uted to the wish to represent the wisest of the magistrates of 
Massachusetts Bay as a stanch supporter of that political and 
ecclesiastical condition which Mather, at least, labored to up- 
hold and perpetuate. As John Winthrop died March 26, 1649, 
this must apply to Mr. Matthews before his settlement at Mai- 
den ; and to prove that he left Hull perforce, we find that the 
inhabitants of that place, desiring his return, petitioned the 
Court "for the encouraging M r Mathews to goe to them & 
preach amongst them." 22 

The result of this petition was twofold; for after "a publicke 
hearing in the meeting howse " in Boston, the granting of the 
request was denied and Mr. Matthews was personally brought 
into trouble. The record is worthy of perusal as an introduc- 
tion to the arbitrary transactions which are to be related and as 
showing how closely the civil power was watching the spiritual 
condition of the church. 

19 Johnson, Wonder-ivorking Provi- 21 Hutchinson, History of Massaehu- 
dence, 21 1, setts- Bay, i. 151. 

20 Bishop, New-England Judged by -- Cf. Mass. Colony Records, ii. 276; 
the Spirit of the Lord (Ed. 1703), 226. iii. 153. 



134 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

[1649 : 9 May.] In answer to the petition of the inhabitants of 
Hull, concerning M r Mathewes, the 15 th day of this instant was ap- 
pointed for a publicke hearing of the case, w ch was attended in the 
meeting howse. The Dep ts , considering of what they had heard in the 
case, voted, 

1. That they would not enquier into the matters of chardge or an- 
swers, as respecting error conce r M r Mathews. 

2. Notw th standing this vote, the house, by vote, judged it meete to 
consider whether M r Mathews, in respect of inconvenient and weake 
exp r ssions, was not worthy of some censure. 

3. The whole Courte agreed by vote, that M r Mathewes should not 
retourne to Hull, nor reside w th them. 

Voted, That wee will proceed no further at present w th M r Mathewes 
then to an admonition. 

The Courte, for seuerall considerations, judge it not meete at present 
to dilate all the p r ticular chardges and ans rs of M r Mathewes, yett, 
notw th standing, doe declare that they finde seueral erroneous exp r s- 
sions, others weake, inconvenient, and vnsafe exp r ssions, for which 
they judge it meete to order, that the said M r Mathewes should be 
admonished by the Gou r no r in the name of the Courte. 23 

There are indications that the aristocratic branch of the 
Court, or the Assistants, who in this case, as in many others, 
represented the most arbitrary portion of the State, brought 
about this result; and that the democratic deputies, who came 
directly from the body of the people and often showed them- 
selves to be possessed of the leaven of liberty and progress, 
which in due season leavened the whole body politic, would at 
least have forborne to question Mr. Matthews. As the prudent 
and liberal Winthrop was dead and the austere and bigoted 
Endicott was in the chair of the Governor, it may be supposed 
that the admonition was given with due severity. That it was 
given is clear, for it was afterwards said of Mr. Matthews that 
" he had his sentence & ffulfild it." 

Where he now went does not appear; but, the next year, he 
was in Boston and was granted leave to " give satisfaction," or 
to retract, which was probably intended. 

[1650: 19 June.] This Courte, beinge willinge that M r Mathews 
should haue an optunitie to giue satisfaction for what he formerly 
deliuered as eronious, weake, &c, which is his owne desire also, doe 

23 Mass. Colony Records, iii. 159 ; cf. ii. 276. 



M ARM A DUKE MATTHEWS. 135 

order, that he shall haue oppertunitie soe to doe the 28 th of this instant 
moneth, at Boston, at M r Phillips his howse, by eight of the clocke in the 
morning, to giue satisfaction for the same, if he can, to the elders of 
Boston, Charlstowne, Roxbury, & Dorchester, with such of the magis ts 
as shall please to be p r sent there. 24 

It may be that this occasion for righting himself before the 
authorities was sought by Mr. Matthews while the question of 
his settlement in Maiden was pending. What the result of this 
meeting at " eight of the clocke in the morning" was, or whether 
the meeting was held, is not known; as no other mention of it 
has been found. Evidently, nothing favorable to the accused 
minister came out of it, if we may judge by the events which 
followed. Some detached notes of accusations and answers 
may belong to this period ; but in spirit and form, they are 
a part of later evidence, with which I shall consider them. 

About this time, or soon after, Mr. Matthews was brought 
into relations with the Maiden brethren. When it was known 
that steps were being taken preliminary to his ordination, there 
was a more general desire evinced to hinder the settlement of 
the new church than to promote its welfare. The church of 
Roxbury, which had interfered in the business with Mr. Wilson, 
wrote " to fforbeare ordination; " but when asked " to discover 
to vs Any sin either in m r . Mathews or the Church which might 
be a ground of fforbea r g," it remained silent. The mother 
church of Charlestown, following the spirit of that of Roxbury, 
proposed " a brotherly conference," which was accepted. It re- 
mained for the elder church to appoint a time and place, but no 
more was heard from that quarter. Several of the magistrates 
also wrote letters of " advice," which seem to have been com- 
posed in the spirit, if not in the form, of mandates; but when 
explanations were asked of " eurie one of them before ordina- 
tion," none replied but Increase Nowell. 25 

Unless we assume that some irregularities, of which the 
church was still unpurged, had attended its formation, it is diffi- 
cult to understand these proceedings; and even if the church 
had committed an offence, neither the justice nor the propriety 

24 Mass. Colony Records, in. 203. 25 Cf. Mass. Archives, x. 31, 80. 



136 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

of this method of dealing can be affirmed. Under the circum- 
stances, but one course ought to have been taken; and that 
course, with a foreshadowing of the spirit of later days, the 
Maiden brethren pursued. They ordained Mr. Matthews as 
their minister; and as they stood alone among the churches, 
it is very probable that they resorted to the elder practice of 
lay-ordination. Nor were they without sufficient authority for 
their action; for as recently as 1646 the General Court had 
declared the following as the first " Fundamentall of the Mas- 
sachusetts " : — 

All persons orthodoxe in judgment and not scandalous in life, may 
gather into a church estate according to the rules of the gospell of 
Jesus Christ. Such may choose and ordaine theire owne officers, and 
exercise all the Ordinances of Christ, without any injunction in doc- 
trine, worship or discipline.- 6 

It does not appear that any immediate notice of this offence 
was taken. Johnson, writing at this time, says that " some 
neighbour-churches were unsatisfied therewith, for it is the man- 
ner of all the Churches of Christ here hitherto, to have the 
approbation of their Sister-churches, and the civil Government 
also in the proceedings of this nature, by the which means Com- 
munion of Churches is continued, peace preserved, and the 
truths of Christ sincerely acknowledged ; " 2 " but he does not 
indicate that Mr. Matthews was not in the peaceable posses- 
sion of the Maiden pulpit. He " minds him in the following 
Meeter," which blends admonition with exhortation, and must 
have been a source of disquiet to Mr. Matthews, especially if he 
was possessed of any literary taste : — 

Mathews! thou must build gold and silver on 

That precious stone, Christ cannot trash indure, 
Unstable straw and stubble must be gone, 

When Christ by fire doth purge his building pure. 
In seemly and in modest terms do thou 

Christs precious truths unto thy folk unfold, 
And mix not error with the truth, lest thou 

Soon leave out sense to make the truth to hold : 
Compleating of Christs Churches is at hand, 

Mathews stand up, and blow a certain sound, 
Warriours are wanting Babel to withstand, 

Christs truths maintain, 'twill bring thee honors crown'd.- 8 

26 Hutchinson, Collection of Papers, -" Johnson, Wonder-working Provi- 

203. Cf. Mass. Hist. Coll., xxviii. 234. dence, 211. * 28 Ibid., 212. 



MARMADUKE MATTHEWS. 1 37 

And so, for a brief time, Mr. Matthews and the church were 
untroubled. There is reason to believe that he preached with 
freedom, according to his faith, and to the edification of the 
church, and that his way was honorable to himself and helpful 
to his little Mock. But the " former miscarriages " were not 
forgotten ; and a sermon preached from the suggestive text, 
Behold, I lay before Joshua a stone with seven eyes, 29 became a 
copious source of trouble to the unfortunate minister. There 
was a watchful and traitorous element in that rural congregation 
in the little hut of a meeting house at Bell Rock, which, repre- 
sented by John Hathorne and Thomas Lynde, the latter, at 
least, a member of the church, while the former was a tavern- 
keeper, who, removing to Lynn, was two years later found guilty 
of forgery on his own confession, reported and " proved on oath " 
many heterodox or heretical teachings. Out of that sermon, 
and some others, they culled more " weak and inconvenient ex- 
pressions" — inconvenient they certainly were for Mr. Mathews. 
Some of these " vnsafe expressions " have been preserved for us. 

Christ is gone up to heaven to prepare mansions for us, for as y e sin 
of Adam did shutt paradise soe y e Ascention of X' doth open paradise 
again e 

To think we can have any conviction before we have X 1 is a very 
delusion. 

Y e saints have more varietyes of righteousnes than X', for X' hath 
only a double righteousnes, & y e saints have a trebble. 

When y e body of X' was lifted up on y e crosse his soule was in hell 
what in hell : yea in hell, in y l hell where y e devill rules and raignes. 30 

Here were offences gross and monstrous for churches and 
councils to consider; but there is no indication that any power 
save that of the state was called into action, at the outset, in 
this purely theological and doctrinal matter. Mr. Matthews was 
summoned to appear by the General Court, May 7, 165 I, in the 
following order : — 

29 So stated, Mass. Archives, x. 75. and I will remove the iniquity of that 

For behold the stone that I have laid land in one day. Zech. iii. 9. The ser- 

before Joshua ; upon one stone shall be mon was " about y e foundation of iusti- 

seven eyes : behold, I will engrave the fying faith." 
graving thereof, saith the Lord of hosts, 30 Mass. Archives, x. 75, 77. 



138 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

It is ordered, that M r Marmaduke Mathews shallbe warned & sum- 
moned to appeare before this Courte on the fifth day next in the 
morning, being the 15 th of this instant May, to make answer to a bill 
p r sented to the Magis ts , w ch concernes former and latter miscarrjages of 
his, before the Court goes on to any hearing thereabouts. 31 

He appeared before the Court at the appointed time, when 

there was declared to him seuerall passages which he deliuered in his 
sermons at Maiden, w ch , though he owned not, was prooved on oath by 
John Hauthorne and Tho Line, about w ch offence had binn taken, to 
w ch he gave in his answer to the Courte, the chardge and answer 
remajning on the file. 3 ' 2 

The " chardge " has, unfortunately, disappeared ; but the 
answer still " remajns " in the archives of the state. This docu- 
ment, which is dated May 16, 165 I, was written by Mr. Matthews, 
himself, and begins in a tone of meekness, which, I think, must 
have been characteristic of the man and which is in strange con- 
trast to his apparent independence of thought and action. 

Jn his name & presence whose J am & whom J desire to serve (& 
y* wth childlike feare) as also for evermore to reioyce in, & y l wth chris- 
tian trembling, J y e sayd accused M. M. thinke good thus to answer. 33 

He proceeds to carry out his answers into all the divisions 
and subdivisions of which the theology of that day was capable. 
He complains that his words are placed out of order in the 
accusations ; and his endeavor is plainly to make more clear his 
" offensive" teachings, instead of explaining them in a retractive 
way. Of the twenty-two, or more, accusations which were then, 
or finally, presented, he replied at this time to but four; and, as 
if to disprove the testimony of John Hathorne and Thomas 
Lynde, five of the most prominent men of the town filed this 
affidavit on the following day : — 

To the Hono r d Court. 

wee whose naimes are hereunder written 
haveing Seriously Considered the Answe r s y l our Rev r nd Pastor m r Mar- 
maduke Mathews Hath given into the Court in Relation to Severall 
p r ticulars charged uppon him & wittnessed against him by Jo: Haw- 

31 Mass. Colony Records, iv. 42. 32 Ibid., iv. ( 1), 42. 33 Mass. Archives,*. 75. 



M ARM A DUKE MATTHEWS. 1 39 

thorne & Tho Lynd : we Affirme those Answers are the Substance off 

what was Publiqly Delivered by him and are the truth & nothing but 

the truth. 

Edward Carrtngton Deposed the if h of the 

16.3. mo. John Vppame 3 d m°. 16 j 1 by these 

l ^S l Joh n Wayte j f sons he/ore me 

Thomas Squire Jncrease 

Abraham Hill Nowell 34 

The examination was satisfactory to the Court, inasmuch as 
the answers of the accused were found to be " vnsafe " and 
" offensive" in point of doctrine and gave grounds for a further 
and more comprehensive examination; and the record proceeds, 
giving what may be called, in the language of those days, his 
presentment as follows : — 

After a full hearing & examining the same, the Courte declared, 
that, whereas M r Marmaduke Mathewes hath, formerly and latterly, 
given offence to magistrates and elders, and many bretheren in some 
vnsafe, if not vnsound expressions in his publicke teachings, and as it 
hath binn manifested to this Courte, hath not yett given satisfaction to 
those magistrates and elders that were appointed to receave satisfaction 
from him, since which tjme there have binn deliuered in his publicke 
ministry other vnsafe and offensive expressions by him, whereby both 
magis ts , ministers and churches were occasioned to write to the church 
of Maiden to advise them not to proceed to the ordination of M r Math- 
ewes, which offences taken against him were also made knowne to the 
sajd M r Mathewes, yett, contrary to all advice, and the rule of Gods 
word, as also the peace of the churches, the church of Maiden hath 
proceeded to the ordination of M r Mathewes, — this Courte, therefore, 
taking into consideration the premisses and the daingerous conse- 
quences and effects that may follow such proceedings, doth order, 
that both the former and latter offences touching doctrjnall points be 
first duely considered by M. r Sjmon Bradstreete, M r Sjmons, Capt W ,u 
Hauthorne, Capt Edward Johnson, M r John Glouer, Capt Eleazer 
Lusher, Capt Daniell Gookin, M r Richard Browne, and Capt Humphry 
Atherton, on the eleventh of June next, at the Shipp in Boston ; and 
in case of difficulty the committee hath liberty to call in for helpe and 
advise from such of the reuerend elders as they shall judge meete, and 
make retourne of their offence against him, or sattisfaction from him be 
retourned to this Court at the next session thereof. 35 

34 Mass. Archives, x. 78. 35 Mass. Colony Records, iv. (1), 42. 



14-0 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Fifteen of the deputies were entered as " contradicentes " 
against the passage of this order. At their head were Wil- 
liam Hathorne of Salem, a member of the committee, and John 
Leverett of Boston, who was afterwards Governor. Joseph 
Hills, of course, favored the minister whom he elsewhere 
sustained ; and it is noticeable that, save William Cowdrey 
of Reading, no member of a neighbor church opposed the 
prosecution. 

So the General Court rested from its labors with Mr. Mat- 
thews until the next session; but before they rested they had 
another matter to settle with him. This settlement required but 
little time and the record indicates no great desire for concession 
on either side. 

As concerning M r Mathewes suffering himself to be ordajned, con- 
trary to the rules of Gods word, which should not have so proceeded, 
to the offence of magistrates, reuerend elders, and some churches, 
y e Courte doth order that the sajd M r Mathewes shall give satisfaction 
to this session of this Court by an humble acknowledging his sinne for 
his so proceeding, which if he refuse to doe, to pay the some of tenn 
pounds within one month. 

M r Mathewes appearing, and not giving satisfaction by an humble 
acknowledging of his sinne, &c, itt was ordered, that the secretary 
should within one rhonth, give warrant to the marshall to levy on the 
goods of M r Mathewes the some of tenn pounds, as his fine, according 
to the order of this Courte. 36 

In June, as appointed, the committee, composed of leading 
men — " shining lights " and " godly timber," — in the Colony, 
convened " at the Shipp in Boston," that tavern at the corner 
of Ann and Clark streets, which, afterwards known as Noah's 
Ark, was destined to outlive the Colony and the Province, to 
see two revolutions and the downfall of many shams and super- 
stitions, and to remain until the second half of the nineteenth 
century before it should be " improved " from the face of the 
earth. If the spirits of old houses remain, that of " the Ship in 
Ann street " must be a rare and wise old ghost. 

At this meeting, Mr. Matthews presented his defence in a docu- 
ment which is noteworthy for its chirography if for nothing else, 37 

36 Mass. Colony Records, iv. (0,43. ^ Mass. Archives, x. 77. On this 



MARMADUKE MATTHEWS. 141 

In the space of two small pages he compressed matter which 
comprises eleven pages of the work of a modern copyist. Me 
deserved to be fined for his manuscript if not for his theology. 
At the same time, he offered an appeal in the form of a letter, 
in which submission and a natural independence are intimately 
blended, and in which we can see, between the lines as it were, 
a flashing eye, betraying a feeling of inward wrath and grief 
combined. 

To y Honored Comittce of y e Genera// Coin-/ appoin/ed /o examine 
some doctrinal/ points delivered att Hull and since y' /inie a/ Ala/don by 
M. M. 
Honored of God and of his people 

Haveing given you an Account of my sence & of my faith in y e con- 
clusions w ch were accused before you, J thought good to acquaint you, 
y l if any among you (or others) should count that faith a fansie, & 
y 4 sence to be non-sence J desire y' god may forgive them : I doe, con- 
ceaving y f such doe not yet soe well know what they doe, as they shall 
know hereafter 

Yet in case y* this should reach any satisfaction to such as are (yett) 
vnsatisfied wth my expressions for to know y' J doe acknowledge 
y l there be sundrie defects in sundry points y' I have delivered. J 
doe hereby signifie y' throw mercy J cannot but see & also ingenu- 
ously confesse y r some of my sayings are nor safe nor sound in the 
superlative degree, to wit, they are not most safe : nor yett eyther 
sound or safe in a comparative degree, for J easily yeald y' not onely 
wiser men probably would, but also J my self possiblie mought have 
made out X's mynd & my owne meaning in termes more sound & 
more safe than J have done had not J beene too much wanting both 
to his sacred majesty whose vnworthy messinger I was, & also to my 
hearers & to my self, for w ch J desire to be humbled & of w ch J desire 
to be healed by y e author of both, as I doe not doubt but y' consci- 
entious & charitable- harted christians (whose property and practise 
it is to put uppon doubtfull positions not y e worst construction but 
y e best) will discerne, as J doe, y' there is a degree of soundness in 
what J doe owne, tho but a positive degree. 

However it is & (I trust) for ever shallbe my care to be more cir- 
cumspect than J have hitherto been in avoyding all appearances y' way 
for y e tjme to come, y' soe I may y e better approve my self throw 

paper the following is endorsed : " here Edw carrington. Tho. Squi rs . Jo. Wayte . 

is the substance of what was publiqly Tho. Call. Tho. Ozban. Abr. Hill : Tho. 

delivd: by m r niathes Pasto r of the Hett. Jam s . Greene : John vppam. only 

Church of christ at Maldon wittness : Jo. vppam not the : 6th." 



142 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

y e grace of christ and to y e glory of god such a workman as need not 

be ashamed, in y e interim J remayne amongst his vnworthy servants 

y e most vnworthy, & 

Your Accused & condemned 
fellow-creature to comand 
in y e things of christ 

Marmaduke Matthewes. 

Boston this 13' of y e 4 month 

1 65 1. 38 

The result showed that the " conscientious & charitable- 
harted christians " to whom he appealed were not in the com- 
mittee which tried him. Besides the papers already mentioned, 
there is extant one evidently written by a member of the com- 
mittee, which contains several charges and answers briefly 
stated. 39 From these papers we may gather the peculiar beliefs 
and manner of expression of Mr. Matthews. Dr. McClure says 
" that he was both an ingenious and learned preacher, soundly 
orthodox and sincerely pious," and that his expressions were 
"over-strong rather than 'weak' and, as some would say, too 
orthodox." 40 There is a slight tincture of the Antinomian 
heresy which had so troubled the Colony fourteen years before 
and had been silenced by scriptural arguments and the power 
of the Court; and, in general, his words give evidence of a 
spiritual theology, which in its subtile distinctions would not 
appeal to the popular mind of that time. He was in advance 
of his age, though still within its influence. He might have 
been a transcendentalist in later days; but I think he would 
have been orthodox still, although his theology might have 
been modified by Arminianism and a doubt of the reality of 
the Trinity. One, at least, of his " vnsafe expressions " fore- 
shadows a belief which afterwards became far from uncommon 
in the churches. " The Gospell of grace & y e Sacred Scriptures 
ar a false foundation of ffaith to build our Justification vpon." 
In explication he said, " The Scripturs ar the foundation of 
Dogmatticall & historicall faith but not of saueing faith." 41 

The answer now presented is carried into divisions and sub- 

88 Mass. Archives, x. 78. 40 Bi-Centennial Book of Maiden, 136. 

39 Ibid., ccxli. 184. 41 Mass. Archives, ccxli. 184. 



M ARM A DUKE MATTHEWS. 143- 

divisions as the other; and there is visible the same intent to 
explain and make clear rather than to retract. What passed 
during the examination of this answer and its author there 
is no present means of knowing. On the seventeenth day of 
the month Mr. Matthews laid before the committee, as his 
" last deliberate answer," another paper containing replies to 
five of the charges which seem to have been retained as most 
material to the case. This document has never been printed. 
It may perhaps be of more interest to the antiquary than to 
the general reader ; but it is of importance as containing that 
which was considered as final by both parties. 
To y e I charge here mentioned. 

J doe beleeve & profess y l all sins of all persons both vnder y e law & 
vnder y e gospell are to be reproved both in vnbeleevers & others 
And if any words att any tyme in any place among any persons have 
falne from my lipps or penne wch in y e iudgment of any seeme to 
sound otherwise, J doe not ovvne them as my iudgment 

To y 2 charge heere 
Jf y e workes of y e law could be performed according to y e true meaning 
of y e law, they would not be damning evills, but wayes of life ; but y c 
contempt or dependance of or vppon y c ' workes of y e law or of y e gos- 
pell for Justification J doe beleeve are to be accounted damning evills. 
if any words of myne sound otherwise, J approve them not. 

To / 3 charge, concerning loveingy' thgs y' are in f world 
when J sayd f there is noe loue due to y e things of y e world, J spake 
from y e words of John i Jo. 2. 15. Where J conceave y e spirit of god 
doth meane the honours pleasures & profitts of y e world & y l he doth 
noe where forbydd any to love persons according to y e relations wherein 
they may stand to them eyther coniugall, parentall, filiall fraternall or 

christian. 

To f 4 charge heere mentioned 

The Apostle sayth y' noe other foundation canne any man lay than 
Jesus christ (that is to say for Justification or Salvation) 1 cor : 3 : 11. 
And as for y e Scriptures, J acknowledge noe X' but such a one as is 
revealed in the scriptures. 

And as for beleeving vnto Justification J acknowledge noe other faith 
(in men of yeares) than such as resteth on X 1 declared in a word of" 
grace by y e scriptures. 

when we read y y e churches are built uppon y e foundations of y e proph- 
ets & Apostles J doe conceave (vnder favour) y' they are calld foun- 



144 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

dations in y l they layd christ for y e foundation if any word of myne 
may seeme to sound otherwise J would be vnderstood according to 
these expressions 

To y last charge, concerning variety of righteousnes 
when J sayd y l saints have more variety of righteousnesses than X' hath 
I was in y e explication of y e word in esay 45. 24 wch in y e originall is in 
y e plurall number righteousnesses, surely Jn y e Lord have J righteous- 
nesses & strength ; not f they have more variety of righteousnes than 
he hath to give : but because they have from him beside inherent 
righteousness & morall righteousness, imputative righteousness alsoe 
wch he needed not for himself. 
Such are y e conceptions & confessions of 

Marmaduke Matthewes. 

On the back of this "deliberate answer" is endorsed the 
report of the committee. 

Boston. i7 1 ! 1 4 th m 165 1 . 
Upon serious consideration of the charges brought against MS Math- 
ewes togeather w th the answers to them by himselfe gyven, as also 
upon conference w th himselfe concerning the same. Wee the Comittee 
yet remayne much unsatisfyed, fynding seuall pticul r s weake, unsafe & 
unsound, & not retracted by him some whereof are conteyned in this 
pap w th his last deliberate answer thereunto. 

Simon Bradstreet, W m Hathorne, 

Richard Brown, Edw: Johnson, 

John Glouer, Eleazer Lusher, 

humphray axharton. 

15 th 8 th 51 

Being by p r vidence absent when the Comittee examined m r mathews 
case being p'sonally p r sent before them J cannot speake but onely to 
what appeareth by the writings And having w th the comittee p r vsed 
them J Doe fully agree w ,h what they have returned to the Court 

Samuel Svmonds. 4 - 

So the committee, having heard and considered the replies of 
the heretical preacher, found themselves, in the end, where they 
had begun ; and Mr. Matthews was neither justified nor silenced. 
In the meantime the case had begun to assume that dual 
aspect which has deluded antiquaries ; for the Court had 
ordered, in May, as follows : — 

42 Mass. Archives, ccxli. 183. 



MARMADUKE MATTHEWS. 1 45 

And touching the church of Maiden for offence in ordajning him, 
(notwithstanding all advice formerly,) itt is ordered, that they answer 
their offence the next sessions of this Courte. 43 

Here are now two distinct cases moving together awhile as 
one. The one is an offence of " weake and vnsafe expressions," 
or an assertion of individual thought and speech ; the other is a 
contempt of authority, or an assertion of the freedom of the 
Church against a usurping power. 

It may be assumed without direct proof that the magistrates 
and deputies were far from being satisfied with the report of the 
committee. Nor could they have been more pleased with the 
outcome of the fine of ten pounds, which they laid upon Mr. 
Matthews for allowing himself to be ordained ; for the afflicted 
minister was as poor in worldly goods as he was rich in grace, 
and the marshal found no available property. The Court was 
obliged to order that " the execution thereof shalbe respited till 
other goodes appeare besides bookes." u 

At the October session a day was assigned for the consider- 
ation of " M r Mathewes his offence retourned by the committee, 
as also the offence of the church of Maiden ; " and notice was 
given to the offending parties. 

Att the tjme appointed, M r Marmaduke Mathewes appeard ; so did 
M r Joseph Hills, Edward Carrington, and John Waite, w ,h seuerall 
others of the church of Maiden, & on the churches behalfe appeared to 
answer their offence, &c, according to the order of the last Gennerall 
Courte. 45 

In behalf of Mr. Matthews, whose case first received attention, 
a petition was presented, which is one of the most interesting of 
the many which relate to the history of the town. It is espe- 
cially valuable in this case as showing the esteem in which the 
Maiden minister was held by his congregation ; but it is more 
noteworthy because it bears the names of thirty-six of the wives 
and mothers of that early day and is the first known petition of 
Maiden women. 

43 Mass. Colony Records, iv. ( 1 ), 43. ** Ibid., iii. 257. 45 Ibid., iv. ( 1 ), 70. 

• 10 



146 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



7o the Hono d Court 

The petition of Many Jnhabitants of Maldon & Charlstowne on Mes- 
tickside Humblie sheweth 

That y e Allmighty God in great mercie to ou r souls as we trust hath 
Affter many prayers Jndeavo rs & long Wayting Brought m r Mathews 
Among vs & putt him into the worke of the Ministrie. By whose pious 
life & labo r s the lord hath Afforded vs Many Saving Convictions direc- 
tions and Consolations whose Continuance in y' Service of christ if it 
were y e good pleasu' of god wee much desy r , And it is ou r humble 
Request to this Hono r d Court y' you would please to pass by Some per- 
sonall & perticul r ffaylings (which may as we humbly conseaue be yo r 
Glory & no greife of heart to you in tyme to come) And to p'mitt him 
to Jmploy thos tallents god God hath ffurnishd him w th all. so Shall we 
yo r humble petion rs w th many others be Bound to pray &c. 
28. 8. 51 



M R . S Sergeant 
Joan Sprague 
Jane Learned 
Eliz. Carrixgton 
Bridget Squi r e 
Mary Wayte 
Sarah Hills 
An: Bibble 
Eliz. Green 
wid: Blancher 
Eliz. Addams 



Sarah Bucknam 
Thankslord Shepp r d 
ffran. cooke 
Eliz. Knoher 
Bridget Dexter 
Lyda Greenland 
Marg r t Pem r ton 
Han. Whittamore 
Eliz. Green 
Mary Rust 
Eliz. Grover 
Han. Barret 



Eliz. Mirrable 
Sarah Osburn 
An hett 
Mary Pratt 
Eliz. Green 
Joan Chadwick 
Marg r t Green 
Hellen Luddington 
Susan Wilkinson 
Joana Call 
Rachel Attwood 
Marg t Welding 
Rebec: Hills 



The magistrates conceaue the answer to this petition wilbe the 
result of the Magistrates & deputies agreem' of M r Mathewes 
censure : 

Edward Ravvson Seer** 
The deput consent & agree hereto 

William Torrey Cleric** 

At the same time, a letter was given to the Court, which 
seems to have been written for the purpose by some other than 
Mr. Matthews, for the signature only is his. It is submissive 
and humble, and shows that the accused had lost some part of 
his original independence, or that he had become wearied in 
the contest and had submitted to the advice of more tractable 
friends. 

46 Mass. Archives, x. 79. 



MARMADUKE MATTHEWS. 1 47 

To the Hono r d Court 

Marmaduke Mathews Humblie shevveth That through mercie J am in 
some measure sensible of my Great Jnsufficiencie to declare the coun- 
sell of God vnto his people (as J ought to doe) And how (through the 
darkness & Jgnoranc that is in mee) J am verie Apt to lett ffall some 
expressions y' are weake & Jnconvenient ; & J doe Acknowledge y' in 
severall of those expressions reffered to the examination of the Hon r d 
Comittee, J might (had the lord seen it so good) haue expressed & 
deliu r d my selfe in Termes more free ffrom exception. And it is my 
desyre (the lord strengthning) as much as in me lyeth to Avoyd all 
appearances of euill therin ffor Tyme to Come, as in all other respects 
whatsoeur, w c h y l J may doe, J humbly desyre yo r hearty prayers to 
God ffor me, & in speciall that J may take heed to the Ministrie com- 
itted to me y' J may ffulfill it to the prays of God & p r ffitt of his people. 
28 : 8. 1 65 1 yo r Humble S r vant in long 

Service of christ 
Marmaduke Matthewes. 47 

The petition of the women of Maiden or the " humble shew- 
ing " of Mr. Matthews — perhaps both — so influenced the aus- 
tere minds of the members of the General Court that, judging 
that " it doeth stand w ,h wisdome to haue the Churches to act 
before themselues," they concluded to end, as they should have 
begun, by referring the matter to the ecclesiastical authorities. 
They, therefore, thought meet to 

appoint the Church of Maldon speedilie to consider of the erro r s 
M r Mathewes stands charged w th in Court, and in case vpon the 
Churches dealing w th him hee doeth acknowledge his errors & vnsafe 
expressions & giue satisfaction vnder his hand, so as the Secretarie 
being certified thereof, doe acquaint the Counsell therew" 1 w th in six 
weekes the matter at present may so rest. Else the Secretarie shall 
giue notice unto the Churches of Cambridge, Charlestowne Lyn & 
Redding to send their messengers in way of counsell & advice vnto the 
Church of Maldon & not excluding any other Churches w th them to 
debate the doctrines there deliuered by M r Mathewes now in question 
That by this meanes the trueth may the better appeare. And that they 
prosecute the same to effect according to the rule of Christ, ffor the 
Conviction of the said M r Mathewes & helpefulnes of the Church of 
maldon. 48 

47 Mass. Archives, ccxli. 185. iB Ibid., x. 79. 



I48 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

There was some little difficulty here, for the democratic 
deputies were disposed to withhold their consent to this meas- 
ure ; but it was finally voted by the whole Court in conference. 

So Mr. Matthews, being turned over to the only authority 
which ought ever to have considered his " offences," the church 
of Maiden, stood in the way of judgment. That church, far 
from submitting, appeared before the Court, as already has been 
seen, in the persons of three of its most prominent men, Joseph 
Hills, then a deputy and four years before the Speaker of the 
House, Edward Carrington, and John Wayte. They gave in 
writing an answer to the charge against them, dated October 
26 ; and, some dissatisfaction having been expressed, Joseph 
Hills presented a second and additional answer, dated five days 
later. In these papers may be found a statement of the early 
condition of the Maiden church, its troubles in finding a pastor, 
and the circumstances under which Mr. Matthews was settled. 
They are strong and earnest pleas for the right of free action in 
the election and ordination of church officers, asking considera- 
tion both from moral and legal points. They seek rather to 
justify than to excuse their authors; and they assert in plain 
terms the liberty of the churches and the absence of any " law 
of Christ or the Countrie " to the contrary. 

The Chit nil of Maldon Jn Answ r to /he offence by the Hono r Gen- 
e"att Court charged vpon them in Ordayning m r Mathews Notwith- 
standing all advice which we acknowledge was of some of the Hono r d 
Magistrats & two of the neigbo r churches, namely Roxbury & charls- 
tow desyre humblie to Express themselves as followeth 

ffirst. that the other vnsafe & offensive expressions recited in the 
beginning of the order to be deliu r d in his public ministry at Maldon, 
were not before the ordination so much as Charged vppon him by the 
Court. & so it was (vnder ffavour) as we conceiue onely the busines at 
hull on which all advice was grounded for which offences he had his 
sentence & ffulfild it & so stood cleare in law [To the punishm'. 

2. we humbly tender to Consideration of the Hono r d Court 
whether we should not haue been dealt & p r ceeded with in a Church 
way in case we had swerved ffrom any Rule of X' or been so Apprhended 
ffor we both owne & Honour Church Comunion. 

we also putt the churches y' wrote to vs to fforbeare ordination, to dis- 
cover to vs Any sin either in m r Mathews or the Church which might 
be a ground of fforbea r g but they Jnstanced none 



MA RM A DUKE MATTHEWS. 1 49 

3. we humblie present to consideration y' we wrote & sent to 
Roxburie Church before wee proceeded, since which we heard no more 
ffrom them, also we sent to Charlstow Church beffore ordination & 
since & theire last to vs was ffor a brothrly conference to which we 
assented & expected them to call on it. And had those Churches con- 
ceived sin in o 1 p r ceedings their way was open & our Church readie to 
Attend conviction therm. 

4. be pleased to Consider what those hono r d Magistrats wrote to vs, 
& what our Adresses were to them & eurie [one] of them before or- 
dination ffrom whom we received no returne saue only from m r Nowel 

5. Wee p r ffess it was a greife of heart to vs, & is, that we should 
seem to wave or vnd'value the advice of any Magistrate or Church, but 
considering the libertys of the Churches alowe by law to chuse their 
owne officers, & Apprehending him to be both pious able & orthodox 
as the law provides we p r ceeded. 

Lastly wee humbly plead to the words of the Charge which are 
(And touching the Church of Maldon her offence in ordayning him 
Notwithstanding all Advice formdy Jtt is ordered that they Answ r their 
offence the next sessions of this Court) 

Our plea is that we know no law of X 1 or the Countrie that binds Any 
Church of Christ not to ordayne their owne officers without Advice of 
Magistrats, & churches. Wee frely Acknowledge ou r selues ]ngaged to 
any that in loue afford Any advice vnto vs. but we conceaue a Church 
is not bound to such Advice ffarther than god comends it to their 
vnd r standing & conscience. And if a Church Act contrary to such 
advice wee see not how or by what Rule they are Bound to take offence 
against A Church of Christ in y' respect namlv ffor not Attending 
y' advice, or y* a Church of christ so doeing should be concluded 
offendors in any Court of Justice & so p r sent a . our laws allow eurie 
Church ffree libertie of all the ordinances of god according to the rule 
of the scriptur, Eccl Sect 3. 4. 6. & perticular ffree libertie of ellection 
& ordination of all their officers ffrom tyme to tyme p r vided they be 
pious able & orthodox. And y' no Jnjunction shall be put vpon Any 
Church officer or member in point of doctrine or discipline whether ffor 
substance or circumstance besides the Jnstitutions of the lord. 

Thus to our abillitie with hearty desyre of satisfaction, hauing given 
our humble Apprehensions ffor our p r ceedings in the ordination 
affors d (vnwilling to occassion more trouble,) we shall Add no more, 
onely ou r humble AcknowledgenV y ( wee haue not walked so safely so 
prudently so Inoffensively in y e point of ordination as wee might haue 
done, & had the Order Title eccles. 8. 12. ffor Elders & brefn meeting 
to discuss points of doc tn & dissipline been attended the breach might 
haue been healed & this troubl p r vented. wee humblie Reffer our selues 
And answers to yo r most wise & godly consideration as the lord shall 



150 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

direct ffor the glory of Christ and good of his poor Church & Towne of 

Maldon 

26. 8. 1651. y r humble seruants 

Jos: Hills : "\ . 

„ „ I in y 71 a 1 nc of 

Ed: Carington, > J 

JohMVayte S y ' ch ' rch - 

To the Hotfd Court 
Vnd r standing that the answ r of the Ch r ch of Maldon in reference to 
their Ordination of m r Mathew s is not satisfactory on the behalf of the 
Ch r ch of Maldon Joseph Hills humbly craueth that this Hon r d Court, 
will please as an Addition to our former Acknowledgment to consider 
the many motions Jndeauours & humbl Addresses of the sayd Church 
to diuers Orthodox App r ued men before we moued or had thought of 
m r Ma s for beside our request at the first to Charlst Ch h . to help us in 
p r curing one we gaue Solemn Jnuitation to theis vnd r written. 
m r Miller then at Rowle 

m r Blinman wherby it may Evidently 

m r J° Wilson app r we affect not any 

m r Samuel Mader thing tending to disturb 

m r Ezekiel Cheeuer or distast, Either Magist 5 

ml Lyon Eld 5 or Ch r ch of Christ ther- 

for one of Waft officers in & so the necessitie of 

one of Charls Ch h officers the Ch r ch to attend y e guid- 

m r John Brock ence of God for supply as 

they could. 

2 the Ch r ch of Maldon app r hended themselues to haue manifest 
wrong about m r John Wilson & in speciall by Roxburie w ch we shold 
not haue mentioned, onely to manifest, our non acting w th m r Ma. had 
we not by their means been bereaued of m r J° Wilson 

3 be pleased to consid r that we were denyed y e ordinance of Baptism 
at a neighbour Ch r ch before the aduise about Ordination, although it 
was desired in the name of the Church (& so signified in writing) as 
the Platform of discipline doth direct. 

Lastly be pleased to consid r that, that w ch came from the Hon r d 
Magist 5 . & Churches of Charlst & Roxbury was onely in way of advice 
& had we sind ag t the ch r ches, we app r hend ed & allso Exspected them 
to follow the rules of Discipline warranted by Gods word & described 
in the Plattforme in such a case 

and had we vnd r stood y c Hon r d Magist that wrote to us had intended 
other or more in their l rr to us, then matters of aduice, we shold haue 
demurred & disposed o r selues otherwise & not haue Exposed ourselues 
to so much displeasure as we haue incurred from such p r sons & 

49 Mass. Archives, x. 31. 



MARMADUKE MATTHEWS. 151 

Relations, whom we so much honour & acknowledge ourselues so 
transcendently vnder God Jngaged vnto for that pious & peaceable 
(lOumment, w ch by their means we haue Jnioyed for so long a time & 
hope farther to Jnioy if the lord will. 
31- 8- (51) Y r Humbl seruant 

Jos: Hills: 50 

Under the circumstances there could have been but one 
reply to the justification contained in these papers, and that the 
Court was ready enough to give. Nine of the troublesome 
deputies, eight of whom, including William Hathorne of the 
committee and John Leverett, were found among the former 
" contradicentes," dissented from the action of the Court, and 
Richard Bellingham, the deputy-governor, joined with them 
from the magistrates ; but the efforts of so small a minority 
resulted only in their names being written in the margin of the 
record for honor or disgrace as posterity may agree. 51 The 
Court declared that they " hauinge p r vsed an answer of the 
church of Maldon, touchinge those thinges wherein they had 
giuen offence, are not satisfied therewith," and fined the mem- 
bers of the church fifty pounds, to ensure the payment of which 
it was levied on the estates of Joseph Hills, Edward Carrington, 
and John Wayte, 52 who began to find that to stand before the 
Great and General Court as the representatives of a contuma- 
cious church implied something more than distinction. They 
were empowered to " make proportion of the sajd some on the 
rest of the members of the church," excepting, however, " any 
person that hath given this Courte sattisfactjon, and that con- 
sented not to M r Mathewes ordjnatjon." 53 This exception 
reduced the number of those who were to bear the material 
burden of the Court's displeasure to " ten or eleven brethren." 

There must have been both chagrin and grief, and a touch of 
wrath, in the little church at Bell Rock that winter. There are 
indications that Mr. Matthews continued to preach, probably 
with more circumspection while a fine and the displeasure of 
the Colony were still hanging over him. In the meantime, as 

50 Mass. Archives, x. 80. 52 Mass. Colony Records, iii. 250. 

51 Ibid., 32. M Ibid., iv. (1), 71. 



152 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

ordered by the authorities, the church made a show of dealing- 
with him, with perhaps more of apparent than real zeal. Mean- 
while, also, the members of the church showed how their 
inclinations turned by giving their offending brother, Thomas 
Lynde, what was not inaptly termed in Maiden in later days " a 
church-hauling;" and regardless of the "tenderness and cau- 
tion " with which he was said to have given his testimony, they 
proceeded so far that excommunication seemed likely to follow 
censure. 54 

But the civil authority interposed at this juncture. At a 
session of the Council, held at Boston, March 4, 165 ':, the 
unsatisfactory condition of affairs at Maiden and the immediate 
danger of the government's witness were made known ; and in 
consonance with the earnest request of Thomas Lynde, a letter 
was written to the " Christian freinds & bretheren " at Maiden. 
At the same time the matter of dealing with Mr. Matthews, in 
which the church had failed, was considered and referred to a 
council of neighboring churches, as had been ordered by the 
General Court in October. The record is worthy of perusal as 
showing how completely the civil power had usurped authority 
in ecclesiastical matters at that time. The disclaimer, which is 
printed in italics, is strangely at variance with the actual state of 
things, and may have been the sugar-coating which the magis- 
trates thought might render the pill less bitter to the palates of 
the Maiden brethren. 

51 The innkeeper, John Hathorne, pointe," it could not force an unwilling 

appears to have received his due meas- public to visit his house. As a natural 

ure of the indignation of the inhabi- consequence, he removed the next year 

tants. The selectman, with Richard to the neighboring settlement of Lynn, 

Adams, constable, preferred a request where he succeeded Joseph Armitage, 

for Themas Skinner to keep an ordi- and committed the forgery which he 

nary or inn; but the General Court confessed. The people of Maiden had 

soon after passed the following vote : their will in this case, if not in that of 

"[1651: 23 May.] In ans r to the peti- Thomas Lynde; for the following was 

tion of John Hawthorne, this Court soon passed: "[1652: 26 May.] In 

judgeth it meete to encourage and ap- ansr to the petition of the inhabitants 

pointe him, the sajd John Hawthorne, of Maiden, the Courte doth graunt lib- 

to goe on and keepe the ordjnary at ertje and licence to Thomas Skinner to 

Maiden." Mass. Colony Records, \v. (i), keepe an ordinary there, in the roome 

47. He was under the protection of and stead of John Hawthorne, who was 

the Court just then; but although that formerly licensed there." Mass. Colony 

authority might "encourage and ap- Records, iv. (1), 89. 



MARMADUKE MATTHEWS. 1 53 

Aft a Councill held At Boston f" march i6ji : 

A lette r being p r sented & Comunicated to the Counsell by the sec- 
retary that was directed to him from m r Joseph Hills signifying the 
sattisfaction which the church of Maiden had receaved from m r marma- 
duke mathewes in relation to an order of the last session of the Generall 
Courte the Counsell not taking satisfaction therein did order as fol- 
io we th. 

Whereas Jtt was ordered by the Generall Courte in the last session 
thereof in Octobe r last, m r mathewes having formerly bene dealt withall 
for publishing divers erronjous vnsound & vnsafe opinions & being 
called to give sattisfaction to the Courte for the sajd Errors, which he 
did not Accordingly doe, the Courte therefore did thinke meete to 
Appointe [here follows the order of the Court which has been already 
given.'] That by this meanes the trueth may the better Appeare : since 
which the church of maulden have sent their retourne of the p r misses 
together with something written with m r mathewes name to it but not 
as wee are credibly Jnformed signed with m r mathewes owne hand the 
Copie whereof is heerewith sent you ; Jn all which wee are not sattisfjed 
m r mathewes not expressing any sorrow for his opinions nor promising 
for time to come to forbeare such vnsafe & vnsound expressions and 
therefore according to the order of the generall Courte aforesaid This 
Courte does Order that the Secretary shall give notice to the churches 
of Cambridge Charles Towne Lynne and Redding to send their mes- 
sengers in way of Counsell and Advice to the church of maiden as afore- 
sajd not excluding any other churches for the ends afore specifjed, 
Desiring them to deale effectually therein betweene this & the nex* 
Generall Courte & to send in a retourne to the sajd Courte what effect 
their Advice doth take & what sattisfaction they doe receave. 

The Counsell being Jnformed of the church of maidens Jntention to 
p r oceed to Censure Thomas Line for what evidence he gave into the 
Generall Courte against m r raarmaduke mathewes did order that the 
secretary should write to the church of maiden in their names as fol- 
lowed! 
Christian freinds 6° bretheren 

wee being Credibly Jnformed of some purpose of yo r s to p r oceed 
further to censure Tho. Ljne for the Testimony he gave in Court ag* 
m r mathewes & that to excomunication knowing ourselves with what 
tenderness & caution he gave his aforesajd testimony and w' disturbance 
yo r p r ceeding may probably occasion both in the churches & Civill gov- 
ernment we thought it no lesse than our duty (in a Case of this Con- 
cernment) yett without any Jntention or desier in the least to Jnfringe 
the libe r ty the lord Jesus christ hath purchased for his chit relies doe 
desire you to take the Counsell and advice of 3 or 4 of you* next 



154 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

neighboring churches in the Case aforesajd before you proceede to 
further censure ; Jt being also Tho Lynes earnest request as wee are 
Jnformed so that if the Case shall appeare cleare to others as it may 
seeme to doe to you you may then proceede with more peace & Com- 
fort and be more fully convinced if then he should Continew obstinate 
but in case it should appeare otherwayes to other churches then it doth 
to you the rule of Gods word may be further attended therein for the 
p r servation of true love & peace which we desire you will joynctly 
endeavor to promote with ou r selves So we rest 

your loving freinds : 
By order from the Counsell : 

Edward Rawson Secrty hf > 

The six weeks allowed by the Court in October had length- 
ened to more than four months, and over two months more 
elapsed before the council of churches was convened. At this 
council, the churches of Charlestown, Cambridge, Lynn, and 
Reading appeared as ordered ; and the First Church of Bos- 
ton sent its pastor and teacher, the learned and orthodox John 
Wilson and John Cotton, and two brethren, 

at the request of y e Church of Maiden to be Assistant to them in y e 
agitation of such matters as y e cause would require by reason y' foure 
other churches were sent by y e Governor and Counsell, to deale w th y' 
church vppon some offence Conceived they had given. 56 

The examination of Mr. Matthews was as unsatisfactory to the 
ecclesiastical council as the former answers had been obnoxious 
to the magistrates and deputies ; for although the messengers 
hoped " by what he expresseth, that in the general he doth in- 
deed see cause more than formerly to bewail the use of any 
such unsound expressions in time past, and to forbear the use 
of them for time to come," they regretted that he did " too 
much labor to put too fair a gloss upon his former expressions, 
which in themselves are very unsavory and ungrounded upon 
Scripture pattern." 

The preacher was evidently still bent upon justification rather 
than upon retraction, and was unwilling to allow that truth did 
not lie at the bottom of his " weak and inconvenient expres- 

55 Council Records, in loco. loco. A MS. copy of these records is 

56 First Church (Boston) Records, in in the library of the Mass. Hist. So. 



MARMADUKE MATTHEWS. 155 

sions." The messengers reported to the deputies, May 27, 
1652, and their " retourne " was as unsatisfactory to the latter 
as the result of the council had been to the former. But the 
Court had evidently got tired of Mr. Matthews ; for though 
they had humbled him and made him much trouble, they had 
not broken him, and he was as ready as ever to " gloss " his 
" former expressions; " and so they came to this conclusion: — 

The Courte, having pervsed M r Mathewes confession, ggid consider- 
ing the satisfaction tendered by him, and finding it not to be such and 
so full as might be expected, yett are willing to accept of it at present 

as to passe it by. 57 

They were more ready to pass by the doctrinal than the 
financial points of the case; and they put their unwilling- 
ness upon record as follows : — 

For the remittment of the churches and pastors fines, they see no 
cawse to graunt their request therein, the countrje being putt to so 
great trouble, chardges, and expenses in the hearing of the cawse. 58 

As has been before noticed, there was among the deputies a 
tendency to be more liberal and progressive than the magis- 
trates, — to be in advance of the times. It was the living spark 
which in due season, fanned into flame, burned away all the old 
hindrances to political and religious life and freedom. It was 
the flame of two revolutions ; and it has never died out in New 
England. In June they endeavored to do something like justice 
to Mr. Matthews and originated the following bill : — 

Forasmuch as it appears to this Court, wheras m r Marmaduke 
Mathews of Mauldon about y e defectiueness of his ordination was by 
y e Court fined Tenn pounds sine wch Jt appears to this Court y' ye 
church of mauldon doe take y e whole blame therof on ym, and m r 
Mathews haueing vsed some Jndeuers to remoue offence of diuers 
spirrits, referring to sundry greuances & his Condition being but 
Lowe in estate, y e Deputyes see Cawse to remitt y e fine aforesayd 
Desiring y e Consent of our honnored magistrts heerin : 9 : 4 : 52. 

William Torrey Cleric*® 

But the other branch of the civil power was not yet ready to 
recede from the position which the Court had taken, and the 

67 Mass. Colony Records, iv. (1), 90. M Ibid. 59 Mass. Archives, x. 81. 



156 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

conservative magistrates silenced the bill by adding these words : 
" The magists Cannot Consent heereto." On the twenty-third 
day of October, however, 

M r Joseph Hills pferring a petition for the remittment of fines im- 
posed on the chh of Maldon & theire pasto r , receiued this answer : that 
M r Mathewes fine should be remitted, & ten pounds remitted of the 
chches censure. 60 

The magistrates concurred with the deputies in this vote three 
days later. This was a most lame and impotent conclusion so 
far as the actions against Mr. Matthews and the Maiden church 
were concerned; but in respect to the Colony at large, the im- 
mediate influence of these cases was in favor of the principles 
which the Court sought to establish. Though many had been 
found to uphold the oppressed church in some measure, or at 
least to sympathize with it, practically, it stood alone in the 
contest. Grave offences had been committed, and in answering 
them the fathers of Maiden had the honor of standing foremost 
in the struggle between the church and the state. Their glory 
and offence was that they defended the independence of the 
church in the election of its officers and in its internal govern- 
ment — an independence which had already been defined by 
the Body of Liberties and the Cambridge Platform. Moreover, 
with their pastor they asserted the right of free thought and ex- 
pression, limited only by God's word and individual conscience 
— a right which, with the liberty of the church, had, above all 
others, been stoutly upheld by the Puritans in England. They 
showed a spirit of self-reliance and strength which proved them 
worthy champions of freedom ; and the principles which they 
maintained, though for a season defeated, were triumphant in 
the end and are to-day a crowning glory of New England. 

Twice at least had the General Court assailed the rights of 
the churches before ; and now the authority of the civil power 
in matters of ecclesiastical government and discipline was estab- 
lished. The next year the Court endeavored to make the work 
more strong and enduring by the passage of an act entitled 

60 Mass. Colony Records, iii. 294. 



MARMADUKE MATTHEWS. 157 

None to preach it/ h out approbation, &*c. 
Whereas by the providence of God, the noumber of our plantations 
are increased, diuerse of which, especially in their beginning, are des- 
titute of persons fitly qualifjed to vndertake the worke of the ministrje, 
whereby they are necessitated to make vse of such helpe as they haue 
to exercise and preach publicquely amongst them, by occasion whereof 
persons of bolder spiritts and erronious principles may take advantage 
to vent theire errors, to the infection of their hearers and the disturb- 
ance of the peace of the countrje, for the prevention whereof, itt is 
ordered by this Court, that no person shall vndertake any constant 
course of publicque preaching or prophesying w th in this jurisdiction 
without the approbation of the elders of the fower next neighboring 
churches, or of the County Court to which the place belongs. And if 
any person shall, after publication of this order, continew such a prac- 
tize, the next magistrate, or magistrates, who shall be informed thereof, 
shall forbid such person ; who if he shall not forbeare, he shall binde 
him ouer to the Courte of Asistants, who shall proceed w th such person 
according to the merrit of the fact. 61 

This was pressing too strongly the authority which had been 

assumed and was " dissatisfactory to diuers of the inhabitants 

whom the Court hath cawse to respect and tender;" 62 and it 

.called forth fervent remonstrances from the people. The Salem 

church declared that: — 

It entrencheth much vpon y e liberties of y e several churches, who 
have power (as is confessed by all y e Orthodoxe) to choose and sett vp 
over y m , whom they please for theyr edification & comfort w th out de- 
pending on any other power. 03 

The church and town of Woburn were more pointed in their 
memorial, saying: — 

This we cannot but conceive to be a taking the free course of church 
liberty into the hand of civil authority and whom they shall be pleased 
to bestow it upon, . . . we cannot but conceive it to be a crossing the 
lines of their authority and a coming in to intermeddle before Christ 
call them hereunto. 64 

The Court saw its mistake and hastened to retrace its steps, 
" that all jealowsies may be remooved," although declaring " the 
sajd order, rightly vnderstood, to be safe and much conducing 
to the preservation of peace and truth amongst vs." The obnox- 

61 Mass. Colony Records, iv. (i), 122. 63 Mass. Archives, x. S4. 

62 Ibid., 151. 64 Mass. Hist. Coll., xxi. 41. 



158 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

ious order was repealed in a little more than three months after 
its passage. 65 The Court, however, abated no part of its acquired 
authority, although it was transferred ostensibly to the consider- 
ation of individual errors of doctrine ; for the act which repealed 
the former order contained a provision that 

Euery person that shall publish and majntajne any hcethrodoxe and 
erronjous doctrjne shallbe ljable to be questioned and censured by the 
County Court where he liveth, according to the roerrit of his offence. 66 

The question was settled for a time ; and henceforth, for many 
years, the civil magistrate ordered the things of God. 

How long Mr. Matthews remained at Maiden is not known ; 
but apparently he had removed in 1654. It is said, on doubtful 
authority, that he preached awhile in Lynn. He returned to 
England in 1655, and several of the Maiden church went with 
him. Of these returning pilgrims I can recognize the widow 
Margaret Wheldon, who left a law-suit over the estate of her 
deceased husband, Gabriel ; 6T and with them, perhaps, was 
William Marble, otherwise called Mirable. 

But little is known of the family of Mr. Matthews. His wife, 
Katherine, who came with him from England, was a witness of 
the will of Gabriel Wheldon in 1653, as was Michaiah Matthews, 

65 It is worthy of remark that the wife, Margaret, was from Wales, and 
prudent Court so clearly felt the force perhaps owned a relationship with the 
of public dissatisfaction that the execu- pastor. 

tion of this order was immediately sus- He died in Maiden in January, 165 3 / ; 

pended until the next session, when, as and his will contains the first intimation 

stated in the text, it was repealed. Cf. of a burial at Sandy Bank, now known 

Mass. Archives, x. 81. as the Bell Rock Cemetery. He says : — 

66 Mass. Colony Records, iv. (i), 151. "I give my body to be layd asleepe in 
07 Gabriel Wheldon, or Welding, who the bed of the grave in the Comon 

appears to have been a personal friend burying place for the Inhabitants of 

of Mr. Matthews, was with that minister this Towne." 

at Yarmouth, and took the oath of fidel- With the exception of a legacy of 

ity with him. He came here with Mr. ten shillings to the Maiden church, his 

Matthews, and in his will calls himself estate, valued at ^40, 11,8, was left to 

"of the Towne and church of Mauldon." his wife; but the claims of his elder 

With his youngest son, John, he sold children caused a contention, as stated 

to William Crofts, of Lynn, four par- in the text. The widow, who may have 

eels of land in Arnold, county Notting- been a second wife, returned to England; 

ham. Essex Deeds, i. 24. This forbids but descendants of Gabriel Wheldon, 

the conclusion that he was a fellow bearing the name in its several forms, 

countryman of Mr. Matthews; but from may still be found on Cape Cod and 

the apparently close connection of the in other portions of New England, 
parties, I am inclined to believe that his 



MA RM A DUKE MATTHEWS. I 59 

who may have been his son. Mordecai Matthews was one of 
the two who were graduated at Harvard College in the class of 
1655. At the same time another Matthews, apparently his 
brother, was in a lower class. College charges against each end 
June 8, 1655 ; and as nothing more is known of them, it is sup- 
posed that they were sons of the Maiden preacher and returned 
to England with their father in that year. One Mordecai Mat- 
thews was minister at Roinolston in Glamorganshire. The 
younger student may have been that Manasseh who was bap- 
tized at Barnstable, January 24, 1641, or the Michaiah of the 
Wheldon will. 68 

The experience of Mr. Matthews in New England had not 
been of the kindliest, nor was his future to be brighter at home; 
for after a few years of comfort and peace, he was again to be 
brought into trouble for the sake of conscience. He returned to 
Glamorganshire and became vicar of St. John's in Swansea, his 
native town. Here, in a good living, he remained until the 
Restoration and the enforcement of the Act of Uniformity — 
that act by which on St. Bartholomew's Day, August 24, 1662, 
as Macaulay says, " about two thousand ministers of religion, 
whose conscience did not suffer them to conform, were driven 
from their benefices in one day." 69 In Calamy's story of his 
subsequent life we may see a vivid picture of the condition of 
the many unbeneficed clergymen who remained in England. 
Godly and suffering men were they, saints to their friends and a 
derision to their enemies. They were learned and able in their 
day and generation; and in their distresses they were no less 
martyrs in the cause of religion and liberty than those whose' 
lives went out in flame and blood. 

He had been in New England. He left a good living when he had 
nothing else to subsist upon. He afterwards preached, by the conni- 
vance of the magistrates in a little chapel at the end of the town. He 
was a very pious and zealous man, who went about to instruct people 
from house to house. All his discourse, in a manner, was about spirit- 
ual matters. He made no visits but such as were religious and minis- 

68 Sibley, Harvard Graduates, L 403 ; L9 Macaulay, History of England, 

Savage, Genealogical Dictionary, iii. chap. ii. Cf. Palmer, Calamy's Non- 
177. conformist's Memorial, 33. 



lOo HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

terial, and received none but in a religious manner. When any came 
to visit him, after common salutations, he would soon enter into some 
discourse about their souls ; and when any thing was brought for them 
to drink, it was his custom to take the glass into his hand, give solemn 
thanks to God for it, and drink to his friend, telling him he was heartily 
welcome. He would often go out on market-days to the country peo- 
ple, and speak to them about spiritual matters, some of whom received 
him with respect, and others with contempt and scorn. He lived above 
the world, and depended wholly upon Providence for the support of 
himself and his family. He had no estate, but subsisted by the piety 
of his children, (of whom two or three were sober Conformists) and by 
the kindness of relations and friends ; which made him sometimes 
pleasantly say, he was comfortably maintained by the children of God, 
his own children, and the children of this world. His way of preaching 
and catechizing had some peculiarities, which became him, and were 
of advantage unto many. He lived to a good old age, and continued 
useful to the last. He died about 1683. 70 

At the time of the departure of Mr. Matthews, the church, or 
rather the offending portion of it, had not satisfied the fine of 
forty pounds which had been laid upon Joseph Hills, Edward 
Carrington, and John Wayte to collect of the other brethren. 
This sum was apportioned to three classes; and Edward Car- 
rington complained afterwards that his associates had " reserved 
to theire proportion such brethren of the Church as are able to 
pay," and had left him " to Gather vp that proportion that be- 
longs to me to take vp of the poorer sort of brethren." 71 A 
fairer explanation seems to be that his particular class was 
formed among " our Charlestown neighbours," of whom he was 
one, who were either less able or more unwilling to pay than the 
Maiden members of the church. 

At the session of the General Court in May, 1655, Joseph 
Hills, Abraham Hill, John Wayte, John Sprague, Ralph Shep- 
hard, John Upham, James Green, and Thomas Call presented a 
petition, " in w ch they humbly acknowledg the offenc they gaue 
to the Court & seuerall churches about the ordjnation of M r 
Mathcwes," asking that the church might be cleared of the 
whole fine or that Joseph Hills and John Wayte " may be for- 

70 Palmer, Calamy's Nonconformist's 71 Mass. Archives, x. 47. 

Memorial, ii. 627. 



M ARM A DUKE MATTHEWS. 161 

giuen their offence, & discharged of the two p r ts of the fowre 
[three'] charged on them." 72 The petitioners were unsuccessful 
in respect to the fine ; but their acknowledgments, about which 
they probably cared the least, were accepted. Their answer 
was as follows : — 

The Court doth well approue & accept of the petitio rs acknowledg- 
ments of their iregular actings in those times, but vnderstanding y l much, 
if not most, of the fine being payd for, & y f the rest is secured, & should 
long since haue been payd in, the Court doth not thinke meet to graunt 
the petitiono rs request herein. 73 

Poverty or unwillingness, or both together, caused the money 
to come slowly from the pockets of the Maiden farmers ; and 
though two parts of the three had been " gathered in," or secured 
by the fall of 1658, it is not clear that anything had been paid 
to the authorities, unless the portion of Joseph Hills had been 
paid before May, 1655. Edward Carrington, who was the last 
to " humblie acknowledge " his shortcomings, addressed the 
Court in a petition dated October 28, 1658, in which he ex- 
pressed his " Greife " and the poverty of his neighbors. 

The humble Petition 0/ Edward Carington humbly Shewth, 
That wheras this Hono rd Court was pleased some time sine to Jm- 
pose & Lay a fine vppon the Church of maulden of the surae of fortie 
pounds, for ordeining m r Mathews Pastor w th out or Against the counsell 
& Advice of the hono rd magistrats and Rev nd Elders (The Euill of w ch 
the Lord hath convinced yo r Petition r of being on of them and is made 
Realy sensible of the great dishon r don to god, and disturbanc to the 
Churches peace therby, to the Greife of his heart which he is Redie to 
Confess on all occations & to take the shame therof) yo r Petion r be- 
ing allso Appoynted to be one of the three for the Gathering and 
paying the said ffine, the other two haueing a fitter opertunitie haue 
gathered in, and Reserved to theire proportion such brethren of the 
Church as are able to pay wherby they may discharge theire dutie, but 
haue left to yo r petition r such persons to receiue his proportion of which 
some are gone for England, some are remoued to other Townes, and 
the rest not able to pay whereby yo r Petition r is made vtterly vncapeable 
of discharging that iniunction Laid vppon him Except to the great 
wrong of himselfe & family he should pay it out of his owne estate 
which he presumeth is not the minde of this hono rd Court, wherfore 

72 Mass. Colony Records, iv. (1), 236. " 3 Ibid., iii. 389. 

11 



1 62 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

he humbly requesteth yo r fauo rs That either, that part of the whole sume 
inioyned yo r petitioner to gather & pay may be remitted to yo r petition' 
and the rest of the poore vnable and abscent brethren as aforesaid to 
the vallue of 13" : 6 s : 8 d : w ch is \ pt of y e 40", or otherwise that yo r peti- 
tion' may only pay his proportion allotted for him to pay (being only 
one single p r son in that offenc, which the lord hath giuen him to see 
the euel of, and humbled him for) and that some other more meet 
p r son or persons be put in the Roome & sted of yo r Petition' to Rec & 
pay w' remaineth of those other brethren as afores d . And yo r Petition' 
shall euer pray for the prosperitie of this hono' d Court and abide 

Yo' humble & Devoted Serv' 

Edward Carington. 74 

To this petition and request the magistrates consented " that 
the petitioner payinge his part of the fine the remainder shall be 
remitted & giuen to the towne for towne stocke." But the depu- 
ties refused to concur, feeling, perhaps, that, though the fine 
ought not to have been laid at all, justice required that if two 
parts had been " gathered in " the third should be paid also, or 
else all be forgiven and returned. 

Nineteen months now elapsed and nothing appears to have 
been done towards settling the debt. The condition of Edward 
Carrington's neighbors, — " the poorer sort of brethren," — re- 
mained the same. At a session of the General Court, May 30, 
1660, the petition was renewed, and the whole matter was 
referred to the County Court of Middlesex for consideration 
and such settlement " as in theire wisdomes they shall thinke 
meete." 75 The Maiden committee now joined in a memorial 
which contains some items of interest. 

To the Hono r d Court at Charlstowne this ig. 4. 1660. May it 
please you to consider that the fine Jmposed on vs respecting m r Math- 
ews ordination, was by the gen' 11 Court charged onely on the church, 
Exempting allso some of the Brethren by means whereof it fell heavie 
vppon the rest, being but 10 or n Brethren wher of one Dyed before 
Any paym' made to the Treasu', & his wife since gone to England with 
m' Mathews. Allso some Breth'n of whom we expected help are Re- 
moved out of Towne Tho: Hett, Tho: Ozban. and another we 
conceiue is unable to beare it (viz) Tho: Skin', as Jndeed we all are, 
And it presses hard vppon vs. Wherfore ou r Humble Request to this 
Hono'd Court to whom power as we hope is seasonablie now deriued 

74 Mass. Archives, x. 47. 75 Midd. Court Files, in loco. 



M ARM A DUKE MATTHEWS. 1 63 

to releiue vs that not only this third part be remitted, but the other Re- 
turned we now hauing a new Meeting-house in Building which will Cost 
vs aboue 150": and our Teach rs great and long continued weaknes 
calls for more than ordinarie from vs. 

your verie humble Seruants 
Joseph Hills, 
Edward Carington, 
John Wayte, 76 

By the County Court the petitioners were ordered to " give a 
clear ace 1 of all their p r ceedings therein, vnto Leift. Ri: Sprague, 
Edw. Oakes, & Ephraim Child, or any two of them, who are by 
this Court appoynted & impowred to examine the matter, & 
make report of w l they find therein vnto y e next Court at 
Cambridge." " 

This committee considered the matter nearly two years before 
they reported that they had received and approved the account 
of the petitioners, and that "the some of twentie fower pound 
six shilling's two pence " had been paid ; and, " hauing taken 
notice of there pouertie, and some other reasons that doe moue 
vs thearvnto," they became " bould " to request that the remain- 
der be abated. 78 

On the first day of April, 1662, ten years and five months 
after the fine had been laid, Edward Carrington was " abated ten 
pounds of the fine imposed on Him to gather at Mauldon by the 
authority of the gen r all Court; "and the Maiden church was 
finally purged of its offences.' 9 

That the offending members of the church ever seriously 
repented of the support which they gave Mr. Matthews is very 
doubtful. That their actions were the root of much trouble in 
after years seems very probable. Michael Wigglesworth wrote 
a letter to be read "vnto the Church," in 1658, in which he 
strongly reviewed their proceedings and exhorted them to 
repentance and a renewal of brotherly love. In referring to Mr. 
Matthews he wrote as follows : — 

I besesch you first to consid r seriously & sadly of y e manner & circum- 
stances of yo r calling M r Mathews unto office in this place. A man 

76 Midd. Court Files, in loco. " 8 Midd, Court Files, in loco. 

77 Midd. Court Records, i. 212; also 79 Midd. Court Records, i. 252. 
Midd. Court Files, in loco. 



1 64 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

known & often prov d to be of an unsound judgenV, unsavory and unsafe 
in expression, stiff & immoveable as a rock in what ever he asserted, 
who for these th Rgs had been excommunicated at one place, disliked & 
discarded at anoth place, once (if not oftener) censured in y e court ; 
This man (such was then yo r p r cipitancy & wilfulnes) you would haue 
against y e counsel of magistrates, elders, & other godly neighbors al- 
though it were to y e grief of y e spirit of God in the hearts of his people, 
to y e endangering and endamaging of yo r ow n soules. to y e justifying of 
his erro rs , at least in appearance (for yo r action hold forth no less then 
a justifying of him from erro r w r of he had been convicted) if not also to 
a real closing with them for a time ; finally, tho it were to y e hazzard- 
ing of yo r peace love & communion with other churches. Brethn I fear 
this sin had not yet been sufficiently seen, felt, bewailed, repented off, 
confessed to God, & men upon occasion, that y e anger of God for it 
might be turn d away. And I fear it y e . rath. i. Becaus I could never 
discern any signs of sorrow for it in any, except one or two. 2 ly Bee. 
o r punishmt seems to point at y e sin, being in y e same kind. The Lord 
open yo r eyes to see if this be not one cause & a leading cause of y" 
Lords contending with you to this day ; and I believ it wil be so until y e 
Lord make you feel it to be an evil & a bitter thing. 

80 Mass. Hist. So. Proc, May, 187 1, 95. 




rtV-W 



CHAPTER VI. 



JOSEPH HILLS AND JOHN WAYTE. 



OF the early settlers of Maiden, two men, above all others, 
filled prominent positions in the local affairs of the town 
and took no mean part in the civil and religious concerns of 
the Colony. Closely united by family ties, they were no less in- 
timate in their public lives; and the stories of their careers 
will be found to have much in common, both in what they 
performed and in the honors which they received. They 
earliest bore the responsibilities and honors of the highest 
offices in the gift of their fellows ; and for a period of thirty- 
four years, from the incorporation of the town until the elder 
had removed and the younger had been stricken with blindness, 
they were the only representatives of the town at the General 
Court — the Congress of the young Colony. Each in his time 
was Speaker of the House of Deputies, an office which no other 
citizen of Maiden has taken to the present time. Roth are 



1 66 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

nearly forgotten in the town where their busy lives were passed, 
and which owes them much for what they did in its earlier days. 
Nothing remains of one, save the memory of the old town well 
at the corner of Main and Salem Streets, — Joseph Hills's well. 
Of the younger, we have a thick old English slatestone in the 
" burying place near Sandy Bank," and an ever present memo 
rial in the sturdy form and honest name of Wayte's Mount. 

Joseph Hills was an inhabitant of Maldon, a town in the 
county of Essex in England, where, with his wife Rose, he lived, 
it is said, as " a woollen draper, having large transactions at 
London." x Whatever his calling may have been at that time, 
his apparent skill in legal matters and his career in New Eng- 
land justify the assertion that if he was not a lawyer by pro- 
fession he was so by his tendencies and habits and perhaps by 
education. We have his own testimony, given in 1639, in 
which, calling himself " of Charlestowne in New England, 
Woollen-draper, aged about 36 yeares," he tells of the transpor- 
tation of goods from Maldon to London " in an Jpsw ch Hye," 
which he cleared at the custom house " in the ship called the 
Susan & Ellen of London, whereof was Master M' Edward 
Payne," in which he arrived in Massachusetts Bay, Ju'y 17, 
1638. 2 

About the same time, or perhaps with him, came John Wayte, 
a son of Samuel Wayte of Wethersfield, a town about eighteen 
miles from Maldon. His mother, Mary, was an aunt, or a 

1 Savage, Genealogical Dictionary, ii. friendship or of sisterhood in the church. 

417. The statement in Coffin, History Still, I think that the words as twice 

of A T eiubnry, 393, that he was from used and the provisions of the will im- 

Shrevvsbury, although, perhaps, tradi- ply a relationship; and I venture to 

tionary, is an evident error. Savage's suggest that Elizabeth, the second wife 

supposition that Rose Hills was a sister of Henry Dunster and the mother of 

of President Dunster has been accepted his children, was a sister of Helen 

as a genealogical fact by most writers; Atkinson. The will may be found in 

but there was no ground for the suppo- Chaplin, Life of Henry Dunster, 303- 

sition at first. Dunster's will, which was 308. 

written in 1658, mentions "my sister 2 Lechford, Note-Book, 91. Mr. Hills 

Mrs. Hills of Mauldon," and appoints appears to have been received as a 

Joseph Hills an overseer. If the Mrs. person of some importance among the 

Hills of that date was his sister, it was new comers; as thirteen days after his 

not Rose, who had been dead eight arrival, he was admitted as a townsman 

years. The living wife was Helen, or and received the grant of land at Mystic 

Eleanor, Atkinson; and the title may Side which is elsewhere noticed, 
have been used as a recognition of 



JOSEPH HILLS AND JOHN WAYTE. 



167 



sister, 3 of the celebrated Rev. Nathaniel Ward of Ipswich, 
whose Simple Cobler of Aggavvam in America and his services 
in compiling the Body of Liberties have given him an undying 
name among the fathers of New England. John Wayte, who 
was in 1638 about twenty years of age, soon married, if he had 
not already done so in England, Mary, the young daughter of 
Joseph Hills, and following into the forests of Mystic Side he 
seated himself near his father-in-law, on the south-west side of 
Mount Prospect, which took from him its later names of Cap- 
tain's Hill and Wayte's Mount. 4 

The coming of Joseph Hills as an undertaker in the ship 
which brought him to New England gave him, perhaps, some 
distinction over humbler adventurers ; and his abilities soon 
brought him into notice and employment. He was received 



3 Probably a sister. For the infor- 
mation compiled from the Candler and 
Tanner manuscripts in the British Mu- 
seum and Bodleian Library see the pedi- 
grees in Dean, Memoir of the Rev. 
Nathaniel Ward, 129, and N. E. Hist, 
ami Geneal. Register, xli. 2S2. 

i John Wayte had received a grant 
of eight acres in the vicinity of Wayte's 
Mount from the town of Charlestown 
in 1647. In 1654 he bought of John 
Coggan, who had married the widow 
Coytmore after the death of her second 
husband, Governor John Winthrop, sev- 
eral parcels of the Coytmore land, one 
of which was bounded on the west by 
the brook " below the falls and by the 
Pond above the falls," and on the east, 
by the common and other land of John 
Wayte. Over this land ran " a cart way 
of Two rods wide from the falls streight 
forth into the Country way;" in which 
may be found the origin of an old way 
over which Mountain Avenue now passes 
from Main .Street to the brook or, more 
likely, that of the way long known as 
Barrett's or Dye House Lane and now 
as Barrett Street. In this parcel was 
included Mount Prospect, which was to 
be defended against "the Towne of 
Mauldon wch is vallued at five pounds." 
SI 1 J J. Co. Deeds, ii. 18. 

The house, which he built and where 
he died, stood on the easterly side of 



Main Street, north of Mountain Avenue, 
on land which, in 1885, was owned by 
the heirs of Otis Tufts. Atlas of Mat- 
den, 1885, plate xvi. On this site, in a 
house which probably contained a por- 
tion of the old building, if it was not 
that structure itself, died in 1797 Ldward 
Newhall, to whom it had come by an 
unbroken descent in the fifth genera- 
tion. It was afterwards owned and 
occupied by the late Joseph Warren 
Tufts. 

In the division of the estate of Cap- 
tain John Wayte, his house and lands 
near Wayte's Mount became possessed 
by his third son, Samuel; and, at the 
death of the latter in 1720, they passed 
to his younger children, Edward and 
Jabez. Edward retained the old house 
and land east of the Reading road, 
which passed at his death to the Xew- 
hall family. Jabez took his share in 
the westerly land and built the house 
which recently stood at the corner of 
Main and Clifton Streets. This house, 
occupied successively by the son and 
grandson of its builder, was known 
from them as the Micah or Peter Waite 
house. In its later days, it passed 
through the descending conditions of 
dilapidation and ruin, until at last, no 
longer habitable, it was burned, October 
10, 1893. 



1 68 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



into the church of Charlestown, with his wife, soon after his 
arrival ; and, although he was not admitted as a freeman until 
1645, he was chosen a selectman of the town in 1644. Al- 
though he appears in the Book of Posses- 
sions as the owner of a house " in the 




middle row," near the market place, it is 
probable that he soon removed to the land which was granted 
him at Mystic Side. 5 He represented the town of Charlestown 
in the House of Deputies during the years 1646 and 1647, an d 
was chosen Speaker in the latter year. It was during these 



5 The grant of land to Joseph Hills 
and his early purchase of the twenty 
acres of Thomas Ruck and a portion 
of the lot of Thomas Coytmore have 
been elsewhere noticed. The land em- 
braced in these parcels lay on each side 
of the Salem Path, and was described, 
in 1638, as woodland. That on the 
northern side extended from the way 
now known as Main Street to the rocks 
at Faulkner. On the southern side, it 
began at the present easterly line of the 
High School land and ran to the swamp 
which began at the ancient path now 
called Cross Street. Southerly, it was 
bounded by Pemberton's Brook ; but, 
later, Mr. Hills became possessed of all 
the land south of the brook and north 
of Cross Street to its junction with 
Ferry Street. 

Whether Coytmore had built upon 
his land at the present corner of Salem 
and Main Streets and dug the well, 
which for nearly two centuries and a 
half yielded its cooling waters for the 
use of man and beast is unknown ; but 
there is reason for believing that Joseph 
Hills was in the enjoyment of both 
house and well as early as 1650. To 
this house he refers late in life as his 
"lesser house and ground," he having 
built another house upon the Salem 
Path near the present Sprague Street, 
to which he may have removed and 
which he sold in 16S1, with sixty acres 
of land, to Thomas Newhall of Lynn, 
who had married his granddaughter, 
Rebecca Green. This farm was bounded 
on the north by Mount Prospect, or 



Wayte's Mount, and on the south by 
the water course, or Pemberton's Brook. 
Thomas Newhall removed to Maiden 
and became the ancestor of that branch 
of the Newhall family which still re- 
mains here. 

Two years before the sale to Thomas 
Newhall, Joseph Hills had sold to 
Joseph Wilson, for eighty-five pounds, 
the house, with eight acres of land, at 
the corner of the Salem and Reading 
roads. Wilson was a blacksmith; and 
his shop was one of the public places 
of the town where notices were posted. 
It may have been upon the westerly side 
of Main Street, as tradition says that 
the rubbish of a forge was found there 
while excavating many years ago. To 
the land bought of Joseph Hills, Wilson 
added, in 1699, six acres of the Wayte 
land, which gave him a strip of fourteen 
acres from the Salem road to Wayte's 
Mount. This land, with other lots in 
various parts of the town, he owned at 
the time of his death in 1705. 

After the death of their father, John, 
in 1 74 1, Elizabeth and Tabitha Wilson, 
spinsters and granddaughters of Joseph 
Wilson, were joint owners and occu- 
pants of the house. Tabitha married 
Benjamin Parker in 176S; and nine 
years later, Elizabeth, at the age of 
sixty-five years, became the third wife 
of James Kettell, who is variously styled 
baker, tavern-keeper, deputy-sheriff, and 
jail-keeper. It was he who transformed 
the house of Joseph Hills into a tavern, 
the succeeding history of which will be 
considered in its place. Vide, chap. xix. 



JOSEPH HILLS AND JOHN WAYTE. 1 69 

years that he became " active for to bring the Lawes of the 
County in order." G This service, which was fully recognized 
at the time, was forgotten in the course of years. In 1867 
the honors which he had earned by a series of faithful labors 
were appropriated for another; and Edward Johnson, of 
Woburn, the author of the Wonder-working Providence of 
Siojis Saviour, passed into written history as the compiler of 
the Massachusetts Laws of 1648. 7 This error, originating in 
a work of importance and ability, has been repeated by later 
writers with an air of authority, which might effectually stifle 
all doubts were not the records extant in which the whole story 
is clearly related. 

The able editor of the Wonder-working Providence gives his 
author a prominent part in the labor and honor of the compila- 
tion of the Laws, although he does not claim that he was the 
chief compiler. He declares, however, that, "when Captain 
Johnson was on the committee, then, and only then, efficient 
progress was made in the work." That Mr. Poole had over- 
looked a more important person than Lieutenant Johnson was 
promptly shown by a writer in the Historical Magazine 8 and 
soon after by the present writer in the Maiden Messenger? 1 
What the latter, with its limited local circulation, did not 
accomplish, the former, then the leading historical publi- 
cation in America, also failed to effect; and the truth in 
relation to the real compiler remained comparatively un- 
known. Nine years later the claim of Edward Johnson was 
reasserted in a report of the Council of the American Anti- 
quarian Society, 10 with an appearance of certain knowledge 
which can hardly fail to ensnare the unwary reader; but it re- 
mained for a writer in the Winchester Record to perfect the 
work. 

After a reference to a strife which he assumes took place 
between the magistrates and the deputies over the laws, the 
latter writer says : — 

6 Johnson, Wonder-working Provi- 8 Moore in Historical Magazine,xa\S>^. 
dence, no. n Maiden Messenger, May 16, 1868. 

7 Poole, Introduction to Wonder- 10 American Antiq. So. Proc, April, 
working Providence, ciii. et seq. 1 877, 29, 30. 



i;o J I IS TORY OF MALDEN. 

Committee after committee had been appointed, whose work was 
frustrated, until Captain Johnson was put upon such a committee in 
1648, when the work was speedily done. He devotes a chapter in his 
book to exultation that the thing so long desired was at length accom- 
plished, yet he does not speak of what every one else knew, his own 
agency in the matter. 11 

Considering the insufficiency of the foundation of the claim 
in its original form, this exaggerated statement is an eminent 
example of how theories, growing by transmission, appear at 
last as facts and take the place of authentic history in the minds 
of those who write without investigation. 

The three writers here considered intimate that the work of 
the committees was purposely delayed or their purposes frus- 
trated, except when Johnson was present. A more eminent 
authority, writing in i860, says: — 

There is no reason to suppose that they who now had the business 
in charge desired to frustrate it ; but it was not of a nature to be, at 
the same time, well and hastily done. 12 

Referring to the late Francis Calley Gray, whose well-known 
article is still the best that has been written on the early history 
of our laws, 13 it is said that " it is remarkable that Mr. Gray 
should have failed to connect Johnson with the original publi- 
cation of these laws." 14 Mr. Gray's article is clear in its state- 
ment of facts and polished in their presentation. It is the work 
of a scholar and careful investigator; and it would have been 
remarkable had its author anticipated the later error and given 
Edward Johnson a place to which he had no right. He did 
mention, in several extracts from the Colony Records, the name 
of "the leading man; " and Johnson, himself, speaks of Joseph 
Hills as " active for to bring the Lawes of the County in 
order." 15 

The facts which Mr. Gray did not recognize as important, 
and on which is based the undeserved distinction of Lieutenant 
Johnson, are that he was a member of the committee at times; 

11 Winchester Record, i. 45, 46. 14 American Aniiq. So. Proc, April, 

12 Palfrey, History of New England, 1877, 30. 

ii. 261. 15 Wonder-working Prmndence, no. 

13 Mass. Hist. Coll., xxviii. 191. 



JOSEPH HILLS AND JOHX WAYTE. IJI 

that, in 1648, he was "pressed w th many urgent occasions ; " and 
that he mentioned with apparent pleasure the completion of the 
laws. Not a very firm foundation is this on which to build the 
reputation of " a wise and energetic legislator." 

It is not the purpose of this chapter to tarnish the merited 
fame of Edward Johnson but to restore to one who deserves 
them the honors which time has obscured. 

In the year 1641 the Colony of Massachusetts Bay adopted 
for a trial of three years the first code of laws in New England. 
This was the famous Liberties of the Massacliusets Colonie in 
New England, better known as the Body of Liberties, of Na- 
thaniel Ward, which, after remaining in manuscript two hundred 
years, was found by the late Francis C. Gray and printed in 
1843. 16 These laws being proved by experience during the 
allotted period, the necessity of the establishment of a perma- 
nent code, in which the fundamental laws that Ward had pre- 
sented should be revised and enlarged, became apparent. 
Several orders, anticipating such a work, had been passed since 
the presentation of the Liberties. It has been said that little 
was accomplished under these orders by " the Magistrates, who 
did nothing, and whose interest was to do nothing;" 17 but I 
infer that the magistrates wisely desired to test the code by its 
operations and a careful consideration, as its tentative adop- 
tion allowed, rather than to hazard the permanent acceptance 
of laws which might be adverse to the interests of the Colony 
and unsuited to the temper and habits of the people. When 
the appointed time was fully expired, the following order was 
passed. 

ri645: "1 Itt is ordered, y' seuerall p r sons out of each county shall 
" be chosen to drawe vp a body of lawes, & p r sent them to 

y e consideration of y e Genne r all Coute, at their next sitting. 18 

Under this order, committees of six persons from each of the 
three counties of the Colony were appointed. At the next 
session of the Court, in October, some changes were made in 
the formation of these committees, and they were desired 

16 Mass. Hist. Coll., xxviii. 216, et seq. 1S Mass. Colony Records, iii. 26. 

17 Introduction to Wonder-working Prmndence, ciii. 



172 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

To appoint their owne meetings for the accomplishment of the end 
so desired, & to make their returne of what they shall do herein to the 
next siting of y e Generall Court. 19 

The committee from Middlesex was composed of Herbert 
Pelham of Cambridge, Increase Nowell of Charlestown, the 
Rev. Thomas Shepard of Cambridge, the Rev. John Knowles 
of Watertown, Joseph Hills of Charlestown, and Lieutenant 
Edward Johnson of Woburn. It is worthy of notice, as an evi- 
dence of some peculiar fitness in the person chosen, that while 
the committees, except in this instance, consisted of magistrates, 
ministers, and deputies, Joseph Hills, who was neither, was 
placed upon the Middlesex commission. He was not appointed 
upon the commission as it was first constituted ; but upon the 
resignation of Captain George Cooke of Cambridge, who was 
Speaker of the House that year, he was put 20 " in Capt. Cookes 
roome, at his request." Johnson and Knowles appear to have 
taken no part in the deliberations of the Middlesex committee. 21 

It does not appear that the work of the committees, which 
was simply preparatory, was not fully and promptly performed ; 
and there is reason for believing that a code drawn by Joseph 
Hills from the statutes of England and other sources was ac- 
cepted by the Middlesex committee as the result of their labors, 
which, with the reports of the other committees, was before the 
General Court at the session in May, 1646. The book of Mr. 
Hills was afterwards lost; and "although it were in harvest 
time," he made another copy for the use of the committee which 
was appointed by the Court in the following order. 

[May 6, 1646.] This Cou r te thankefully accep ts y e labo rs of y e seu- 
e r all committees of y e seuerall shieres as they are retoumed by them, & 
being very vnwilling y l such p r etious labo r s should fall to y e ground 
w th out y l good successe as is genne r ally hoped for, have though' it 
meete to desier Richard Bellinghm, Esq r , & Left Duncan, M r Nowell & 
Lef ' Johnson, M r Symonds & M r Warde, to cawse each committees re- 
tou r ne about a body of lawes to be transcribed, so as each committee 

1 9 Mass. Colony Records, ii. 128. working-man," Edward Johnson, is 

20 Ibid. claimed to have been most serviceable. 

21 This is to be noted, as it was in Vide Introduction to Wonder-working 
the labors of this committee that " the Providence, ciii. civ. 



JOSEPH HILLS AND JOHN WAYTE. 1/3 

have the sight of y e othe r s labo r s ; & y' y e p r sons mentioned in this o'der 
be pleased to meete together at or before the tenth of August next, 
at Salem or Ipswich, & on y e p r vsing & examining y e whole labor s of 
all the committees w th y e abreviation of y e lawes in force, w ch M r Bel- 
linghm tooke great store of paynes, & to good pu'pose, in & vpon 
y e whole doe make retourne to y e next session of y e Courte at w dl time 
y e Courte en tends, by y e favo r & blessing of God, to p r ceed to y e estab- 
lishing of so many of them as shallbe thought most fitt for a body 
of lawes amongst vs. 22 

There was not a great advance in the work during the months 
which intervened between this and the succeeding session of the 
Court. There were the codes of the shire committees to be 
brought into unity and to be compared with the existing laws; 
and the lost compilation of Mr. Hills was to be restored. 
There were also other affairs which could not be passed by; 
and it was not strange that the committee could not present a 
completed code at the appointed time. That they did not is 
evident from the action of the Court, although, misled by con- 
fidence in Lieutenant Johnson's presence, it is said that " the 
committee completed their labors." 23 In the order of the 
Court thereupon, the failure of the committee to perfect its 
work is recognized. There is no indication of dissatisfaction 
at the result nor is a censure implied in the action which was 
taken ; but a full sense of the importance of the labor and the 
necessity of care in its performance is expressed. It may be 
observed that Mr. Hills, whose labor had forwarded the work, 
was now given a place, by name, upon the committee and that 
Lieutenant Johnson was not reappointed. 

[November 4, 1646.] The Co r te, being deeply sensible of y e ear- 
nest expectation of the country in gen r all for this Co r ts compleating of 
a body of lawes for y e bett r tSc more ord r ly weilding all y e affaires of this 
common wealth, wiling also to their utmost to answere their honest & 
harty desires therein, unexpectedly p r vented by multitude of oth r press- 
ing occasions, thinke fit & necessary y' this Co r te make choyce of two 
or three of o r hono r ed magistrats, w th as many of y e deputies, to p r use, 
examine, compare, transcribe, correct, & compose in good order all y e 
liberties, lawes, & orders extant w th us, & furth' to p r use & p r fect all such 

22 Mass. Colony Records, iii. 74, 75. - :i Introduction to Wonder -working 

Providence, ciii. 



1/4 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

oth r s as are drawne up, & to p r sent such of them as they find necessary 
for us, as also to suggest what they deeme needful to be aded, as also 
to consider & contriue some good methode & order, titles, & tables for 
compiling y e whole, so as we may have ready recourse to any of them 
upon all occasions, whereby we may manifest o r utt r disaffection, to 
arbitrary governV, & so all relations be safely & sweetly directed & 
p r fected in all their iust rights & priviledges, desireing thereby to make 
way for printing o r lawes for more publike & p r fitable use of us & o r 
successor. O r hono'ed Gov r n r , M r Bellingham, M r Hibbens, M r Hill, & 
M r Duncan, as a committee for y e busines above mentioned, or any 
three of them meeting, y e oth r haveing notice thereof, shalbe sufficient 
to carry on y e worke. 24 

There is no evidence that the work of compilation and com- 
parison was not diligently followed, although the writer before 
quoted sees that, as the " working man " had been removed, 
"little or nothing was done." 25 Care and deliberation, no 
doubt, retarded a labor which it would have been unwise to 
hurry or imperfectly perform. At the next Court, the inade- 
quacy of the time was admitted ; but it is apparent that the new 
code was so far advanced that a limit could be placed for its 
completion. Lieutenant Johnson was now restored to the 
committee. 

[May 26, 1647.] The Co r te, und r standing y' y e committee for 
p r fecting y e lawes appointed by y e last Gen r all Cote, through streights of 
time & oth r things intervening, have not attained what they expected, & 
on all hands so much desired, touching a body of lawes, thinke meete 
& necessary y l o r hono r ed Gov r n r , M r Bellingham, M r Hibbens, y e Audi- 
ta' GeiVall, Leift Johnson, & M r Hills be chosen as a committee of this 
Co r te to do y e same, according to y e aforesaid ord r , against y e next ses- 
sions in y e 8 th m°. or y e next Gen r all Co r te.' 26 

The connection of Lieutenant Johnson with the committee 
may not have delayed its action. There is no evidence that it 
hastened what was already near completion. The work of the 
committee at large now appears to have been one of criticism or 
approval. The weightier labor of preparation and arrangement 
had been left to Mr. Hills; and that it had been left in careful 
and skilful hands the code of 1648, as it has been preserved in 

24 Mass. Colony Records, ii. 168, 169. - ,; Mass. Colony Records, ii. 196. 

25 Introduction to Wimdcr-working Providence, civ. 



JOSEPH HILLS AND JOHN WAYTE. 1 75 

that of 1660, bears ample proofs. At the next session of the 
Court the results were evident. " Five Books or Rowls," pre- 
pared by Joseph Hills, were presented and the transcription of 
a perfect copy for the press was authorized. This action was 
taken in two orders, the latter of which was passed towards the 
close of the session. Edward Johnson, whose presence upon 
the committee had been intermittent, was again dropped and 
appeared no more in connection with the compilation of the 
early laws. 27 

[November 11, 1647.] The lavves being to be put in print, it is 
meete y* they should be conveniently penned ; y r fore it is desired y' y e 
committee for drawing up y e lawes wilbe carefull y r in, & to y t purpose 
they have lib r ty to make some change of forme, to put in apt words, as 
occasion shall require, p r vided y e sence & meaning in any law, or p r t 
thereof be not changed. 28 

[November 11, 1647.] The lawes now being in a mann r agreed 
upon, & y e Co r te drawing to an end, it is time to take ord r : 1. How 
all alfations of form r lawes may be, w th out mistaking, compared & fair 
written; 2. Y l all ould lawes not altered be also written in y e same 
coppy ; 3. Y f y r be a committee chosen for y e busines, to be made ready 
ag st y e first day of y e first m° next, so as y e Co r te of Assistants, if they see 
cause, may advise for a Gen r all Co r te, to p r pare y m for y e presse. 

4. Y l y r be larg margents left at both sides of y e leafe, & y e heads of 
each law written on y e two outsides y r of, & upon y e oth r margent any 
references, scriptures, or y e like; 5. Y' these be written coppy wise. 
The Gov r n r , M r Bellingham, M r Hill, M r Auditor, & M r Ting are ioyned 
in y e committee, to act according as in y s pap r is expressed. 29 

The new code, being completed and approved, although there 
is no record of its formal acceptance, was now in the hands of 
the committee for its final examination. Two copies were made 
for the press, one, perhaps, by Mr. Hills himself, the other, cer- 
tainly, by his son-in-law, John Wayte. The following orders 

27 "[March, 164^.] Leift Johnson, his biographer. " It is highly probable 

upon his request, (being pressed w th that he was wholly absorbed during the 

many urgent occasions,) is dismised spring, summer, and fall in revising and 

fro m any furth r attendance on y e service printing the Massachusetts Laws of 

of y e Cote." Mass. Colony Records, ii. 1648." Introduction to Wonder-worki>ig 

231. This extract is of little interest, Providence, cv., cvi. 

except that it may be noted as forming ' 2S Mass. Colony Records, ii. 209. 

the corner stone of the Johnson theory. 29 Ibid., 217, 218. 
" What was this urgent business ? " asks 



\j6 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

contain the action of the Court concerning the two copies; and 
it was by the authority of the second order that the new laws 
were sent to the press. 

[March, 164/6.] The Co r te doth conceive it meete that John 
Wayte of Charlestowne Village, shall be alowed out of the next country 
rate, for his writing one booke of the lawes, & for finding paper for 
both bookes, 4 1 18 sh s . 30 

[March, 164^3.] The Co r te doth desire that M r Rawson & M r Hill 
compare y e amendments of the bookes of lawes passed, & make them 
as one ; & one of them to remaine in y e hands of y e committee for 
y e speedy committing of them to the presse, & y e oth r to remaine in 
y e hands of y e Secretary, sealed up, till y e next Co r te. 31 

In the May following the new code was at the press, and it 
seems probable that the printing was completed during the 
year, although, perhaps, not until after the adjournment of the 
Court in the fall. 82 It may be remarked that the Auditor- 
General, Nathaniel Duncan, and Joseph Hills, are the only 
persons who are mentioned in connection with the work of 
printing. 

[May 13, 1648.] It is ordred, that the coppie of lawes' in the two 
roles, which were by order of Court sealed vp, with intent that, if here- 
after any question should arise about the coppie now at the presse, it 
might be examined by this, wherby the faythfullnes of the committee 
might be tried, & that the other coppie, now remayning with M r Hill, 
should forthwith be sent for, for the vse of the Court. 33 

[May 13, 1648.] Its ordred, that the audito r gen: & M r Joseph 
Hill shall examine the lawes now at the presse, & to see if any materiall 
law be not put in or mentioned in the table as beinge of force, & to 
make suply of them. 34 

[October 27, 164S.] It is ordred by the Court, that the booke of 
lawes, now at the presse, may be sould in quires at 3 s the booke ; 

30 Mass. Colony Records, ii. 227. ber, 164S, that a price could be set upon 

81 Ibid., 230. it ; and if it was not presented to the 

82 I prefer to call the first publication Court until May, 1649, it was because 
of the Laws the Massachusetts Laws of the Court did not meet between the 
164-8, although Whitmore, in his intro- close of the October session and that 
duction to the Colonial Laws of Massa- time. Johnson says, "in the year 164S 
chusctts, 1660, 79, prefers the date of they were printed." 

1649. It seems evident from the ex- 33 A/ass. Colony Records, iii. 125. 

tracts given in the text that the book 34 Ibid., 130. 

was so far towards completion in Octo- 



JOSEPH HILLS AND JOHN WAYTE. 1 77 

p r vided, that every member of this Court shall haue one without price, 
& the audito r generall, & M r Joseph Hills, for which there shall be fifty 
in all taken vpp, to be so disposed of by the appoyntment of this 
Court. 35 

So the Lawcs and Libertyes of Massachusetts Bay®* the first 
printed code of enacted laws in New England, was given to the 
world, in the words of Edward Johnson, who would have been 
surprised at the claim which a later generation has made for 
him, 

To be seen of all men, to the end that none may plead ignorance, 
and that all who intend to transport themselves hither, may know this 
is no place of licentious liberty, nor will this people suffer any to 
trample down this Vineyard of the Lord. 37 

This book, which was printed by Stephen Daye at the press 
in Cambridge, was probably issued in an edition of six hundred 
copies. Mr. Whitmore has shown, by the traces which are left 
in the Laws of 1660, that it contained about fifty-six pages of 
text ; and other matter may have filled out the sixty-eight 
pages of the seventeen sheets which appear to have been used. 3b 
It was carried to each town in the Colony, and was in the hands 
of all the leading men. It was carried out of Massachusetts, 
and left its impress upon the laws of at least two colonies. Yet 
it has utterly disappeared. In less than ten years no copies 
were " to be had for the supply of the Country." 39 How long 
stray copies may have remained may not now be known ; but 

35 Mass. Colony Records, iii. 144. It is Massachusetts, 1660, 86, 95. American 
significant that Johnson, who was not a Antiq. So. Proc, April, 1S88, 299, 300. 
member of the Court in that year, was 39 Address " to our beloved Brethren 
not considered in the distribution. and Neighbors," prefixed to the Massa- 

36 If the title of the Laws of 1648 is chusetts Laws of 1660. The laws of 
preserved in that of the edition of 1660 Massachusetts and the codes of Con- 
it was, The I Book of the General / La WES necticut and New Haven maybe com- 
AND Libertyes 'concerning the Inhab- pared in Whitmore, Colonial Laws of 
Hants of the / Massachusets, collected out of Massachusetts, 1660; Trumbull, Public 
the Records of '/the General Court, for Records of the Colony of Connecticut, i. 
the several years I wherin they were made 509, 563; Hoadly, Records of the Colony 
and established. A similar title, with of New Haven, ii. 571, 616. The code of 
extracts from the book itself, is pre- New Haven was first printed at London, 
served in Thorowgood,y<?K/£.r in America, in 1656; and the reader is advised that 
published in 1650. Vide N. E. Hist, and " they have made use of the Lawes pub- 
Geneal. Register, xliv. 129. lished by the Honourable Colony of the 

37 Wonder-working Providence, 206. Massachusets." 

38 Introduction to Colonial Laws of 

12 



178 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

none have been found in the old collections which were being 
gathered when such copies might well have been in existence. 
For half a century antiquaries and scholars have looked in vain 
for the one copy which, if found, would be one of the most 
precious books known in American bibliography. It is worthy 
of note that, while a supplement to the laws was published in 
165 1, and others, perhaps, in 1654 and in 1657, not a ^ ea f or 
scrap has been recognized as belonging to them. Nevertheless, 
the work of Joseph Hills has not wholly passed away; for as 
the code of 1672 contains the form of that of 1660, so the latter 
has preserved for us its predecessor of 1648 ; and the careful 
student, by the help of its marginal references, may reconstruct, 
in part, the pages of the earlier book. 

At the session of the General Court in May, 1649, when the 
printed code was presented as a finished work and may have 
received its final approbation, the services of Mr. Hills were 
recognized in the following vote : — 

[May 11, 1649.] M r Joseph Hill is graunted, as a gratuity, tenn 
pounds, to be paid him out of the treasury, for his paines about the 
printed lavves. 40 

At the same Court, with Richard Bellingham, the Secretary, 
Increase Nowell, and Edward Rawson, Mr. Hills was appointed 
to examine and put in fitting order the public papers received 
from the late Governor, John Winthrop ; 41 and in the fall of the 
same year, the Court, by the following order, showed its appre- 
ciation of the printed laws and its approval of the labors of 
Joseph Hills. 

[October 18, 1649. J The Courte, finding by experience the great 
benefitt that doth redound to the country by putting of the lawes into 
printe, doe judge it very requisite that those lawes also that have past 
the consent of the Gennerall Courte since the booke of lawes were 
printed should be forthw 1 ' 1 committed to the presse, and therefore have 
appointed Richard Bellingham, Esq r , M r Increase Nowell, M r Nathaniel! 
Duncan, Capt Rob' Keajne, and M r Joseph Hill, or any three of them, 
a committee to p r vse and prepare them, w th those lawes also referred to 
in the end of the printed lawes, w th a suitable table, making their 
retourne to the next Courte of Election, that they may be printed. 42 

40 Mass. Colony Records, iii. 162. 41 Ibid., 164. 4 ' 2 Ibid., 173. 



JOSEPH HILLS AND JOHN WAYTE. 179 

The work thus ordered was apparently performed with care, 
and was not completed until a year had passed, when the result 
was presented to the Court and approved by its action. 

[October 18, 1650.] Itt is ordered, that Richard Bellingham, 
Esquier, the secretary, and M r Hills, or any two of them, are appointed 
a committee to take order for the printing the lawes agreed vppon to 
be printed, to determine of all things in reference therevnto, agreeing 
with the prsesident fifor the printing of them withall expedition, and to 
allow the title if there be cawse. 48 

This book, which was printed by Samuel Green, the successor 
of Daye, at the Cambridge press, contained some laws which 
had been left out of the former code and all others to the close 
of the year 1650; and it is referred to as Liber 2 in the margins 
of the laws of 1660 and 1672. 

Joseph Hills was afterwards placed upon several committees 
for the examination of new laws; and in 1654, when the print- 
ing of a second code appears to have been contemplated, it was 
ordered : — 

[May 3, 1654.] That M r Samuel Symonds, Majo r Denison, & M r 
Joseph Hills shall examine, compare, reconcile, & place together in 
good order all former lawes, both printed & written, & make fitt titles 
& tables for ready recourse to any pticuler contayned in them, & to 
p r sent the same to the next Court of Election to be considered of, that 
so order may be taken for the printing of the same in one booke, 
whereby they may be more usefull then now they are or can be. 44 

In 1661, the laws having been reprinted in the edition of 
1660, Joseph Hills was joined to a committee with the deputy- 
governor, Richard Bellingham, and others " to pervse such 
lawes as are vnprinted & vnrepealed, & committ them to the 
presse, so farr as they shall judge convenient." 45 

That the services of Mr. Hills in the preparation and codi- 
fication of the laws should have been forgotten is somewhat 
remarkable in view of the distinctness with which he appears 
in the records which I have cited. More remarkable still is it 
that, after more than two centuries had passed, another, who 
receives but a meagre mention in connection with the trans- 

43 Mass. Colony Records, iv. (1), 35. 4i Ibid., iii. 342. 45 Ibid., iv. (2), 5. 



180 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

action, should have been brought forward to claim his hardly 
earned honors. However, Joseph Hills, unconscious that he 
was writing his defence against a far-off generation, twice put 
upon record, while his story, if false or overstated, could have 
been disproved, such full and distinct statements of his labors 
that no room is left for doubt; and those statements were ad- 
mitted by those who had an intimate knowledge of his life and 
services. The first of these was that petition which he addressed 
to the General Court in 1653. 

To the Honnor* Court 

Jn as much as it hath pleased the Gen r all Court to engage me in 
sundry great and weighty services in refference to all the generall laws 
here established & now in print ffor publiq good, Jn Considera": whereof 
as J conceive a Gratuity of Ten pounds was Appointed me by the 
Treasu r : which as it holds forth the good acceptance of the Hono r d 
Court, J thankfully acknowledge, as duty binds me Yet App r hending 
that my Great care paynes & studies in these difficult Jmployments was 
not truly Jnformed or vnd'stood, J desire briefly to tender you an Ac- 
count thereof as ffollows : 

1. ffirst it pleased the Gen r all Court to jmploy me in a sheir Com- 
mitte to draw vpp a Body of Laws in which J tooke vnwearied payns, 
p r using all the Stat. Laws of Engl, in Pulton att Large out of which J 
took all such as J concerned sutable to the condition of this comraonw 1 * 
which with such others as in my observation Experiences & Serious 
Studies J thought needful, all w c . h J drew vpp in a Booke close written 
Consisting of 24. pages of pap r Jn folio, which uppon the Committees 
p r usal. viz. Mf Noel. M r Pelham M r Tho: Shepp r d & my self. J was 
Appointed to draw upp for the vse of the Gen rl ! Court, which Book was 
by some means lost & could not be ffound. ffor further Jmprovement by 
anoth r . committe of the gen r ." court viz. m r Bellingham, m r Nat. Ward. 
&c. whereuppon m r Bellingham spake to me to help them to Anoth r 
coppie of the Aforesl 1 Booke which jn tender Respect to publiq good, 
to the Hon rd Court & Committee, J did fforthwith Again Transcribe out 
of my ffirst coppie although it were in haruest time. 

2. Affter that it pleased the Gen r " Court Againe to Jngage me in the 
p'using all the laws in the Books of Records to Consider, Compare, 
Compose and Transcribe all laws of publiq Concmment, coppie-wise all 
which J did draw vpp together, and Drew vpp in five Books or Rowls, 
which done were examined by the Committe & presented to the Gen r P 
Court : 

3. Thereuppon. J was Ordered by the Court to Transcribe the five 



JOSEPH HILLS AND JOHN WAYTE. 1S1 

Books affores 1 ' with some other new laws, all which (save onely a few the 
Audit' did) J with Great care «S: vigilancie p'fformed & (Frequented 
the press & otherwise took care to Examine them during the Im- 
printing the same. 

4. Since which it pleased the Gen r ." Court to Appoint me w th . some 
others to Compose & Transcribe the Second Booke of Laws Coppie- 
wise. which J Allso did ; which Affter Examination by the Committee 
was allso p r sented to the Gen r " Court : who were pleased fmrther to 
Jmploy another Committe ; whereof J was one, to ffitt them ffor the 
press. Jn all which Services jn reference to publiq good J putt fforth 
my selfe to the vttermost to the Great Neglect of my p r sonall & 
p r ticul r occasions Devoting my selfe there vnto ffor the most p c of Two 
years tyme (as neer as J can rememb r ) the benefit wherof doth J hope 
verie manifestly Redound both to court & Country who doubtless vppon 
a right vnderstanding will not be unwilling to Afford such Due 
encouragement & Recompense as services of such Importance & 
Advantage to the Countrie doth Require 

Your Humble Servant, 

Jos. Hills. 

The Magistrates Referr the consideration of the Petition to theire 
brethren the Deputies : 

Edward Rawson, Secret 

27 : may 1653 

The Deputies think meete to allow M r Hills ten pounds out of the 
next County rate in reference to what is herein exprest if the hono rd 
magistrates please to Consent thereto 

William Torrev, Cleric. 

Consented to by the magists hereto 

Edward Rawson, Scot'. v ' 

The connection of Joseph Hills with public affairs was not 
confined to his labors on the laws. Having been elected a 
representative of Charlestown in 1646 and 1647, he was in the 
latter year Speaker of the House of Deputies; and upon the 
formation of the town of Maiden he became its first represen- 
tative and continued in that office until the close of the year 
1656. For some reason the town was not represented at the 
General Court from the beginning of the year 1657 until 
December, 1660, when Joseph Hills again appeared as its 
representative and so continued until the end of 1664. In the 
following March he married, as his fourth wife, Ann, the widow 

46 Mass. Archives, xlvii. 19. Cf. Mass. Colony Records, Hi. 308. 



1-82 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

of Henry Lunt of Newbury, 47 and he is supposed to have re- 
moved, soon after, to the home of his wife, where he lived until 
his death. 

He was deputy from Newbury in 1667 and 1669, after which 
he appears to have retired to private life, perhaps in view 
of the increasing infirmities which burdened his latter days. 
During all the years of his public life he is often found upon 
important committees and serving in various trusts; and the 
records of the Colony and of the county of Middlesex show, in 
their many references, how busy was his life in the performance 
of the manifold duties which came to him. 

Besides that for the labor upon the laws, he appears to have 
had claims upon the Colon)- for money contributed as adven- 
turers, both by himself and Edward Mellowes, the first husband 
of his second wife. In the record of a grant of land made to 
William Parke in 1653, mention is made of " the land lately 
graunted to M r Joseph Hills, at a place called Nanacanacus." 48 
Three years later this grant was confirmed, or perhaps an addi- 
tional grant was made, which was afterwards laid out in accord- 
ance with the following votes : — 

[May 22, 1656.] This Court doth graunt vnto M r Joseph Hills 
flue hundred acors of land neere Northwootucke, where M r Bradstreet 
& others haue graunts ; & it is in consideration of an adventure of 
3$ [i 6 s 8 d , & for seu r all services to the country. 49 

47 Rose, the first wife, died March 24, y° old Dooke. Hee freely acknowledged 

i6 4 '^; and Mr. Hills married, June 24, his offence therein, and his misvnder- 

1651, Hannah (Smith), the widow of standing the grounds whereon he went 

Edward Mellowes of Charlestown. His w ch he now confesseth to be vnwarrant- 

third wife was Helen, or Eleanor, Atkin- able, And was Admonished by the 

son, daughter of Hugh Atkinson, of Court." Midd. Court Records,!. 95. In 

Kendall, co. Westmoreland, whom he this he had followed the example of his 

married January, 165%. She was living associate, Governor Bellingham, who 

January 8, i66"„ but died before Novem- married himself, in 1641, to Penelope 

ber 10, 1662. With this marriage a Pelham, and escaped censure by his 

curious incident was connected, which position upon the bench as a magis- 

resulted in the censure of Mr. Hills for trate. Winthrop, History of New Eng- 

breach of a law in the code which had land, ii. 43. Mr. Hills married Ann 

been prepared by himself. Lunt at Newbury, March 8, i66j .. 

"[April 1, 1656.] M r Joseph Hills 48 Mass. Colony Records, iii. 300; iv. 

of Mauldon being p r sented by the ( '.rand ( 1 ), 134. 

Jury for marrying of himself, contrary 49 Ibid., iii. 415. 
to the Law of this Collony page. 38 in 



JOSEPH HILLS AND JOHN WAYTE. I S3 

[May 31, 1660.] In ans r to the petition of M r Joseph Hills, the 
Court judged meete to graunt that M r Jonathan Danforth & Jn° or 
James Parker be impowred to lay out vnto M r Hill the fiue hundred 
acres formerly, in 1656, graunted him in any place not formerly 
graunted. 50 

Norwottocke or Nanotuck is now Northampton ; but the 
grant was probably laid out at Dunstable, where he owned five 
hundred acres at the time of his death. Once more he appears 
upon the records of the Colony in a pathetic petition, in which 
he again recites in detail the story of his former public service. 

To the hon r ed Generall Court holden at Boston 24. May, 1682 
The petition of Joseph Hills, humbly shelving, How it hath pleased the 
righteous God to lay vpon y petitioner, a smart hand of visitation in 
the later part of his pilgrimage totally bereaving him of the sight of 
his eyes, for more than 4 yeares now past, (besides sundry yeares dim- 
ness before) by meanes whereof he hath been utterly uncapable, of 
getting or saving any thing towards his necessary subsistence, being 
now also more than 80 yeares of age besides other infirmities of body, 
which long have, and are like to accompany him to his grave, your 
petitioner hath not been backward to his ability to be serviceable with 
his person & estate to the commonwealth : for besides other ordinary 
services, it pleased y e court to make him one of the county committy 
to draw vp some orders necessary for y e country, in which service J 
went ouer all y e Statutes in Pulton at large, collected such as J deemed 
just & necessary, drew them up in a small book in folio, and trans- 
mitted them according to order to the grand committy at boston (viz) 
M r Winthrop, M r Ward & others, after this it pleased the Court to 
appoint a committy to draw vp a body of lawes for the Colony 
(viz) M r Winthrop & sundry others whereof your petitioner was one, 
to examine all y e court records, from y e first to that time, which for 
avoyding of far greater charge it being the worke but of one fell to 
my lot to be active in, in which J went ouer y e 2 old bookes of 
recordes, y c book of libertyes, & y e great booke then & since in y e 
hands of M r Rawson, which lawes J brought together under theyr 
proper heades coppy-wise with exact markes of y e severall emendations 
one way or other made therein which (after examination & approba- 
tion of y e court) J was ordered to prepare for the presse, which J 
did, putting them together under theyr proper heads with y e dates 
of y e sundry lawes in the foot thereof, in the year 164S in an alphabet- 
ical order, with an apt table for y e more ready recourse to each law : 

51 Miss. Colony Records, iv. (1), 430. 



1S4 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

for which last service it pleased the court to make me some allowance, 
which was to my Satisfaction, though short of the elaborate care, paines 
and time spent therein (these things J should not have touched upon, 
but that there are few of y e Court as now constituted that had y e 
opertunity to have y e cognizance thereof. The premises considered 
my petition is that J may be freed from all publick assessments to y e 
country, County, (and secular thinges for y e tovvne if it may be) for my 
infirme person and little estate now left, during the remaining part of 
my pilgrimage in this vale of teares. So with my dayly prayers to god 
only wise Just, & mercifull to guide you in all your momentous con- 
cernments J crave leave to subscribe myselfe 

Your very humble servant 

Joseph Hills 

Jn answer to this petition the Mags: Judge meet that y e petitioner bee 
freed from Country & County rates during his life, their B" the Depu- 
tyes hereto consenting. 
June: i : 82 : P. Bulkeley p r order 

Consented to by the Deputs. 

William Torrey Cleric? 1 

A little longer he lingered in the darkness and the infirmities 
of age, dying at Newbury, February 5, 168^3, at the age of 
eighty-five years. 52 

In the year of the removal of Joseph Hills to Newbury the 

town was not represented at the General Court; but the next 

year, John Wayte, who had followed his father-in-law as captain 

. ^_^ of the trainband, was elected as his 

//a/ L ^' a p^t- C j successor in the office of town rep- 
^ resentative. For an unbroken series 

of nineteen years he filled this office, an honorable service, the 
duration of which is unparalleled by that of any other represent- 
ative in the history of the town. Like his predecessor, he 
filled many places of trust and importance in the Colony, the 
county, and the town. In 1680 he was appointed upon a com- 

51 Mass. Archives, c. 282. 1686. "The library of this College is 

52 The will of Joseph Hills, dated very considerable, being well furnished 
Sept. 14, 1687, Suffolk Co. Wills, x. 248, with books, and mathematical instru- 
is printed in JV. E. Hist, and Geneal. ments. Sir Kenelm Digby, Sir John 
Register, viii. 309. His connection with Maynard, Mr. Baxter, and Mr. Joseph 
President Dunster points to him as the Hill, were benefactors to it." Mass 
benefactor to the library of Harvard Hist. Coll., xii. 108. 

College mentioned by John Dunton in 



JOSEPH HILLS AND JOHX WAYTE. 1 8 5. 

mittee to revise the laws, a duty with which his labor in 1647 
and his long experience as a legislator had doubtless made 
him familiar; and in 1683 he received the honor of a nomina- 
tion to the magistracy or Court of Assistants. 53 

At this time the strife between the people of New England 
and the mother country, as represented by its rulers, had begun. 
On the one hand spies and informers were busy, and the 
ground was being prepared for the short and tyrannical rule 
of Andros. On the other side stood the party of liberty, at 
times with petitions to the king, at others with prayers to the 
Ruler of nations, but always with an unflinching hold upon 
their duties and their rights. Arbitrary orders were openly 
disobeyed or silently disregarded. Captain Wayte was iden- 
tified with the popular party, and his name is on the roll of 
honor in the " Articles of high misdemeanour exhibited against 
a faction in the generall court," in which Edward Randolph 
denounced to the British government the eight magistrates and 
fifteen delegates who defended their chartered rights. 54 

In 1684 he was chosen Speaker of the House of Deputies. 
In the quaint language of a document relating to him, he soon 
after became " dark " and ended his public life when most 
honored. The petition in which he related his misfortune and 
asked relief from his military duties is elsewhere given. He 
died September 26, 1693, at the age of seventy-five years. 

53 Hutchinson, Collection of Papers, 541. 54 Ibid., 527. 




^& V?; $4, <SMSf*ij , 



/^- r 




wwW 






CHAPTER VII. 



A TEACHER AND A NEW MEETING HOUSE. 

AFTER the departure of Mr. Matthews, " this poor church," 
as it was afterwards, not unfitly, styled, came again to 
be " in a forlorn condition, & altogetlv without a minister, or at 
an uncertain pass without an officer." 1 William Sargeant and 
Joseph Hills appear as ruling elders; 2 but otherwise the peo- 



1 Wigglesworth's letter, Mass. Hist. 
So. Proc, May, 187 1, 94. 

2 The office of ruling elder in the New 
England churches was instituted apart 
from those of pastor and teacher as assis- 
tant to those superior offices in executive 
matters. The elders had a supervision 
in matters of admission, excommunica- 
tion, and restoration. They reviewed 



affairs carried before them in private, 
that grievances might be speedily ended 
or that the labor of the church in public 
might be lessened. They admonished 
the wavering and visited the sick. They 
were the watchmen of the church. " Un- 
worthy the name of a Ruling Elder is 
hee," says Johnson, "who loses his 
Lyon-like courage, when the sound and 



A TEACHER AND A NEW MEETING HOUSE. 1 87 

pie " were without y e seales of y e covenant," unless they were 
administered by such transient supplies as had been furnished 
before the time of Mr. Matthews by " young Students from the 
Colledg" and others. 3 

It seems very likely that Nathaniel Upham, a son of John 
Upham, who had removed from Weymouth to Maiden a few 
years before, may have preached here a short time at this period. 
He had probably been educated in England, had been made a 
freeman in 1653, and was certainly here in 1654. He died in 
Cambridge, March 20, i66}4, at the early age of thirty years, 
having married Elizabeth, daughter of John Stedman of that 
town, only fifteen days before. 4 The Rev. Samuel Danforth 
speaks of him, in the Roxbury Church Records, as " m 1 . Vphani 
who sometime preached at Maiden." 5 Considering his age and 
known presence in Maiden in 1653 and 1654, I must place the 
time of his brief ministration here after the departure of Mr. 
Matthews, rather than before his coming, as did the editor of 
the Bi-Centennial Book, who made an error of eleven years in 
the date of his death. 

Besides the " forlorn condition " into which the people had 
fallen, there are indications that the Matthews case had left em- 
bers of discontent and " private burnings," which were not likely 
to be conducive to great spiritual peace, and which appear to 
have been the prolific cause of strife for many years. It was 
while in such an unpromising condition that Maiden received a 
minister who was destined to spend a long life with her people 
and whose name became a household word throughout the 
English colonies. 



wholesome Doctrines delivered by Pas- government, being held in subjection by 

tor or Teacher are spoken against by the ruling elders, who govern all affairs 

any." Wonder-working Providence, 5. of the church." Hutchinson, Collection 

Cf. Mather, Magnolia, Book 5 (2), chap, of Papers, 500. 

vii. For some reason the office of ruling 8 Johnson, Wonder-working Provi- 

elder fell into disrepute, although in some dence, 211. 

churches it was retained into the eigh- 4 She married (2), April 27, 1669, 
teenth century. Perhaps an explanation Henry Thompson of Cambridge and 
may be found in the words of Edward Boston, and (3) John Sharp of Cam- 
Randolph. "The clergy," he wrote to bridge. She died March 9, }f|§, aged 58. 
the Privy Council, " are for the most part 5 Report of the [Boston] Record Co/n- 
very civill and inclining to his Majesties missioners, vi. 199. 



1 88 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

This was Michael Wigglesvvorth, who at the time of his call 
was about twenty-four years of age, having been born in Eng- 
land, October 18, 1631. The place of his birth was undoubtedly 
in Yorkshire; and he tells us that it was "an ungodly Place," 
which " was consumed w th fire in a great part of it, after God 
had brought" his parents out of it. 6 He was the only son of 
Edward Wigglesworth and his wife, 7 " Godly Parents, that feared 
y e Lord greatly, even from their youth," who " meeting with 
opposition & persecution for Religion, because they went from 
their own Parish Church to hear y e word & Receiv y e L s supper, 
&c, took up resolutions to pluck vp their stakes & remove them- 
selves to New England." Landing at Charlestown in the early 
fall of 1638, they soon removed by sea to New Haven, where, 
" Winter approaching, we dwelt in a Cellar partly under ground 
covered with earth the first winter." 

The next summer the boy Michael, being then in his ninth 
year, was sent to Ezekiel Cheever, afterwards the celebrated 
pedagogue of New England, who passed from the teacher's 
bench to the new life at the advanced age of ninety-four years, 
so long was he master of the rod and the. rudiments, who " at 
that time taught school in his own house." 8 Here the child 

6 Autobiography of M. Wigglesworth. don, January 25, 161%. He was the son 
The full paper may be found in the of Ezekiel and Margaret Cheever and 
Christian Register, June 29, 1850; New was educated at Cambridge. He came 
Eng. Hist, and Geneal. Register, xvii. to Boston in 1637. The next year he 
137—139 ; Dean, Memoir of Rev. M. Wig- went to New Haven, where he married 

glesworth, 136-139; Day of Doom, Ed. his first wife, Mary , who died Jan- 

1867, 10-12. uary 20, 1649. At New Haven he taught 

7 Edward Wigglesworth lived " under school and preached occasionally, being 
great & sore affliction for y e space of 13 at one time sought as a pastor for the 
yeers a pattern of faith, patience, hu- Maiden church. An interesting account 
mility, & heavenlymindedness," (Wig- of his trial before the church at New 
glesworth, Autobiography) ; and died at Haven, in which he displayed much fear- 
New Haven, October 1, 1653. '* e '^ a lessness and self-reliance, and which re- 
widow, Esther, and two children, Michael suited in his being " cast out of the body, 
and Abigail. The latter is supposed to till the proud flesh be destroyed, and he 
have been wife (1) of Benjamin Sweetser be brought into a more member-like 
of Mystic Side, a forward Baptist, and frame," is preserved in Coll. Conn. Hist. 
(2) of the Rev. Ellis Callender of the So. i. 22-51. 

First Baptist Church of Boston. Cf. From New Haven he went to Ipswich, 

Dean, Memoir of Wiggles-worth, &,"), and becoming the first master of the Gram- 

Wyman, CAarlestown, 921. mar School there, and marrying, No- 

8 Ezekiel Cheever, the famous peda- vember 18, 1652, his second wife, Ellen 
gogue of New England, was born at Lon- Lathrop of Beverly, who became the 



A TEACHER AND A NEW MEETING HOUSE. 1 89 



" began to make Latin & to get forward apace." Necessitated, 
however, by an ever increasing paralysis of the limbs and body 
which attacked his father after an injury to the spine, he was 
obliged to leave school for other employments until he had lost 
all that he had " gained in the Latine Tongue." 

When he had attained his fourteenth year, he was again sent 
to school, apparently somewhat against his will, for he after- 
wards wrote: " At that time I had little or no disposition to it." 
In a little time he recovered what he had lost and so improved 
his time that in less than three years he finished his preparatory 
studies, and went to Cambridge, where the infant college, which 
President Dunster had begun to invigorate with lasting life, 
received him as a member of its eighth class. A remark of 
Increase Mather leads me to infer that it was not altogether his 
father's wish that he should enter college. He speaks of him as 
" being favored with a learned education after his father had 
designed otherwise concerning him;" 9 but Mr. Wigglesworth, 
himself, says: "My Father I suppose was not wel satisfied in 



mother of the future pastor of Maiden 
and Rumney Marsh. In 1661 he re- 
moved to Charlestown, "where he La- 
boured Nine Years. From Charlstowu, 
he came over to Boston, Jan. 6. 1670. 
where his Labours were continued for 
Eight & Thirty Years," being master of 
the " Free Schoole," now the Latin 
School, until his death. His school 
house of one story stood on the north- 
erly side of School Street and its site is 
now covered by the easterly wall of 
King's Chapel. It was removed in 174S. 
" He Died," says Cotton Mather, "on 
Saturday morning, Aug. 21, 1708. In 
the Ninety Fourth Year of his Age ; 
After he had been a Skilful, Painful, 
Faithful School-master for Seventy Years; 
And had the Singular Favour of Heaven, 
that tho' he had Usefully spent his Life 
among Children, yet he was not become 
Twice a Child ; but held his Abilities, 
with his Usefulness, in an unusual 
Degree to the very last." Sewall says : 
"A rare Instance of Piety, Health, 
Strength, Serviceableness. The Well- 
fare of the Province was much upon his 
Spirit. He abominated Perriwisrs." 



His Latin Accidence was used in the 
schools of this country for nearly one 
hundred and fifty years and passed 
through at least twenty-one editions. 
Samuel Walker, an eminent instructor, 
says : "The Latin Accidence, which was 
the favorite little book of our youthful 
days, has probably done more to inspire 
young minds with the love of the study 
of the Latin language, than any other 
work of the kind, since the first settle- 
ment of this country. I have had it in 
constant use for my pupils, whenever it 
could be obtained, for more than fifty 
years ; and have found it to be the best 
book, for beginners in the study of Latin, 
that has ever come within my knowl- 
edge ; and no work of the kind have I 
ever known, that contains so much useful 
matter in so small a compass." 

He was also author of Scripture 
Prophecies Explained, which was pub- 
lished in 1747. Cf. Mather, Corderius 
Americanus ; Barnard, Ezehiel Cheever ; 
Hassam, Ezehiel Cheever. 

9 Introduction to C. Mather, A Faith- 
ful Man Described and Rewarded. 



190 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

keeping me from Learning whereto I had been designed from 
my infancy." 

Of himself and his college life he wrote : — 

God in his mercy & pitty kept me from scandalous sins before I 
came thither & after I came there, but alas I had a naughty vile heart 
and was acted by corrupt nature & therefore could propound no Right 
& noble ends to myself, but acted from self and for self. I was indeed 
studious & strove to outdoe my compeers, but it was for hono r «N: ap- 
plause & preterm' & such poor Beggarly ends. 

Giving the glory to God, in a manner which was characteristic 
of him through life, he records that he grew " in Knowledge 
both in y e Tongues & Inferior Arts & also in Divinity." At 
first he had "thoughts of applying himself to y e study & 
Practise of Physick ; " but when he had been in college 
" about 3 yeers and a half," he experienced " a great change 
both in heart & Life, and from that Time forward learnt to 
study with God & for God." He put aside his former desires 
and resolved to " serve Christ in y e work of y e ministry if he 
would please to fit him for it & to accept of his service in that 
great work." 

He was graduated, August 12, 165 1; and his name stands at 
the head of a class of ten, placed there, I think, by his scholar- 
ship and not by his social rank as had been the prevailing cus- 
tom of the college. 10 A copy of his Commencement part in 
his own handwriting is preserved. It is headed " August 12, 
1651 : Omnis Natura iucoustaus est porosa." 

He was soon chosen a fellow of the college and entered its 
service in the capacity of a tutor. This station he is said to have 
adorned " with a rare Faithfulness," taking every occasion " to 
make his Pupils not only good Scholars, but also good Chris- 
tians, and instil into them those things, which might render them 
rich Blessings unto the Churches of God," and bearing within 
himself " a flaming zeal to make them worthy men." n So self- 
accusing and sensitive was his conscience that he was afraid, 

10 Pierce, History of Harvard Uni- ber, 1864, 32-37; July, 1866, 253 ; Sibley, 

versity, 150, says "from the rank of his Harvard Graduates, i. 259, 260. 
family ; " but Dean, Wiggles-worth, 33-35, n Mather, A Faithful Man, 23. 

differs. Cf. Mass. Hist. So. Proc., Octo- 



A TEACHER AND A NEW MEETING HOUSE. 191 

says Cotton Mather, " Lest his cares for their Good, and his 
affection to them, should so drink up his very Spirit, as to steal 
away his Heart from God." Vl 

His diary shows a zealous mind transfused by a spirit of great 
tenderness and humility, but, unhappily, so pervaded by a mor- 
bidness, which might indicate a mind as diseased as his body 
came to be, that we involuntarily feel an emotion of pity 
rather than of admiration. Especially was this morbidness 
shown in many "cases of conscience," as when he prayed for 
pardon after having " Neglected to go & reprove some carnal 
mirth in y e lowest Chamber til it was too late." Seeing " a 
stable door of M r Mitchells beat to & fro w th y e wind," he was 
sorely tried and " distressed in conscience," not knowing his 
duty and fearing lest his " wil should blind reason." On a like 
occasion, he records. 

The wise god who knoweth how to tame & take down proud & wan- 
ton hearts, sufferth me to be sorely buffeted w th y e like temptation as 
formerly about seeing some dore s blow to & fro w th y e wind in some 
danger to break, as I think ; I cannot tel whether it were my duty to 
giue y m some hint f owe them. W n I think 'tis a common thing & 
that 'tis impossible but y' y e owners should haue oft seen them in 
y l case, & heard them blow to & fro, & y* it is but a trivial matter, & 
y 1 I haue given a hint to one y l dwels in y e hous, & he maketh light of 
it ; & y l it would rather be a seeming to check oths mindlesness of 
y r own affairs, & lastly y l y re may be special reasons for it y' I know 
not ; why y e case seemeth clear y l 'tis not my duty. 13 

12 A Faithful Man, 23. In his journal out of the Eater, there was nothing en- 

Wigglesvvorth writes : " September 5, 6: tered by him worthy of note. There is 

[1653,] Too much bent of sp r t to my a page of shorthand under the date of 

studys & pupils, & affectio 5 dying tow d April 3, 1670, and nothing more until 

god." November 27, 1687, when he records 

is Wigglesworth's MS. Diary, in loco. his thoughts upon serving " At y e Lords 

The diary, or rather commonplace-book, Table" that day. In the meantime 

of Mr. Wigglesworth, covering the pe- there had been stirring events in church 

riod, 1655^—1657, is now in the library and state and troubles in his own town, 

of the Massachusetts Historical Society, a brief notice of which by his hand 

and is the most interesting of the series. would have been worth all the medi- 

A later volume, 1658-16S7, is in the tations and complaints which he ever 

possession of the New England Historic penned. With the latter entry his work 

Genealogical Society, and is the source as a diarist ceased ; and the book was 

of our information respecting the cir- afterwards used by his son Edward for 

cumstances attending the writing of his similar purposes, 

books. After the completion of Meat Of these volumes I have had free 



192 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

But it was not alone from without that temptations and in- 
centives to spiritual fears and abasement came; for from within 
they poured forth as a scorching blast of pestilential winds. 
Under their baleful influence his spirit sat in the dust all the 
day long and his nights were as those of the Psalmist: — " All 
the night make I my bed to swim : I water my couch with my 
tears." He seems never to have felt the hopefulness of youth 
and never to have experienced its elasticity of spirit. While 
yet upon the threshold of life he wrote : — 

[165^3.] Now y' J am to goe out into y e world J am affraid, nay J 
know J shall lose my heart & my affectio 5 . J can do nothing for god 

receiv noth. fro m him but tis a snare unto me J took a good 

deal of time y s day to look thorowly into y e vileness of y e sin of pride 
& see y' w c might make me go mourn all my dayes, yet J can find little 
heart breaking for it, nor pow ag st it. 

How much influence the weight of physical ills and the weak- 
ness of a distempered body may have had in inducing this 
spiritual condition of Mr. Wigglesworth cannot now be known ; 
but it is probable that they were not without effect. The dis- 
ease which made of him " a weary wight " and life a bitter cup, 
which he drank to the dregs, had already fastened upon him. 
In the winter of 16573 he wrote : — 

J have found more sensible weakn: of body & pressure by y e sple n & 
flatulent humo's y s week y n for so oft together y s winter before, god 
still crosses outwardly, & J meet w th vexation & rebuke, yet pride & 
vain thoughts are too hard for me, & J find my self too weak to make 
resistance, oh ! Lord hast to my help : be thou my defe n ce & y e stay of 
my soul, for all oth r s fail me. 

At another time he writes : — 

On y e 2 d day at night in my sleep I dream'd of y e approach of y' great 
& dreadf. day of judgem' ; & was y r by exceedingly awakned in sp c (as I 
thought) to follow god w th teares & crys until he gave me some hopes 
of his graci os good wil toward me. 

use, by the courtesy of their custodians, There are three other volumes of the 

and have made liberal quotations in this series in the library of the New England 

and the succeeding chapter. The latter Historic Genealogical Society, contain- 

was used by Mr. Dean in the prepara- ing shorthand notes of sermons, Latin 

tion of his Memoir of Wigglesworth ; and English theses and orations and 

and both were in the hands of Mr. other memoranda, written while he was 

Sibley, who has given copious extracts at Cambridge, 1649-1653. 
in his Harvard Graduates, i. 259-2SC. 



A TEACHER AND A NEW MEETING HOUSE. 193 

This dream, which must have startled his sensitive nature, 
may have given the first impulse to write that sombre poem 
which was the result alike of a sick body and of a mind which 
sympathized with its weakness. 

Of such web and woof did he weave a diary which rarely 
shows a brilliant or enlivening thread, so crowded is it with 
woes of mind and body combined. Little of value beyond 
things merely personal to the writer can be found therein, and 
it took no hues from the everyday lives of the men and women 
around him. Mr. Sibley says of him : — 

He was free from cant, conscientious even to morbidness, perpet- 
ually praying and struggling against pride and what he regarded as 
his besetting sins, aspiring after a religious state altogether unat- 
tainable, ever faithful to the extent of his strength and capacity, and 
fearful lest his interest in his pupils and others should steal away his 
heart from God, in whom his trust was so strong as to appear almost 
ridiculous to men who regard the Almighty as quite indifferent to their 
fortunes. 14 

While performing the service of a tutor with faithfulness and 
honor, he continued his theological studies ; and in March, 
165^3, he writes: "J haue sin'd J fear in y e salem business, 
ag st god & man, in not coming clear w th Cambridge first in 
saying J was not ingaged to any others." I suspect this 
" business " was a call as a secular teacher. That it was 
not a call to preach seems probable ; for later in the same 
month he records : " I preacht my first sermon at Pequit 
[Pequot — New London]," while on a journey to his father 
at New Haven. On his return by water he was detained 
at Martha's Vineyard " 6 dayes by a strong Northeast wind," 
and preached there with one day's preparation. 15 A call to 
settle at Hartford followed his visit and was a sore trouble 
to him. He seems -to have had no power to decide for himself, 
whether the occasion were trivial or weighty ; and at this time 

14 Harvard Graduates, i. 283. Martins Vineyr d may. 1653." The text 

15 This was his second sermon. One is from Psalms, lxxxi. 12, "Israel would 
of his commonplace-books contains a none of me, so J gaue y m up unto their 
sermon which is headed : " The 2 d ser- owne hearts lust &c." 

mon y l ev r was p r ched by rny self at 



194 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

a half-formed wish to return to England added to his natural 
indecision. 16 

About this time he appears to have had an unusual exalta- 
tion of spirit, produced by thoughts of his " good estate," which 
was soon destroyed by his rising conscience. He writes : — 

[September, 1653.] J felt fears & misgivings about my good Estate, 
yet much pride got head in me • & p r sently y e Lord let loos upo" me 
some scruples of co n scie n ce w c put me in fear least J we n t cross to gods 
will, & this to abase me. 

The business with the Hartford church, hindered by its 
teacher, the Rev. Samuel Stone, whose latitudinarian tendencies 
soon set the churches of two colonies by the ears, came to 
naught; 1T and Mr. Wigglesworth in November, and afterwards, 
preached at Roxbury, Cambridge, and Charlestown. Of the 
latter place, whose teacher, the Rev. Thomas Allen, had 
returned to England in 165 1, he writes : "The church sent to 
me after Sermo", & J could not get off w th out engaging to. 
preach once a month til march equinox." 

During the succeeding year he continued at the college, 
exercised by temptations of the spirit and fears, troubled doubt- 
less by his increasing disease, and preaching at times. It is not 
improbable that he may have preached at Maiden sometime 
during this period, but no indications of his having done so 
appear until July, 1655, when he writes: — 

J got a sev r cold by preaching at mauldon. ... my stre n gth is 
well recov r d again now J thank god this p r se n t. 10 of. July. But these 
ilnesses, colds rhewms & keeping y e hous so much have made me so 
tender f J cannot preach but catch a grievous cold, yea these 
co n tinued colds disable me to any service eith in family or in publick. 
And thro: a light & frothy heart J cannot hono r god w th y e little 
remaynder of stre n gth vv c J have y s (God knowes) is my daly grief. 

Soon after he mentions the " maldon Jnvitation ; " and later 
he writes : " J we n t into y e Bay Aug. y e 4 th & preacht at maldon 

16 He writes: "[September, 1653.] cie n ce. who but God can now be my 

J am at a strait concern, my answer to counseller?" 

Hartford motion ; J am indiffere n t to v " From the Fire of the Altar, there 

engage or not to look toward England issued Thundrings and Lightnings, and 

or not, if J could be clear in gods call. Earthquakes, through the Colony."" 

ffriends advice cannot satisfy my con- Mather, Magnalia, Book iii. (2), ch. xvi.. 



A TEACHER AND A NEW MEETING HOUSE. 1 95 

twice on y e Sabbath." He had then left Cambridge and was l 
living at Rowley, the home of his cousin, Mary Reyner, whom 
he had recently married. 

The course of his treating with the Maiden people was 
marked by many doubts and fears, — " by importunities," writes 
Mr. Sibley, " on the part of this small society, and by extreme 
vacillations on his part because of his health." 18 His own 
account of his feelings and actions is characteristic, and throws 
much light upon his condition at that time and the nature of 
the disease which afflicted him. 

[August, 1655.] When J was at maldon ; J told them that J 
thought it would be te m pting of p r vide n ce to accept of their Invitation 
for 1. J found p r ching v r y hazzards at p r se n t in y l it exposed to such 
da n gers coulds. 2. Jt was feared y l my stre"gth would never sute with 
double work 

after y e debating this matter too & fro they left me to consider more 
of it a while. Howe r upon furth consideration : J could not satisfy my 
self in y e force of my former argument : becaus the harm J found by 
preaching was principally (if not onely) in y e time of y e g n ral visitation 
by colds ; since, all y l J haue found hath bee n onely some little returns 
of a sore throat, y r hath soon gone away again. Yea J found no great 
harm by my Sabbath dayes work at Maldon, tho: y e weth was very cold 
& wet. And for y e 2 d Argument, double work in so small a co n grega- 
tion is not much more the" single work in a great one ; & if it be more 
yet y r are oth. things to balla"ce it : these th s considered made me 
p r mis to delhVate more about it anoth fourt'night. J asked m r Alcocks 
advice, who told me he thought neith of these plea's of such weight as 
to ground a refusal of this Invitation upon them. He thought J might 
hope to be better in a settled way ; & hoped wel jt would be better 
w th me hereafter ; And to help y e double work, J might preach y e less 
while, off y e same mind was my uncle Reyner. 

[September, 1655.] At my next being in y e Bay J found less 
incouragem' to yield unto Maldons invitation, ffor having taken it 
into consid r ation a fourtnight longer & finding my self wors, it seemed 
a burr put in by p r vidence to stop furth p r ceedings. So according to 
advice of friends J wholy putt by y e motion upo" y e onely ground of 
p r sent unfitness for any co"stant service. y e wil of y e Lord be done. 
. . . Since J beg earnestly his blessing upon y e cours of physick J 
am about, knowing y* if He say y e word they shal do me good, not els. 
To y s end J haue beggd y e prayers of divers this being a season of fayth 
& prayer. 

18 Harvard Graduates, i. 269. 



196 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

[September 10, 1655.] Jt is a time of more y n ordinary trouble 
bee: J am yet unsettled winter approaching & know not what to doe 
about it because my weaknes & colds stil co"tinue & J fear in cold 
weth it should be wors \v th me. . . . my moth & sister are come to 
me fro N Have", & J haue no hous to put my ow n head in much less 
room for y m w c is discouraging unto y m w m J haue brought fro m another 
to an unsettled state. . . . Christ hims. my Lord had not a hole to put 
his head in. 

[September 16, 1655,] About maldo" business with some furth 
inclinations to it upo n y e grounds above specify'd where J found y m y l J 
spake withall still earnest in y r desires after me and y l they needed not 
y l J should begin it afresh. J defer'd any conclusio" till m r Hill come 
up to Jpswich to y e g n rall training. 

[October 7, 1655.] After many and earnest prayers unto God ffor 
guida"ce in y e weighty business of settlemt, J haue determined to go to 
maldon about a 14:11. hence. J issued y e business w th y e messengers 
sent fro m Maldon church upon y e g n rall training day being Octob r 4 th . 

[October 12, 1655.] when J feel my ow" p r sent weakn. to be such, 
J am apt to be affraid lest J should be unserviceable at Maldon by y e 
coldn. of winter and live upo n expe n ces unprofitably. Yet J do desire 
not to giue way to discourageme n t ffor J am in Gods way to remove 
thith & cast myself upo n Gods p r vide n ce to see \v' he will do for me <Si 
by me. 

Cotton Mather, in a strain of that delightful fustian which has 
made him famous, thus records his coming to Maiden : — 

From Cambridge, the Star made his Remove, till he comes to dis- 
pense his Sweet Influences, upon thee, O Maldon ! And he was thy 
Faithful One, for about a Jubilee of years together. 19 

He was dismissed by the Cambridge church to the church at 
Maiden, 20 August 25, 1656, by the following letter: — 

To the Church of Christ at Maldon, Grace and Peace from God our 
father, and from y e Lord Jesus Christ. 

Whereas, the good hand of Divine Providence hath so disposed that 
our beloved and highly esteemed brother, Mr. Wigglesworth, hath his 
residence and is employed in the good work of y e Lord amongst you, 
and hath seen cause to desire of us Letters Dismissive to your Church, 

19 A Faithful Man, 23. transferred) ; that, as near as may be, 

20 " There is a seasonable care taken according to the primitive direction, they 
that, if the candidate were a member may choose from among themselves." 
of some other church, he have his dis- Mather, Ratio Disciplines, 22. 

mission (his relation declared to be 



A TEACHER AND A NEW MEETING HOUSE. 197 

in order to his joining as a member with you. We, therefore, of the 
Church of Christ at Cambridge, have consented to his Desires herein, 
and if you shall accordingly proceed to receive him, we do hereby re- 
signe and dismiss him to your holy fellowship, withall certifying that as 
he was formerly admitted among us with much approbation, so during 
his abode with us, his conversation was such as did become the gospell, 
not doubting but that through the grace of Christ, it hath been and will 
be no otherwise amongst you ; and that he will be enabled to approve 
himself to you in y e Lord as becometh saints. 

Further desiring of the Father of mercies that he may become a 
chosen and special blessing to you, and you also againe unto him 
through Christ Jesus. 

We commit him and you all, with ourselves, to him who is our Lord 
and yours. 

In whom we are, 

Your loving brethren, 

Jonathan Mitchell 
Richard Champnky, 
Edmund Frost. 
With y e consent of y e brethren of y e Church at Cambridge. 
Cambridge 25 of y e 6 th m. 1656. 21 

The time of his ordination is a matter of uncertainty; for it 
may have been about the time of his admission to the Maiden 
church, September 7, 1656, or after May 19, 1657, 22 when he 
wrote: — "This day is appointed for an issue about my set- 
tlem*. Lord J look up to thee for wisdo™ & guida"ce in so 
sollemn a business." I am inclined to fix it after the later date, 
ascribing the delay to sickness and uncertainty. I am strength- 
ened in this belief by the fact that the benefit of the parsonage, 
although it had been built several years before, was not con- 
firmed to the use of the ministry by record until December 29, 
1657. A letter, which he afterwards wrote to the church, places 

21 Christian Register, June 29, 1S50; time and vexatious errors caused by the 

Dean, IVigglesworth, 50-52. many shortcomings of the Genealogical 

'-'- Savage, Genealogical Diet. iv. 541, Dictionary. Let it not be supposed that 

with his not uncommon habit of jumping the great labor of its compiler or the 

at conclusions, antedates the time of value of his work are overlooked by 

Mr. Wiggles worth's ordination by not those who have serious grounds for 

less than two years, placing it in 1654, criticism; but it may not be amiss to 

when he had not yet been called to warn the young seeker against blindly 

Maiden. accepting its statements or taking for 

Often has the antiquary or genealo- granted that which may not be war- 
gist reason to mourn over hours of lost ranted by a closer investigation. 



198 HISTORY OF MALDEX. 

the time of his acceptance in the early summer of 1657. He 
says : — 

Since y e Lord inclined yo r hearts to invite me hither, it pleased him 
to hold me und r vveaknes & you under suspence at uncertainty's half a 
yeer almost ere I durst adventure to come to you ; and after I did 
come, above a year & a half it was before I could see God clearing my 
way to accept of yo r call to office. 

It is not improbable that he may have contemplated a return 
to England during the delay ; for a letter written by a relative 
of his wife, dated April 6, 1657, indicates that correspondence 
looking towards such a result had taken place. This friend 
writes : — 

Ma. Boyes thinks our climate would better agree with yo r constitution 
than New England doth and promises to mee or rather seems confident 
that you would not want a call now, a comfortable maintainence even 
in these parts of Yorkshire about Leeds if you would come. 23 

Cotton Mather printed from the " reserved papers " of Mr. 
Wigglesworth some passages, written " after he was invited 
unto Maldon, and then was taken off by Long Sickness; " 24 
and it is certain that he had already become a confirmed invalid 
from the effects of the "sickly constitution" which had shown 
itself before he left Cambridge. 25 

His own account of the trials which beset him in the " Mal- 
don business " is not without interest, and shows how " great 
afflictions " came to the sensitive nature of the young man out 
of the smallest things. 

[May 19, 1657.] J haue all along been exercised with disco r age- 
m ts since J came hith. 1. with m r Hills marrying of himself w c J un- 
d r stood to be very ridiculous in y e opinion of y e country vv r it was 
noised. 2. with the co n testations between the Tow" & the Treasurers 

23 Lane Family Papers, 12; or New " Let God be magnify'd, 
Eng. Hist, and Geneal. Register, xi. no. Whose everlasting strength 
The original is in the Ewer MSS., i. s, in Upholds me under sufferings 

., i.i_ r ,\ at r^ 1 1 tt- .. • Of more than ten years length." 

the library of the New England Historic 

Genealogical Society. This places the beginning of his 

24 A Faithful Man, 40. bodily troubles as early as 1652; and 

25 Mr. Wigglesworth, himself,gives tes- an entry in his diary, already quoted, 
timony as to the early appearance of his indicates that he was suffering from it 
malady. Writing in [662 he says in the in the winter of 165%. 

address prefixed to the Day of Doom : — 



A TEACHER AND A NEW MEETING HOUSE. 1 99 

slownes in Keeping their seasons of bringing in, & making good their 
engagem ts . 4. with y e returns of my nightly diste m p occasion' 1 by study 
about ch. Goverm! & my wa t of insight thereinto, or of stre n gth to at- 
tain it. 5. with fears of m r Hills judgem' about baptism ; he being an 
elder elect, now finding him staggering or unsound J hold it altogether 
unsafe to let his ordination p r ceed, so J used means to bring out his 
opinio" & p r vent y e oth. The Lord hath in some measure removed all 
these, qua 5 ' discouragements, so far & J find my self inclinable to y e place 
& peop. & work of chr. am. them. There is yet another afflicting thing ; 
And that is a multitude of great black buggs \v c do swarm all ov r y e hous 
no room nor place free, no cupboard, pot, &c. like Pharaohs froggs, & 
they eat all kind of food & we apprehend they haue eate" some cloathes 
also. J- am loath to make this a disco'agem' (tho a great affliction) 
bee. J hope it may be removed in some measure by plaistring the 
chimneys & stopping their holes or els by building new chimneys of 
brick or if there be no remedy by building a hous in anoth place. 
There seems to be a clear call of god unto office work, ffor, 1. Here 
is a poor desolate peop. always without an officer til they got a bad one 
•& were glad to be rid of him. but now brought low r then ever. 2 This 
peop importunate, consta n t in desiring me. 3 The neighbo rs also re- 
sorting much unto us. 4 Gods marvelous work in carrying me (so 
weak) thro: y e difficulty of y e work in this place, his p r se n ce w th me 
hath here been such as this seems to be the place. 5. J apprehend 
this place both in resp. of nearn. to y e bay & many oth ways most sut- 
able to my weaknes. 6 The co"sta n t inclination of my ow" spt unto 
it notw th stand: all discouragemts, & not to any oth; tho: J haue 
nut been w th out some sollicitatio n s. 

Mr. Wigglesworth apparently came to Maiden not as a pas- 
tor but as a teacher, a distinction which was recognized by the 
Cambridge Platform and the common usage of the churches. 
Mr. Matthews had been pastor of the church, and so were two 
of the colleagues of Mr. Wigglesworth, Benjamin Bunker and 
Thomas Cheever; but 
it does not appear 
that he ever assumed 
the title, while he may have performed its offices, although it 
was applied to him by others after his death. 26 I feel certain, 



JflicLe£ Wgjfefioofll^ 



26 " The distinction between the du- to exhortation, and therein to administer 

ties of the pastor and teacher, is thus a word of wisdom ; the teacher is to 

defined in the Cambridge Platform : attend to doctrine, and therein to ad- 

' The pastor's special work is, to attend minister a word of knowledge.' Both 



200 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



adopting the supposition of his biographer, that his bodily- 
weakness prevailed upon him to take upon himself the lighter 
duties of the lesser office. Mr. Dean says: — 

Perhaps Mr. Wigglesworth may have thought himself not well fitted 
for the active duties of parochial life, and may have chosen the office 
of teacher to indicate the service he was best able to render to his 
parish. Precedents are not wanting where the only minister of a church 
was settled as its teacher. 27 

Mr. Wigglesworth brought a young wife to his new home. 
He had married, May 18, 1655, after considerable deliberation 
and seeking of advice, 28 Mary, daughter of Humphrey Reyner 
of Rowley; and their only child, Mercy, was born in Maiden, 
February 21, 1655,15. 

He found here a house prepared for him, which had probably 
been built during the pastorate of Mr. Matthews and had per- 
haps been occupied by " that much afflicted and persecuted 
man of God." The deed which was given in this connection 
was signed by the selectmen and witnessed by the elders of the 



are empowered to dispense the sacra- 
ments, to execute church-censures, and 
to preach the Word, as to which duties, 
'they are alike charged withal.' The 
pastor on whom chiefly devolved the 
care of the flock when out of the pulpit, 
was expected to spend his strength 
mostly in exhortation, persuading and 
rousing the church to a wise diligence 
in the Christian calling. The teacher 
was to indoctrinate the church and labor 
to increase the amount of religious 
knowledge. His workshop was the 
study ; while the pastor toiled in the 
open field." McClure, Life of fohn 
Cotton, 1 1 5. Cf . American Quarterly 
Register, xiii. 37 ; and Congregational 
Quarterly, v. 182-183. 

27 Memoir of Wiggleszvorth, 54. 

28 It was the cruel fate of Mr. Wig- 
glesworth to be unable to approach any- 
thing without doubts and fears. Espe- 
cially did the subject of his contemplated 
marriage press upon his mind and con- 
science in the winter of 1 65 4 5. His 
bodily condition and the faint promise 
which it gave of comfort and usefulness 



in this life, and the relationship of his 
intended wife, his cousin, were fruitful 
causes of trouble to his sensitive mind. 
In February he writes : — 

" Now y e spring approaching, J ad- 
drest my self to write for advice to 
m r winthrop, m r Alcock m r Rog rs . 
Jn writing y e Lord helpt me to do it w th 
plainess & simplicity, declaring y e diffi- 
cultyes truly on both sides ; & he helpt 
me to do it w th out disquieting trouble. 
J also writ to my cousin dealing plainly 
w th i ier m ye business, w' da n ger J appre- 
hended wishing her to be advised & take 
cou n sel, y l she may know w" 1 she matches 
with & have no caus to repe n t her." 

As late as the early part of the 
month in which he was married, he still 
had doubts about marrying with a kins- 
woman ; but in the end he says : " y e 
Lord gaue me co' n fortable satisfaction 
in y s point also, that my scruple was 
invalid." 

After his marriage he intimates that 
he followed God, " by fayth," in this 
matter. 



A TEACHER AND A NEW MEETING HOUSE. 201 

church; and it was put upon record, December 29, 1657, as ^ 
to reaffirm the grant, soon after the probable date of the ordina- 
tion of the new teacher. 

Maldon gift Know all men by these p r snts that the Jnhabitants 

to y of the Towne of mauldon Have given & granted to the 

Ministry. vse of a p r sent preaching Elder & his next successo rs , 

and so from time to time to his successors foure acc rs of ground pur- 
chased of James Greene for that end, and a house built therevppon, at 
the charge of all the Jnhabitants by a Towne rate pportionably made 
the 22". 1 of the 10 th m° 165 1. Witness the hands of these vnder written 
in the name of the Jnhabitants, 6. m°. 55: also a rate in 52. 

C Jn°. vpham 

t * tt n 7 u ) W 1 ? Brackenbury 

Joseph Hills Selectmen. < „ ~ 

W« Sergeant. J h ™ a s Ca ^ 

I Jn". \\ ayte. 

The " foure acc rs of ground purchased of James Greene " were 
the beginning of the parsonage estate, which for nearly two 
hundred years, to the close of the pastorate of the Rev. Sylva- 
nus Cobb in 1837, was the home of the ministers of the First 
Parish. In 1674 the town made an exchange with Henry 
Swillaway, by which, for six pounds in money and five acres of 
common or town land on the northerly side of " the highway to 
Sandy Bank," this estate received an addition of three acres, 
which had formerly formed a portion of the land of William 
Brackenbury. 30 A further addition on the same side was ob- 
tained, March 4, 167^9, by a deed of Benjamin Blakeman con- 

29 Mid, I. Co. Deeds, ii. 43. Joseph been carried out as at first designed, 

Hills and William Sargeant were elders Midd. Co. Deeds, ix. 39S, 404; x. 572. 
of the church. The lot conveyed to Swillaway on 

3) This land, bounded, s. ministry the northerly side of the highway, after- 
land ; E. Mr. Wigglesworth ; N. widow wards known as Burying Ground Lane, 
Mary Bunker ; w. the country highway, Marsh Street, and now Madison Street, 
was deeded by Samuel Brackenbury, in was next to " the burying-place." It 
consideration of eight pounds and five was, apparently, a portion of the corn- 
shillings paid by his father-in-law, Mi- mon land which had been reserved as 
chael Wigglesworth, to Henry Swilla- a landing place for the inhabitants of 
way, December 10, 1674, and soon after, Charlestown. It was finally quitclaimed 
deeded by Swillaway to the town. The by John Cutler in behalf of Charles- 
deed of the selectmen was not made, town, December 30, 1695 : Midd. Co. 
however, until March 25, 1679; but as Deeds, xii. 329. It was then bounded — 
both deeds were acknowledged at about N. E. the fence or stone wall of John 
the same time in May, 1682, the long Green ; s. e. a common highway lead- 
pending transaction appears to have ing to Sandy Bank ; s. w. the burying- 
place ; N. w. common land. 



202 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

veying seven acres, which in some unrecorded way had come 
into his possession from the estate of Mr. Bunker. 31 The lot 
thus purchased of Mr. Blakeman was afterwards claimed by 
John Bunker of Cambridge, nephew of Mr. Bunker and only 
surviving son of his brother John, who had died in Maiden, 
September 10, 1672. I cannot trace the grounds of his claim.* 2 
At a town meeting, September 2, 1695, it was 

noted That thare be a Commity Chosen to agree with John Bunker 
Consarning the towns land he laies Clame to 

noted Deken John Green Deken John Greenland Henery Green 
Thomas Newhall John Green are Chosen a Commity to agree with 
John Bunker if thay Cane one Resenaibel termes and the towne to pay 
the Charge : if not to Stand Sute and the towne to bere the Charges 

The committee obtained what they probably considered 
" Resenaibel termes ; " and eight days after the town meeting, 
John Bunker executed a deed of release in consideration of 
eight pounds, the original purchase money having been one 
hundred and twenty-five pounds, including, however, whatever 
value may have been put upon the interest of Mr. Blakeman " to 
or in the dwelling house for the ministry in the s d Towne or any 
of the lands thereto adjoyning." 33 

These lands, lying together upon the easterly side of " the 
Country road leading to Penny Ferry," otherwise called " the 
Great Road," formed the house or home land of the parsonage, 
and so remained, with little or no change, until the estate was 
sold to George W. Wilson in 1845, when it contained about six- 
teen acres lying around the house. Besides this, a porticfn of 
the Bell Rock pasture, upon the westerly side of the road, was 

31 Seven acres, s. land of the town ing, and another son, Jonathan, had but 

of Maiden ; E. Mr. Wigglesworth ; N. recently died at Newfoundland, when 

Thomas Lynde ; w. the country high- John Hunker made the claim, which he 

way. Midd. Co. Deeds, x. 574. was apparently able to enforce, upon the 

82 Widow Mary Bunker released all lands which were formerly the estate of 

her right in the estate of " M^ Bunker his uncle. 

late of Mauldon " to his brother Jona- 83 This deed, dated September 10, 

than of Charlestown, January 12, 167% 1695, was never recorded. It remained 

for forty shillings per year during her in the possession of Deacon John Green 

life. Midd. Co. Deeds, v. 338. Jonathan and his descendants, and is now with the 

Hunker died of small-pox, June 2, 1678; Green MSS. in the library of the New 

but his youngest son, Benjamin, was liv- England Historic Genealogical Society. 



A TEACHER AND A NEW MEETING HOUSE. 



203 



appropriated to the use of the ministry after the removal of the 
meeting house in 1730. The whole estate at the time of its sale 
comprised eighteen and three-quarters acres and twenty-nine 
poles. 

Upon the original purchase of four acres the " ministry house " 
was built on a knoll, now removed, eight or ten rods south of 
the present house. 34 To this house the teacher brought his little 
family; and in it, filled with despondency and worn with bodily 
weaknesses, he passed the most discouraging portion of his life. 

Mr. Wigglesworth preached at his first coming in the building 
in which Mr. Matthews had uttered his "inconvenient" words 
and in which the church was probably originally gathered. It had 
been built as early as April, 1649; for, in the report of the com- 
mittee appointed to survey a way from Reading to Winnisimmet, 
it was then mentioned as " the meeting house on Mestick Side." 
It stood on the southerly slope of Bailey's Hill, perhaps a little 
to the westward of Bell Rock, where indications of a former 



34 Frequent entries appear upon the 
town records relating to the care and 
preservation of the "ministry house" 
and its lands. August 16, 1699, it was 
"voted "y' there shall be a Lento erected 
to on y e backsid of y e parsonag-hous 
The wholl length of y e house : ten foots 
wide : And deuided jnto three parts : 
one for a citching with a chimne : and 
ouen : one for abuttere : one for a Log- 
ing roome : all suficantly finished." John 
Greenland, Phineas Upham, and Samuel 
Sprague were chosen " to prescribe a 
Rule how y e bidding of the lento shall 
"be carried on : and to agree with a work- 
mar. : for y' end." Deacon John Green 
was added to the committee a few weeks 
later. The building of the leanto was 
not hurried. April 19, 1700, Samuel 
Green, Senr., Capt. John Green, and 
Joseph Lynde were "chose and jm- 
poured as a commitie To see aftar y e 
carrying on y e finishing of y e lento latly 
erected To y e parsonag house." 

October 24, 1701, twenty shillings of 
the money that was raised to shingle 
part of the meeting house were diverted, 
to " parches meterials To Repair y e 
parsonag hous." In 1705 it was voted, 



" That m r Wigglesworth hath liberty to 
Remoue y e parsonage barn neerar to 
y e dweling house : to y e north side of 
y e paire tree behind y e chveling-house." 

July 29, 1706, after Mr. Wiggles- 
worth's death, it was " Voted y l Mrs 
Wigglesworth shall be paid for whatt 
M r Wigglesworth hath erected to y e 
parsonag: Thatt shall be juged beni- 
ficall to the towne — And y e selectmen 
are apointed to take a vew of all Those 
things and jug: what y e ate worth and 
make Report thereof to y e town. The 
Select men Refuse to exept." The next 
year it was proposed to sell " the par- 
senag ; " but " the uot passed on the 
negitife." In December, 171 1, the town 
raised ten pounds to repair the house : 
but in 171S there was less liberality; 
for in October of that year, " It was put 
to vote whether y e Town will Repaire 
y° well y* belongs To y e parsonag hous 
by Taking up y e stons and jndeuor to 
Get watar and jt past in y e negitiue." 
Perhaps the dissatisfaction which then 
existed in relation to the pastor, Mr. 
Parsons, may have influenced the town 
in this vote. 



204 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

occupancy of the land were still visible a quarter of a century 
ago. It could not have been a building of any pretensions even 
for those days; and it is not unlikely that it was built for some 
other purpose and utilized as a temporary place of meeting. 
Whatever its character may have been, it soon became unfit for 
church purposes; and the town, in the midst of its "distrac- 
tions and discouragements," voted to build a new house. The 
selectmen, November 9, 1658, concluded a contract with Job 
Lane, which, as showing the peculiarities of building at that 
early day and the manner of house in which the little church 
of Maiden gathered for seventy years, is worthy of being 
reproduced. 

Articles of agreement made and concluded y e 11 th day of y e ninth 
m°, 1658, betweene Job Lane of Maiden on the one partie, carpenter, 
and William Brackenbury, Lieut. John Wayte, Ensigne J. Sprague, and 
Thomas Green, Senior, Selectmen of Maiden, on the behalf of the 
towne on the other partie, as followeth : 

Imprimis : The said Job Lane doth hereby covenant, promiss and 
agree to build, erect and finish upp a good strong, Artificial meeting 
House of Thirty-three foot Square, sixteen foot stud between joints, 
with (lores, windows, pullpitt, seats, and all other things whatsoever in 
all respects belonging thereto as hereafter is expressed. 

1. That all the sells, girts, mayne posts, plates, Beames and all other 
principal Timbers shall be of good and sound white or Black oake. 

2. That all the walls be made upp on the outside with good clap- 
boards, well dressed lapped and nayled. And the inside to be lathed 
all over and well struck with clay, and uppon it with lime and hard up 
to the wall plate, and also the beame fellings as need shalbe. 

3. The roofe to be covered with boards and short shinglings with a 
territt on the topp about six foot squar, to hang the bell in with rayles 
about it : the floor to be made tite with planks. 

4. The bell to be fitted upp in all respects and Hanged therein fitt 
for use. 

5. Thre dores in such places as the sayd Selectmen shal direct, viz : 
east, west and south. 

6. Six windows below the girt on thre sids, namely : east, west and 
south ; to contayne sixteen foot of glass in a window, with Leaves, and 
two windows on the south side above the girt on each side of the deske, 
to contayne six foot of glass A piece, and two windows under each plate 
on the east, west and north sides fitt ~[ to] conteine eight foote of glass 
a peece. 



A TEACHER AND A NEW MEETING HOUSE. 2 05 

7. The pullpitt and cover to be of wainscott to conteyne ffive or six 
persons. 

8. The deacons seat allso of wainscott with door, and a table joyned 
to it to fall downe, for the Lords Supper. 

9. The ffloer to be of strong Boards throughout and well nayled. 

10. The House to be fitted with seats throughout, made with good 
planks, with rayles on the topps, boards at the Backs, and timbers at 
the ends. 

n. The underpining to be of stone or bricks, and pointed with 
lyme on the outside. 

12. The Allyes to be one from the deacons seat, through the middle 
of the house to the north end, and another cross the house ffrom east to 
west sides, and one before the deacons seat ; as is drawne on the back 
side of this paper. 

13. And the said Job to provide all boards, Timber, nayles, Iron 
work, glass, shingles, lime, hayre, laths, clapbords, bolts, locks and all 
other things whatsoever needful and belonging to the finyshing of the 
said house and to rayse and finish it up in all respects before the 
twentie of September next ensuing, they allowing help to rayse it. 

And the s' 1 Selectmen for themselves on behalfe of the town in Con- . 
sideracon of the said meeting house so finished, doe hereby covenant, 
promise and agre to pay unto the s d Job Lane or his Assigns the sume 
of one hundred and ffiffty pounds in corne, cord wood and provisions, 
sound and merchantable att price currant and fatt catle, on valuacon 
by Indifferent men unless themselves agree the prices. 

In manner following, that is to say, ffiffty pound befor y e first of 
y e second m°, which shall be in the year sixteen hundred 59 and other 
fiffty pounds before the first of y e second m° which shall be in the year 
one thousand six hundred and sixtie. And it is further Agreed that 
when the s d house is finished, in case the s d Job shall find and judgeth 
to be worth ten pounds more, that it shall be referred to Indifferent 
workmen to determine unless the sayd Selectmen shall se just cause to 
pay the s d ten pounds without such valuacon. 

In witness whereof the partys to these presents have Interchangeably 
put their hands the day and year above written. 

William Brackenbury. 
Witness, John Sprague. 

Joseph Hills : Joh. Wayte. 35 

and Gershom hills. 

35 The original document, which was noticed that the signatures of Job Lane 

in the hands of the compilers of the Bi- and one of the selectmen do not appear. 

Centennial Book in 1849, cannot now be It is likely that the original had become 

found ; and I am obliged to follow their mutilated, or that the signatures were 

apparently modernized copy. It will be illegible from some cause. 



206 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



This " Artificial meeting House " stood upon the side of the 
hill a little below and south of the well known Bell Rock. 36 
Although it was to be finished in September of the next year, 
it was still uncompleted in June, 1660, when it was stated that 
" a new Meeting-house is Building will Cost vs aboue I50 1 . 1 " 

A " territt to hang the bell in" was specified in the contract; 
but for some reason it was not built and the bell was hung in a 
frame upon the rock, which thus received the name by which 
it is still known. 37 It was not until more than thirty years had 
passed that it was voted in a town meeting, March 21, 1697-3, 
" That y e bell shall be Hanged one the top of y e Metinghous." 
At the same time it was ordered, " That the Select men shall 
Take care for to agree with a workman for the hanging of the 
bell one y e Top of y e meeting hous." The building of this 
turret was not hurried. It was voted, November 29, 1694, 



35 While the meeting house was being 
built, the town of Charlestown granted 
or quitclaimed a parcel of land, which 
appears to have been land in which the 
mother town held reserved rights of 
commonage. 

" Att a metting of the selectt men 
the 23 the n: 1659, was granted and 
Confirmed unto the Towne of Maiden 
a parsill of land, more or les, which 
pasill of land is bovvndid on the west 
by m r Joseph hills medow, and on the 
north by the land of michell Smith, and 
so joying to the high way, And william 
Brankenbury on the northeast. This 
pesill of land Aforsaid is given to the 
towne of Maldon in Consideration of 
ther buldin a meeting house: that this 
is ther Reall Actt and Deed, witnis in 
the name of the selectt men. 

Sam Adams, 

Reco." 
Charlestown Archives, xxxiv. 104. 
I am sure that this was not the lot on 
which the meeting house was built; but 
it was near Sandy Bank and the bury- 
ing ground, probably near the Swillaway 
five acres, which Charlestown likewise 
quitclaimed in 1695. Midd. Deeds, xii. 

3 2 9- 

37 It was found " at a meeting at Jsak 
hills of the Selectmen and commis- 
sioner," August 30, 1684, that "expenses 



about the bell taking downe and hang- 
ing vp 2 shillings and 4 pence," had 
been incurred. This doubtless refers 
to some necessary repairs, or the build- 
ing of a new bell-frame. 

The old bell was apparently removed 
to its proper place when the new meet- 
ing house was built in 1730, and it hung 
there during the Revolution ; but some- 
time during the parish troubles it had 
been taken down to prevent the precinct 
people from abstracting it, as they had 
threatened. It lay hidden in the par- 
sonage well for many years. When the 
third meeting house was demolished, in 
1S02, it was again removed and placed 
upon the school house on Baptist Row, 
the town having received a new bell for 
the meeting house from the eccentric 
" Lord " Timothy Dexter, of Newbury- 
port. In 1S22 it was placed upon the 
new brick school house on Pleasant 
Street. Here the bell which had called 
Wigglesworth and the people of his 
charge, and had warned the townsmen 
on the morning of the Lexington Alarm, 
tolled the incomings and outgoings of 
the Maiden youth for more than twenty- 
five years, when it fell from its turret, 
in the conflagration which partially de- 
stroyed the school house in 1848, and 
became silent forever. It was soon 
after sent to the melting pot. 



A TEACHER AND A- NEW MEETING HOUSE. 20; 

" that Isaac Wilkeson shall H'aue Two accres of Land In 
y e Common neere his house for bulding y e Tarrat one 
y e meting-hous and y e laddar; " and six months later, May 8, 
1695, it is recorded, " that the town will alowe Samuel Stoures 
aighteene shillings with what he hath had all Ready for the 
finesing of the teret and hanging the bell." 

The contract shows that the new house was square and prob- 
ably of the " tunnel " type, as the meeting house of Lynn, which 
was built in 1682 and demolished in 1827, and that at Hingham 
which is still standing. From the specifications and the well 
known manner of building at that time its appearance can be 
described with a great deal of certainty. Within, aisles or 
" alleys " crossed the floor, dividing the seats or benches with 
which the house was furnished into four unequal divisions. 
The pulpit stood on the south side of the room, with a small 
door near by; but it was removed to the "north east side" 
when the house was enlarged. The deacons sat before the 
pulpit facing the congregation. The windows, " few and small, 
on account of the great expense of them, were [probably] con- 
structed with diamond panes in leaden sashes, according to the 
fashion of the times." 38 

Although the floor was " fitted with seats throughout, made 
with good planks," pews were afterwards allowed to be set up, 
apparently without regard to appearance, the taste and means 
of the owner being the limitations. These pews, unlike their 
degenerate successors, the slips of our modern churches, were 
those large and square structures which of yore were irrever- 
ently called " sheep-pens." The first person who is known 
to have enjoyed this 
privilege was Colonel 
Nicholas Paige, 89 in 
relation to whom is 
found the following 
record : — [March 14, 
i6gj4] Voted that corronall page hath liberty to build a pue 

38 Bi-Centennial Book, 125. he was of no mean note in the Colony. 

39 This was a man to be favored, for By marriage with Widow Anna Lane, 




208 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

and it is left to the select men to order it and in case cor- 
ronall page leave the seat it shall returne to the tovvne." Later 
it was voted [January 28, 16945] "That Collonall paige hes Liberty 
to Remove his pewe jnto That corner of y e meeting hous by 
y e litell dore," and " Deken Green and Iohn Greenland are chosen 
to goe and Treate with collonall paige jn order to y e Removing 
of his pew." The " litell dore " was that at the southerly side 
of the house, by the pulpit, the larger eastern and western doors 
being the main entrances to the building. On the enlargement 
of the house in 1703, another vote was taken in relation to this 
important pew. " [November 5, 1703] \ T ot y l Collonall paigs 
pew shall be finished up jn y e place whare jt stands y e wholl 
length of y e platform : excepting about one foott shortned at 
y e end next y e dore." December 6, 171 7, Colonel Paige having 
died a short time before and Nathaniel Oliver having married 
Martha Hobbs, the heiress of the Keayne estate, which Colonel 
Paige had enjoyed in the right of his wife, the unfortunate and 
ill-famed Anna Keayne, the younger, the following vote, which 
closes the history of the Paige pew, was passed : " vot! that 
Cap' Nathaniel Oliuer shall haue y e same priuilidg in y e pue 
that was Collonall paiges as Collonall paige had in his Life 
time in maldon meeting hous on y e wast side." 

Colonel Paige's pew, standing in its aristocratic solitariness 
in the corner of the Maiden meeting house, must have been an 
object of admiration, perhaps of covert envy, to the brethren of 
the congregation ; and some might have been found among 

he became possessed of the great farms 30, 1704. He commanded a company 

of her grandfather, Robert Keayne, of horse in Philip's war; afterwards be- 

comprising nearly one thousand acres came colonel of the Second Suffolk 

on the easterly line of Maiden, in Rum- Regiment ; and was actively engaged in 

ney Marsh, where he apparently resided the deposition of Sir Edmund Andros 

a portion of the year, when he and his in 1689. In 1695 he became comman- 

family became hearers of the Word at der of the Ancient and Honorable Artil- 

the Maiden meeting house. His wife lery Co. He died November 22, 17 17, 

was a niece of Governor Joseph Dudley, aged about eighty years, leaving no chil- 

and inherited the " wickedness " of her dren. A pair of silver chalices, bearing 

mother, who had led a scandalous life; this inscription: " The Gift of Col: nick 1 : 

but although her first husband, Edward Page j to the Church in maiden f 1701" 

Lane, separated from her at one time, are still preserved, and are used in the 

Colonel Paige appears to have had no service of the First Church, 
great trouble with her. She died June 



A TEACHER AND A NEW MEETING HOUSE. 209 

their wives and sisters who would gladly have changed places 
with Mistress Anna Paige, despite her tarnished reputation. 

There is no indication of pew-rights being granted to others 
until after the alteration of the house, when [November 5, 1703,] 
Samuel Sprague, Jr., John Dexter, and John Sprague had 
" liberty to finish up y l vacant place between Colonal paiges 
pew and y e stayres : flush out with colonal paigs pew : and jt 
shall be for them and there wifes conueneanc." If they removed, 
the pew was to become the property of the town. At the same 
meeting, Samuel Wayte, John Tufts, and Joseph Sargeant were 
given leave " to finish up y l vacant place : behind y e decons 
wifes pew." The next year, Samuel Stower of Mystic Side and 
his sister, Widow Elizabeth Sprague, had " liberty to buld a 
pew on y e East side of y e south dore ; " and it was provided 
" y c when either of these parsons dye or Remoue from this 
meting: y l there pew shall Return to y e town." At the same 
time, it was u voted y' Joshua blanchard shall haue liberty to 
Remoue y e south doore to y e west side of y e post y l jt shuts 
Against : upon his one charg and y l y e said Joshua blanchard 
and his wife shall haue y e Roome to beuld a pew whare y e dore 
now hangs And after ther death or Remoues y l there pew shall 
Return to y e town Again." To each of these votes was added, 
" y e alley to be left 3 foots wide." 

At a meeting held April 2, 1708, it was "noted That thare 
may Be pues erected from the dore to the stares in the metting 
house one the sam termes that the other pues are erected to such 
parsions as the town shall Graint liberty to ; " and it was 
further " noted That Deacon Greenland hath Liberty to erect a 
pue in the uacand place Be hinde the dore in the meting house 
on the west side." Soon after John Green, Sen., was allowed 
to " erect a pue in the hinder part of the meting hous next to 
deacon Greenland pue ; " and Samuel Wayte, Jr., and John 
Lynde, Jr. had the same liberty respecting " a pue in the 
hinder part of the meting house next the stares." 

The occupants of the pews must have formed an aristocracy 
in the congregation ; and they doubtless enjoyed more ease in 
their seats and chairs, during the long services which were 

u 



2IO HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

characteristic of the early days, than did they who sat upon the 
plank benches on which the more common people passed the 
two or three hours of spiritual delectation and bodily discomfort. 
But there were degrees among the occupants of the benches, 
even after the men and women were parted to opposite sides of 
the house. The higher seats, or those nearest the pulpit, were 
occupied by the most worthy, the test of worthiness being " the 
Minestars Reate : with Consideration of age : and dignity." 
The committees which were appointed to adjust this delicate 
matter must have encountered many "discouragements;" for 
human nature has been very sensitive on points of honor since 
the world began. That impartial justice might be done, it was 
voted, January 2, 1694/5: "that y e Two Deakens shall seate 
those commitis that is appointed to seate y e meting hous." A 
special vote, January 6, 169.5/6, provided "That Charlestown 
men that are Constant hearers and constant Contributers 
amoungst us [are] to be seated in the meting house." An 
instance of the purchase of dignity occurred in 1708, when it 
was " noted That if james Baret will make up the twenty aight 
Shillings which the town is in detted to him for worke at the 
meting hous forty Shillings then he Shall haue as conueneant a 
seat in the meting hous as his naberas haue." James Barrett 
was a " Charlestown neighbor." 

The churchgoers of the better class found need of a shelter 
for their beasts from the scorching sun and the inclement 
storms, during the long hours of Sabbath service, while the 
more careless or less merciful stabled their horses to the most 
convenient tree or fence. In 1698 Tryal Newberry, Simon 
Grover, and Samuel Bucknam, of the extreme eastern and 
southerly portions of the town, William Paine and James 
X Barrett, of Mystic Side, with John Greenland, who lived at a 
distance from the meeting house on his farm, since known as 
the Richard Shute or Henry Rich farm in Glendale, had the 
privilege of a piece of land near the southwest corner of the 
parsonage garden for a stable. This gave four feet in width to 
each horse, but it must be remembered that the saddle and 
pillion were almost exclusively used in those days, and that 



A TEACHER AND A NEW MEETING HOUSE. 211 

carriages, even of the two-wheeled variety, were extremely rare 
even in the larger and richer towns. Four feet were considered 
a liberal allowance, and, later, the space was limited to three 
and one-half feet for each horse. In January, 169%, Deacon 
John Green and seven others were allowed to set two stables 
near the meeting house. 40 This supply of shed room seemed 
to be sufficient for twelve years; but in March, i"j l0 /n, John 
Pratt, John Upham, Phineas Upham, Jr., James Upham, 
Nathaniel Upham, Jr., Samuel Sprague, Edward Sprague, 
Phineas Sprague, Jonathan Barrett, Samuel Green, Jr., Ebenezer 
Harnden, John Brintnall, Thomas Wayte, Jonathan Sprague, 
Samuel Green, miller, Thomas Wayte, tailor, and Daniel Floyd 
had " liberty graunted Them to set up Stabls: on y e Towns 
Land sumwhare neer y e meting hous : To Sheltar ther horses on 
Sabath days And To be set out whare and so much as the 
Select men shall se cause prouided no man shall haue more 
than Three foots and half jn breadth for on hors." The next 
month Colonel Paige proved his superiority, or his greater 
needs, by getting " liberty To erect or set up a stable for 3 or 4 
horses upon y e Towns land sum whare neer y e meting-hous and 
y e select men to say whare or set out y e place whar y e s d stable 
shall stand." At the end of another year the town's land had 
become crowded or the horses had become smaller; for Hugh 
Floyd of Rumney Marsh, and Deacon Phineas Upham, 
Nathaniel Upham, Benjamin Hills, Jonathan Sargeant, John 
Lynde, Thomas Lynde, Samuel Newhall, and Joseph Lynde, of 
Maiden, in building their stable "by y e fence nere y e bell Rock," 

40 Deacon John Green, Samuel his respect for his brother-in-law, which 
Sprague, Jr., Jonathan Haward, Isaac led him to give the name of Wiggles- 
Wilkinson, Mr. Sweetser, John Sprague, worth to his youngest son, may have 
Sen., Samuel Sprague, Sen., and Samuel brought him to visit the meeting house, 
Sweetser. He who was distinguished although he appears to have retained 
by the title of Mr. must have been his Baptist principles. Pie died July 
Benjamin Sweetser of Mystic Side, a 22, 17 18, at the age of eighty-five years, 
fervent Baptist in 166S, when he was and left legacies to ministers of the un- 
severely fined for circulating a " scanda- popular faith. It may well be claimed 
lous and reproachful " petition in favor for him that he was the first inhabi- 
of his imprisoned brethren, Thomas tant of the northerly bank of the Mys- 
Gould, William Turner, and John Far- tic who openly professed the doctrine 
num. If, as is probable, he married which denies the validity of infant bap- 
Abigail, the sister of the Maiden teacher, tism. 



212 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

were each limited to " Rome to set Two horses and 3 foots jn 
bredth for each hors." In 171^7 the names of Benjamin 
Sweetser of Mystic Side, and John Mudge, whose farm in the 
south-easterly part of the town, formerly belonging to Job 
Lane, is now a portion of the Woodlawn Cemetery lands, were 
added to the list of proprietors of stables, the latter having 
room for two horses. 

In the course of twenty years the congregation became 
straitened for room; but at a meeting held December 4, 1682, 
the town refused to enlarge the meeting house, although a vote 
was passed, " That the Meeting house be repaired to keep out 
the weather & save the sells from rotting." 41 In 1701 maybe 
found an item of five pounds in the town charges " for shingles 
and nails to couer one half of y e roof of y e meting hous." Two 
pounds of this sum were, however, diverted towards the expense 
of a committee " concerning Worster farm," and twenty shillings 
were used to " parches meterials To Repair y e parsonag hous." 
In 1702 the need of a larger house had so increased that a 
more earnest attempt was made to "jnlarg y e Meting hous; " 
and a vote was passed, — 

[April 14, 1702.] That wharas jt hath ben agreead on by this 
town y' y e Meting-hous shall be jnlarged and Repaired : by a free Con- 
tribution : and Jf ther can be a suficant sum of money Gathared in this 
town and Amongst our naighbours of Charlestown to finish y e work 
acording as jt js agreead on : Then those our Charlestown naighbours 
They and ther haires Shall haue free liberty to com jnto y e s d meting 
hous To heare y e word of god. 

Deacons Phineas Upham and John Greenland were chosen to 
see what money might be gathered for this purpose. A month 
later it was voted : — 

[May 15. 1 702. J y' y e meeting-hous shall be cut jn two neer y e midle 
and carry of one end 14 foots: and close both parts again: with a new 
bulding by a free contribution : and jf our Charlestown naighbours doe 
aford towards y e said bulding : acording to y e list they haue showen 
which js 30 pounds and upwards then they shall be seated jn y e s d met- 
ing-hous As y e maiger part of this town shall se cause. 

41 It was afterwards voted : " That to Joyne with the Townes men in repair- 
phinias Sprague and Joses Bucknam are ing of the meeting house the 2S June S6." 



A TEACHER AND A NEW MEETING HOUSE. 213 

The plan of a " free contribution " failed ; and it was voted, 
June 15, 1702, to make the addition of fourteen feet upon the 
southerly side of the house and to defray the charges by a town 
rate. The Charlestown neighbors might contribute as proposed ; 
but in case of their refusal or neglect to do so, " then we will only 
Repaire our old meting-hous and will Rais money for y l end." 
Four days later John Sprague, William Paine, John Tufts, and 
James Barrett appeared in behalf of " all y e Jnhabitants of mis- 
tickside : y l are our Charlestown naightbours," and promised to 
pay thirty pounds " prouided this meting will pas a uote to 
Remoue y e pulpitt to y e west side and y l y e s d charlestown 
naightbours they and their haires shall haue a right Jn y e s d met- 
ing-hous and y l y e Shall be seated jn y e meting-hous by y e same 
Rules as this town do atend jn seating their own Jnhabitants." 
The town agreed to these conditions, and voted to raise twenty 
pounds. This sum was afterwards increased to forty pounds, 
and a committee of three was chosen " to se aftar and take care 
y l y e meting-hous be Repaired." 

A new committee, consisting of Lieutenant John Lynde, John 
Greenland, Phineas Upham, Jonathan Sprague, Joseph Lamson, 
Edward Sprague, and Samuel VVayte, was chosen the next day; 
and the alterations were thereafter carried on with all the slowness 
which usually attended such matters. The forty pounds which 
had been voted proved all too small, and, June 4, 1703, forty 
pounds more were raised "to carry on y e finishing of y e meting- 
hous : and to pay what js due : for what js alredy don for y e 
meting-hous." That not much had been done towards "jnlarg- 
ing y e hous" at this time is indicated by a vote passed soon 
after. 

[June 14, 1703.] All Those y' haue a Right jn y e meting-hous: In 
Those seats y r must be defaced or Remoued doth Giue up there Right 
to y e town : jn order for y e more conuenant Inlarging of y e meting-hous 
namly Cap 1 John Line : Leu f Henery Green : John Sprague Sen r : Samu- 
ell Sprague juner : In behalf of his mothar brown : 4 - deacon Green. 
John Greenland, Jonathan Sargeant : beniamin Whitemore jn behalf of 

4 - Rebecca (Crawford), widow of 24, 1697, Captain John Brown, of 
Lieutenant Samuel Sprague, who died Reading. 
October 3, 1696, aged 65, married, June 



214 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



his son ben : Samuell Sprague Sen r In behalf of his mother Sprague : 
Nathaniell waitt Joses bucknam Sam" Stower Sam" svveetcer : And jt js 
uoted with This prouizo y l jf euer this town seeath Cause To purches 
aney other seats or pues jn y e meting-hous : Thos parsons That ther 
names are heerunto subscribed shall be freead from aney charg ther- 
unto. 

A general town meeting was held, July 6, 1703, for the special 
and only purpose of considering the question of the location of 
the pulpit. It had been agreed with the Charlestown neighbors 
that it should stand on the west side of the house ; but the 
record of this meeting relates that " Considering the jnconuen- 
ences and damig: acurring to y e pulpitt on y l side: by Reson of 
y e extreem heate: at sum time of y e yeere: Therfor haue voted 
and ordered that The pulpitt shall be placed on y e north-east 
side of y e meting hous." The alterations now proceeded apace; 
and in February, 170^, Joshua Blanchard was paid thirty-eight 
pounds and one shilling in full for "Timbar: shingls: clobards 
and Glaze." It was voted, October 20, 1704, " y 1 Those Gen 1 y 4 
contribated to y e jnlarging of The meting-hous : y l they are 
welcom to com to heare y e word with us ; " and a list of names, 
which was entered upon the records soon after, proves that the 
people of Mystic Side had fulfilled their pledges. 

The names of our Charlestown naightbours with there summs that 
haue contributed Towards y e Inlarging and Repairing of maiden 



meting house: 














W m Pain 


2 


5 


Dan' Whittemore 


1 


10 





John Tufts 


3 


3 ° 


John Whittemore 


1 








Joses Bucknam 


2 




John Mitchell 


1 








Sam Stower 


2 




John Sprague 


3 








Thos Shepard 


1 


10 


Isaac Wheelar 


1 








Joshua Blanchard 


2 


10 


Abraham Blanchard 


1 


4 





Sam Townzen 




16 


Mothar Tufts 43 




12 




Thos Mitchel 


1 













John Rigeway 


2 




[Total ^29. 10. 0.] 








Jos Sargeant 


2 












John Marble 


1 













t:; The Blanchards lived on Wilson's 
Point, or Blanchard's side, now Welling- 
ton, in Medford, which was then a por- 
tion of Charlestown. " Mothar Tufts " 



was probably Mary, the widow of Peter 
Tufts the elder. She died before the 
recording of this list, January 10, 170%. 



o 


o 


IO 


o 


o 


o 



A TEACHER AND A NEW MEETING HOUSE. 215 

The free-will ofering of Seuerall Gen' and frends Towards the 
Inlarging of Maiding meting house 

Colanal paig 600 Jonathan Tufts 2 

Cap' Tufts 100 daniel Huchens 

Ensigne Center 100 M r s Wigglesworth 1 

Thos pratt 200 [Total ^13. 10. o.] ** 

There were no galleries specified in the contract of Job Lane; 
but they were added on three sides, either while the house was 
being built or at some time prior to 1684. At a meeting, March 8, 
170%, as the repairs were being completed, it was voted, "That 
ther shall be a new stack of stayrse erected jn y e norwest-corner 
of the meting-hous and y e other stayres jn y e northerly end taken 
down." Several seats were taken away in consequence, and the 
town clerk carefully recorded ample compensation for the re- 
moval. A fourth gallery was added in 1713, when Benjamin Hills, 
Ezekiel Jenkins, John Mudge, Thomas Burditt, Samuel Newhall, 
and Nathaniel Upham had liberty granted " y m To buld a 
gallery between y e Two grat bames ouer y e front Gallery." 

The meeting house was again becoming too small for the 
increasing congregation; and, March 3, 171^, Samuel Green, 
John Wilson, and William Sargeant were chosen " to treat with 
our charlestown naighbors consarning y e jnlarging of Roome jn 
y e meting hous." At an adjourned meeting, a fortnight later, it 
was " voted That There shall be new Gallires bult jn y e meting- 
hous : That js to say Ther shall be Two seats erected ouer each 
Gallire Round;" and John Griffin, a young housewright of 

14 This list of "Gen 1 and frends" Marsh, or Winnisimmet ; and it is sup- 
shows how widely scattered were the posed that he may have occupied that 
members of the Maiden congregation, land near Powder Horn Hill since 
Colonel Paige has already been the sub- known as the Carter Farm. Chamber- 
ject of a note. Jonathan Tufts was a lain, in the Chelsea Telegraph, April 2S, 
son of the first Peter, and married Re- 1883. 

becca, daughter of Captain John Wayte. Daniel Hutchens, or Hitchens, was 
He occupied a moiety of the Nowell an inhabitant of the "pan-handle" of 
farm, which intervened between Maiden Boston, near the Reading and Lynn 
and Medford. Captain Tufts was his lines. Thomas Pratt lived in the neigh- 
eldest brother Peter, of Medford, who borhood of Sagamore Hill, where a little 
lived upon a portion of the three hun- village springing up around his former 
dred and fifty acres of the original Cra- dwelling place perpetuates his memory 
dock farm, which his father had bought and that of his descendants. Mrs. 
of Richard Russell's estate in 1677. Wigglesworth will become better known 
Ensign John Center was of Rumney to us. 



2l6 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Charlestown, who had recently married a daughter of Deacon 
Phineas Upham, " apeering in s d meting," agreed to find the 
material and do the work within three months for twenty-five 
pounds. " On y e 16: of August 17 14 nathaniell upham Sen r Re- 
saiued Ten shillings money which js a Gift of Jonathan Tufts 
Towards y e bulding of y e new Gallery jn y e meting-hous and js to 
be jmproued for y l end." 

The new gallery did not long answer the demand for room; 
and it was finally voted : — 

[March 6, 1727.] That this Town will Build A new meetinghouse 
upon the Towns land neare y e place whear the Old meetinghouse now 
Stands. 

This new meeting house, which was the third house occupied 
by the Maiden church, was the source of much strife and divi- 
sion among the people of the town. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH. 

THERE are many indications that the settlement of Mr. 
Wigglesworth was not altogether satisfactory to some of 
the leading members of the Maiden church and that their un- 
friendliness caused him much uneasiness. He had come among 
them, as a young man, to fill the place of one who had been 
endeared to them in the mutual endurance of trials and diffi- 
culties, of one around whom they had gathered with an unflinch- 
ing devotion, which must have strengthened the bonds which 
seem to have existed between the pastor and the people from 
the first. He came to stand in the room of one in whose behalf 
and defence they had suffered, and in whose cause they were 
still under the displeasure of the Court and, perhaps, of their 
sister churches. Nor could they have heartily sympathized 
with the spirit of the religious views of Mr. Wigglesworth, 
opposed as they were in their sombre conformity to the estab- 
lished creed with the more spiritual and unfettered teachings of 
Mr. Matthews. If they admired the Antinomian tendencies of 
the one, they must have secretly disliked the uncompromising 
Orthodoxy of the other. Mr. Dean well remarks: — 

As Mr. Wigglesworth's opinions seem to have called forth no protest 
from the opponents of his predecessor, we may infer that they were 
satisfactory to them. Under such circumstances, it would not be sur- 
prising if the ardent friends of Mr. Matthews should manifest a cool- 
ness towards the person whom they were forced to hear. 1 

The increasing ill health of Mr. Wigglesworth could not have 
failed to excite increased dissatisfaction rather than sympathy : 
the more so that his bodily troubles were not always apparent 
to the careless observer, but were hidden and deceptive. A 

Memoir of Wigglesworth, 94. 



?l8 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

failure to appear in the pulpit, or any omission of pastoral work 
when suffering, was apparently misinterpreted and made a fresh 
cause of complaint and a conserver of discontent; and his sick- 
ness came to be looked upon as a case of that trouble which 
was popularly known as " hypo," or " hyp." The evidence of 
Mr. Wigglesworth, himself, is conclusive upon this point. In 
the address prefixed to the Day of Doom he says: — 

Yet some {I know) do judge, My prisoned thoughts break forth, 

Mine inability, When open'd is the door, 
To come abroad and do Christ's Work, With greater force and violence, 

To be Melancholly ; And strain my voice the more. 

And that I 'm not so weak, But vainly do they tell, 

As I my self conceit, That I am growing stronger 

But who in other things have found Who hear me speak in half an hour, 

Me so conceited yet ? Till I can speak no longer. 

Or who of all my Friends, Some for, because they see not 

That have my trials seen, My chearfulness to fail, 

Can tell the time in seven years, Nor that I am disconsolate, 

When I have dumpish been? Do think I nothing ail. 

Some think my voice is strong, If they had born my griefs, 

Most times when I do Preach : Their courage might have fail'd them, 

But ten days after what I feel And all the Town (perhaps) have known 

And suffer, few can reach. (Once and again) what ail'd them. 

This dissatisfaction was, perhaps, openly expressed at first, 
and may have been a cause of the hesitancy of Mr. Wiggles- 
worth in accepting the office, even after he had removed to 
Maiden. It might well have been one of the " disco r agem ts " by 
which he was exercised in his earlier dealings with the church. 

Nor was the temper of the people of such sort as to offer 
much encouragement to spiritual life. A spirit of ill-will and 
strife seemed to pervade the whole community. Slanders, 
assaults, domestic broils, and other evils kept the people in a 
state of unrest ; and the files and records of the County Court 
show a plentiful harvest of resulting cases and suits. In a long 
letter, which is extant and on which Joseph Hills wrote " dd 
vnto me from M r Wigglsworth the 19 clay of the 4 th M 1658: 
Signifying his desire to haue it read tomorrow vnto the 
Church," the teacher, who appears then to have been afflicted 
by " lingring weaknes & long restraint," wrote: — 



MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH. 219 

consid r whith there be no havock made of Brotherly love amongst 
you. For Brethn to be like two flints that they can never meet but 
they must strike fire togeth, becaus neith part wil yield a little or con- 
descend y* they might gain upon each oths infirmity by a sp r t of meek- 
nes ! for Brethn to be so estranged y' they know not how to fast & pray 
togeth for common mercys ; for Brethn to interpre[te] every word & 
action of one anoth to y e worst sence, to make mountains of mole hils 
& think evry smal greevance intollerable ! for Brethn to intrmeddle 
with strife y' belongs not to them, as if there were not jarrs enough 
already ! for Brethn to censure one another for their private communi- 
cations & actings w ch they y l censure cannot be privy too, & out of a 
spirit of jelousy to conclude y t such was their carriage in such a private 
or secret p r ceeding, because it use to be such at oth times ! for Brethn 
to giue one anoth y e ly & provoke one anoth in their speeches as be- 
cometh not men, much less christians ! for Brethn to be so incesed 
agst each oth that they cannot Hue togeth in a Town ! For Brethn 
whilest y e Lord hath some und r y e rod and all [underj his frown ! to be 
quarrelling at such a time . . . Brethn you add affiction to y e afflicted 
by such things ; you need not ask then what keeps me weak so long. 2 

A little more than a year later, his troubles had so increased 
that he had " thoughts of a jo r ney to Rowley ... to advise 
about my own health & laying down my work." Difficulties 
from within and without thickened around the poor teacher. 
The quakings of conscience matched the weakness and pain of 
his body ; a sick wife added to his cares, and the troubles of 
the church increased. 

That an antagonism existed between Mr. Wigglesworth and 
Joseph Hills is apparent. Its probable cause was in the Mat- 
thews troubles ; and the course of the teacher, whatever may 
have been his motives, seems not to have been such as to cause 
it to pass away. Unfavorable allusions to Mr. Matthews fell 
upon sensitive ears. The " fears of m r Hills judgem 1 about bap- 
tism," which had beset the preacher in 1657, were not forgotten 
nor allowed to fall asleep. At length, in November or Decem- 
ber, 1659, Mr. Hills was indicted by the grand jury for his 
false beliefs. There is still preserved a paper, written by Mr. 
Wigglesworth, in which the substance of the offence of Mr. 
Hills is clearly stated. Little cause may be found therein, to- 

2 Mass. Hist. So. Proc. May, 187 1, 96. 



220 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

day, for the teacher's fears. Perhaps little would he have found 
had a healthier body or a less distempered mind been found 
among his possessions. Mr. Hills may have held to some of the 
unfortunate teachings of Marmaduke Matthews: that he was 
tinctured with some of the peculiar doctrines of his friend Henry 
Dunster, the former President of Harvard College, is very clear. 
The charges, as written by Mr. Wigglesworth, are interesting as 
showing how little could offend " a shining light and faithful 
pillar " of the colonial church. 

The perticulars : as my memory prompd them to my pen. 
i. That all Baptized persons, are already ch: members, as being vnder 
the badge of the cov' & the free donation thereof, (or to y' effect) 

2. That such are to be called upon to renew there Cov' w th God, & so 
doeing to be admitted to all ch: priviledges ; except they be of a scan- 
dalous life, (or to y is effect) 

3. That such being scandalous (openly) the ch: should deale with y m 
& censure them, if obstinate 

4. That they professing they haue sinned ; or saying it Repent them : 
promising reformation, & renuing there Cov' : this should in charity 
suffice for there Reacceptance. (or to y' effect) 

5. That the Gathering or Constituting of churches is Humane, (or to 
the same effect.) 

6. That the Declaration, or Relation of the worke of Grace (as is 
required of them, that desire Admission) is not requisite : (or to y e 
same effect) 

7. That Baptized persons, as who are vnder the badge of the cov' doe 
clayme there right in ch: priviledges. (or to y' s effect) 

[And some such, haue ben, either directly or indirectly stirred up by 
him, so to doe. (as J am enformed.)] 

8. That members of one church, are members of an other church & 
ought not to be debarred the priviledges of members. (w h hee ex- 
pounds, according to the largest size of the congregational way, as to 
my vnderstanding) 

9. That L rs of Recommendation, & there renuing of Cov' (to use his 
owne phrase) is all that in poynt of order, need be required, (or to y is 
effect.) 

10. That we cannot expect good times, till there be a Reformation of 
the Churches : & tis to be desired, the Magistrate did promote it. (or 
to the same effect) 3 

8 Midd. Court Files, December, 1659. He was one of the overseers of Dunster's 
The connection of Joseph Hills with will. 
President Dunster is elsewhere noticed. 



MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH. 



221 



In the time of these outward difficulties and in the midst of 
mental uncertainties and bodily weaknesses he records in his 
diary: — 

Dec. 21, [1659,] about 2 of y e clock in y e morning I received word 
y' my wife was dead. Oh its a heart-cutting & astonishing stroke in it- 
self. Lord help me to bear it patiently & to p r fit by it, help me to 
hono r thee now in y e tiers, by maintaining good thoughts of thee, & 
speaking good & submissive words concern, thee, and oh teach me to 
dy every day. fit me for y< sweet society she is gone unto, w r solitarines 
shal no more affright or afflict me. Oh Lord make up in thyself \v l is 
gone in y e creature. I believe y u canst & wilt do it : but oh help my 
unbelief. 

After this his bodily weaknesses, the nature of which is 
imperfectly known, increased ; 4 and there are evidences that 
the few faint signs of the "presence of God's spirit" in the 
church and among the people disappeared. He had written in 
1658: — 

How long, Lord, wilt thou be angry w th us ? What ? for ever ! oh 
what will y u do with this poor sinful afflicted people? what meaneth y e 
heat of this great indignation? where is thy zeal & thy strength; y e 
sounding of thy bowels (Lord!) are they restrained? oh Return for 



4 Dr. McClure, who, perhaps, had 
some papers relating to Wigglesworth 
on which to base his assertion, says he 
was troubled "apparently by some pul- 
monary complaint, perhaps the asthma." 
Mr. Dean gathered together " the vari- 
ous notices of his disease and his feel- 
ings," and submitted them to several 
physicians. Samuel A. Green, M.D., of 
Boston, says : " I am sorry that I cannot 
make out a diagnosis, as physicians call 
it. I have shown your case to several, 
all of whom agree that the data are not 
sufficient to warrant an accurate conclu- 
sion." Ebenezer Alden, M. D., of Ran- 
dolph, "thinks it evident that he had 
the asthma ; but says, that the asthma 
will not account for all his symptoms." 
Cf. Dean, Wigglesworth, 61-62 ; Bi-Cen- 
tennial Book, 153. 

The data, however, which Mr. Dean 
submitted to these authorities were gath- 
ered from the later volume of the diaries. 
Air. Wigglesworth, himself, refers more 



definitely to his condition in the earlier 
volume in the library of the Massachu- 
setts Historical Society. The extracts 
which I have already given show that a 
great susceptibility to colds and their 
consequent evils was a prominent fea- 
ture in his case. He frequently com- 
plains of being troubled by the spleen ; 
and his almost continual melancholy 
favors the surmise that he may have 
suffered from hypochondriasis, induced 
perhaps by dyspepsia or some similar 
evil. As early as 1652^, as we have 
seen, he found a "weakn: of bodv & 
pressure by y e sple 11 & flatulent humo's." 
In February, 16554 while troubled about 
the illness of his wife, he writes : " The 
next day y e spleen much enfeebled me, 
& setting in w th grief took away my 
strength, my heart was smitte" w th in 
me, & as sleep dep r ted fro m myne eyes 
so my stomach abhorred meat. J was 
brought very low." 



222 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

thy servants sake, the people of thy holynes have possessed these ordi- 
nances, these priviledges but a little while. 5 

In December, 1661, there appears to have been a wish among 
some of his people that he should " lay down " his office. An 
entry made in his Diary at this time seems as a wail drawn from 
the very depths of a heart discouraged and broken. 

The Breth" are now below consid r ing & consulting about a future sup- 
ply & a constant help in y e ministry ; as also wheth I am call'd to lay 
down my place or not. ffath I leav my self & all my concernm' 5 with 
thee ; I h. neith way of subsistence, nor house to put my head in if 
turnd out here, but Lord I desire to be at thy disposing. Let thy 
fathly care app r tow r ds me in these my straits, as hith r to it hath done, O 
my God : ffor oth r friend or helper besides thee I have none. Lord I 
beleev; help my unbeleif." 

A few weeks later he wrote : — 

y e world seem now to account me a burden (I mean divers of o r 
chief ones) w' ever their words p r tend to y e contrary. Lord be thou my 
habitation & hiding place ; for oth I have none. Do thou stand my 
friend, w n all oth friends fail me, as they are now like to do. I will not 
tonm my self w th feares concern. y e future ; for I know thou art alsuffi- 
cient, & canst eith p r vide for me in my weakn. or recov r me out of my 
weakness by a word after all means used to no purpose, or els thou 
canst make me welcome in Heaven w n y e world is weary of me. Lord 
und r take for me for mine eys are unto thee. Tibi Domine &c. 

As Mr. Wigglesworth continued in Maiden, it seems likely 
that some help and " a future supply" was the result of the con- 
sultation of the brethren. That he was obliged to forego his 
pulpit duties in a great measure is evident, although he may 
have preached at times. It was now, as " David's affliction 
bred us many a Psalm," that the Maiden teacher's " Affliction 
turn'd his Pen to Poetry; " 6 and he began to write as a means 
by which he might, as he expressed it, " serv my Lord christ 
who is my best & onely friend & supporter." Cotton Mather 
says of him at this time : — 

5 Mass. Hist. So. Proc May, 187 1, seriously & labo r to find out y e causes 

94. A year later he records in his of gods contending w t]l us." 
diary: "June 15, [1659] This being a 6 J. Mitchel in lines prefixed to the 

day of humiliation ; we are to consider Day of Doom. 



MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH. 223 

That he might yet more Faithfully set himself to Do Good, when he 
could not Preach, he Wrote several Composures, wherein he proposed 
the Edification of such Readers, as are for Truth's dressed up in a 
Plain Meeter? 

OR, A 

DESCRIPTION 

Of the Great and Laft 

Judgment. 

WITH 

A SHORT DISCOURSE 

ABOUT 

ETERNITY. 



Ecclef. 12. 14. 

For God /hail bring every teorh^into ^udgmefft^ 
with every fecret thing, whether it be gocd 9 
or whether it be evil. 



LONDON, 

Printed by W.Q. fox John Sims, at the Kings? 
HeaAil Sweetings Alley-end in Cernhili, 
next Houfc to the Hoyd-Exchang, 1 67 3 » 

His first published work was the dismal and celebrated Day 
of Doom, that " grim utterance of the past," which has passed 
through at least ten editions and which gained an instant and 

7 A Faithful Man, 24. 



224 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

long enduring popularity, unequalled by any book published in 
America before 1800. If we except the Latin Accidence of 
Wigglesworth's master, the famous Ezekiel Cheever, and the 
New England Primer, no volume from the colonial press 
attained so great a circulation. Professor Tyler cites the fact of 
the rapid sale of the first edition of eighteen hundred copies 
" within a single year, which implies the purchase of a copy of 
the Day of Doom by at least every thirty-fifth person then in 
New England, — an example of the commercial success of a 
book never afterward equalled in this country." 8 

Of the time of the preparation of the Day of Doom and its 
first appearance, we are not without evidence. The Diary or 
Commonplace-book, of the author indicates that it was begun 
as early as January, i66}4, and it must have been published 
during the following summer ; for he tells us that " there were 
scarce any unsold (or but few) at y e yeers end, so that I was a 
gainer by them, & not a loser; " and it appears that " y e first 
impression " was sold before September 23, 1663. " About 4 
yeers after," he writes, " they were reprinted w th my consent, & 
I gave them the proofs & Margin, notes to affix." Of these edi- 
tions, the first and second, no perfect copy is known to exist; 
but there is in the library of the New England Historic Genea- 
logical Society a fragment, which is proved by a peculiarity of 
certain letters and the absence of " proofs & Margin, notes " to 
be of the first edition. From this unique copy, so far as it 
affords them, I have made the quotations in the present 
chapter. 9 

Of the great popularity of this " Composure," mention has 
been made. It was "hawked about the country printed on 
sheets like common ballads." Cotton Mather said that it " may 
perhaps find our Children, till the Day itself arrive." 10 Fran- 

8 History of American Literature, ii. Boston Public Library. Dean, Wiggles- 
■,. worth, 140-148, gives notices and colla- 

9 This fragment contains the entire tions of the several editions, of which 
poem from the sixty-third verse, and the the last is that of William Henry Burr, 
first twenty-one verses of the Short Dis- New York, 1S67 ; and Dr. Samuel A. 
course on Eternity. A perfect copy of Green has a bibliographical notice of 
the third (London, 1673) edition is in the first five editions in Mass. Hist. So. 
" the New-England-Z/7>™n'," of the Rev. Proc. January, 1895, 269-275. 
Thomas Prince, now deposited in the 10 A Faithful Man, 24. 



MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH. 225 

cis Jenks, writing in 1828, informs us that aged persons of his 
acquaintance could still repeat its verses which had been taught 
them with their catechisms. 11 

Of the estimation in which it was held, both by the learned 
and unlearned of colonial and provincial New England, there is 
no lack of proof. The secret of its power was not in musical 
versification nor pleasing rhyme ; for it is rude and rugged to 
the extreme, and is but seldom relieved by smoother or more 
melodious strains. It is quaint and grim, and uncompromising 
in its directness and logical strength. And yet, with all its 
roughness and crudities, in spite of its cheap and clattering 
rhymes, there come forth at times images and thoughts which 
prove its author, with all his limitations, to have been at the 
bottom a poet whose Muse under circumstances more favorable 
and with taste and thoughts refined by a larger companionship 
with the great singers who had preceded him, of whom he 
appears to have known little, might have sung in fitting strains 
words and thoughts of beauty, which would have had a place in 
the world's mind forever. A recent writer has said : " There was 
in him the genius of a true poet; his imagination had an epic 
strength, — it was courageous, piercing, creative ; his pages are 
strewn with many unwrought ingots of poetry." But, " he was 
himself forever incapable of giving utterance to his genius — ex- 
cept in a dialect that was unworthy of it." 12 

His biographer says: 

There are passages in his writings which are truly poetical, both in 
thought and expression, and which show that he was capable of attain- 
ing a higher position as a poet than can now be claimed for him. The 
roughness of his verses was surely not owing to carelessness nor to 
indolence, for neither of them were characteristic of the man. The 
true explanation may be that he sacrificed his poetic taste to his 
theology, and that for the sake of inculcating sound doctrine he was 
willing to write in halting numbers. 13 

As for the poem itself, which was Mr. Wigglesworth's master- 
piece, it is the true embodiment of all that was terrible in the 

11 Christian Examiner, vi. 537. 18 Dean, Wiggle worth, 131. 

12 Tyler, History of American Literature, ii. 23. 

15 



226 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

theology of the seventeenth century. Its subject and its 
earnestness place it far above the region of the grotesque ; 
and he who reads it aright can approach it with neither sarcasm 
nor ridicule. It is a horrible nightmare, which we of the present, 
with more generous views of the relationship between God and 
man, can hardly understand. There is no attempt to gloss the 
description of that which the author felt to be true, and the 
simple directness and force of its awful realism must have made 
naked sinners quake with fear. The late Joseph T. Bucking- 
ham relates that in his youth certain passages caused him 
" many an hour of intense mental agony." u In this complete- 
utterance of the belief and fears of Puritanic New England lies 
the secret of the great popularity of the Day of Doom. 

There is a perfect calm and a sense of security in the opening 
of the " Composure." 

Still was the night, Serene and bright, 

when all Men sleeping lay; 
Calm was the season, and carnal reason 

thought so 'twould last for ay. 
Soul, take thine ease, let sorrow cease, 

much good thou hast in store : 
This was their Song, their Cups among. 

the Evening before. 

But suddenly the whole world is awakened by " the sudden- 
ness, Majesty, and Terror of Christ's appearing." 

For at midnight brake forth a Light 

which turn'd the night to day, 
And speedily an hideous ciy 

doth all the World dismay. 
Sinners awake, their hearts do ake, 

trembling their loynes surprizeth ; 
Amaz'd with fear, by what they hear, 

each one of them ariseth. 

They rush from Beds with giddy heads, 

and to their windows run, 
Viewing this light which shines more bright 

than doth the Noon-day Sun. 
Straightway appears (they see't with tears) 

the Son of God most dread ; 
Who with his Train comes on amain 

to Judge both Quick and Dead. 

14 Personal Memoirs, i. 19. 



MICHAEL WIGGLES WORTH. 227 

Then is there great fear and confusion. " The Mountains 
smoak, the Hills are shooke, the Earth is rent and torn;" and 
"The Judge draws nigh, exalted high upon a lofty Throne; " 
while 

His brightness damps heav'ns glorious lamps, 

and makes Uiem hide their heads, 
As if afraid, and quite dismay'd, 

they quite their wonted steads. 

In the midst of this great brightness and woe, the last Trump 
sounds and the dead are raised; while all the living, becoming 
immortal, " are made to dy no moe." 

His winged Hosts fiie through all Coasts, 

together gathering 
Both good and bad, both quick and dead, 

and all to Judgement bring. 
Out of their holes those creeping Moles, 

that hid themselves for fear, 
By force they take, and quickly make 

before the Judge appear. 

Then takes place the last great and terrible Day of Judgment, 
when the sheep and the goats are separated and stand "before 
the Throne of Christ the Judge." It is not upon the happy 
state of the blessed that the author lavishes his choicest work, 
but upon the terrors and punishments of the damned. 

With dismall chains and strongest reins, 

like Prisoners of Hell, 
They're held in place before Christ's face, 

till He their Doom shall tell. 
These void of tears, but fill'd with fears, 

and dreadful expectation 
Of endless pains, and scalding flames, 

stand waiting for Damnation. 

Sinners of all grades and conditions — civil, honest men, 
ignorant men, fearful men, as well as hypocrites and trans- 
gressors of a deeper dye — make up the crowds of the wicked 
who " are brought to the Bar, like guilty Malefactors." 

Of wicked Men, none are so mean 

as there to be neglected : 
Nor none so high in dignity, 

as there to be respected. 

Of these trembling sinners " At this sad season, Christ asks a 
Reason (with just Austerity)," 



228 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Why still Hell-ward, without regard, 

they boldly ventured, 
And chose Damnation before Salvation 

when it was offered ? 
Why sinful pleasures and earthly treasures 

like fools they prized more 
Then heav'nly wealth Eternal health 

and all Christ's Royal store ? 

The hypocrites characteristically appear foremost to " plead 
for themselves"; and their unfortunate companions of all 
degrees follow their example. But in vain are all glosses and 
extenuating pleas; for "The Judge replyeth," and they are cut 
short by a relentless logic, before which their pleadings become 
as cobwebs and are rent in twain. 

Thus all mens Plea's the Judge with ease 

doth answer and confute, 
Untill that all, both great and small, 

are silenced and mute. 
Vain hopes are cropt ; all mouthes are stopt, 

sinners have nought to say, 
But that 'tis just, and equal most 

they should be damn'd for ay. 

" Behold," adds the author in a marginal note in a later 
edition, "the formidable estate of all the ungodly as they stand 
hopeless and helpless before an impertial Judge, expecting 
their final Sentence." 

" Others Plead for Pardon both from Gods mercy and 
Justice; " but "Mercy now shines forth in the vessels of Mercy, 
the wicked [are] all convinced & put to silence, [and] the Judge 
pronounceth the Sentence of condemnation." 

Ye sinfull wights, and cursed sprights, 

that work Iniquity, 
Depart together from me for ever, 

to endless Misery. 
Your portion take in that sad Lake 

where Fire and Brimstone flameth : 
Suffer the smart which your desert 

as it's due wages claimeth. 

They wring their hands, their caitiff-hands, 

and gnash their teeth for terrour : 
They cry, they rore for anguish sore, 

and gnaw their tongues for horrour. 
But get away without delay ; 

Christ pitties not your cry: 
Depart to Hell; there may you yell 

and roar Eternally. 



MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH. 229 

Perhaps the hardest case of all is that of " Reprobate 
Infants," 

who dy'd in Infancy. 
And never had or good or bad 
effected pers'nally; 

who are involved in the condemnation of the ungodly, solely by 
the force of the guilt of Adam. "How could we sin," they cry, 

How could we sin who had not bin ? 

or how is his sin our 
Without consent, which tu prevent 

we never had a pow'r ? 

These infant wights plead with an earnestness and force 
worthy of older sinners; but "Their Arguments [are] taken 
off" by a reasoning which, though, to us, contradictory in the 
extreme, is a concise statement of that doctrine of Adam's fall 
and infant damnation which still, perhaps, holds a place in 
darkened corners of the Church. 

Then answered the Judge most dread; 

God doth such doom forbid, 
That men should dy eternally 

for what they never did. 
But what you call old Adam's Fall, 

and onely his Trespas, 
You call amiss to call it his : 

both his and yours it was. 

Had you been made in Adam's stead, 

you would like things have wrought ; 
And so into the self-same wo 

your selves and yours have brought. 

In the end, the inexorable Judge cuts short all pleas, 
declaring 

A crime it is; therefore in blis 

you may not hope to dwell : 
But unto you I shall allow 

the easiest room in Hell, 
The glorious King thus answering, 

they cease, and plead no longer: 
Their Consciences must needs confes 

his Reasons are the stronger. 

It is refreshing to know that the unfortunate babies are able 
to weigh conscience and reason, despite their tender age, and 
are satisfied with the judgment rendered against them ; although 
the sight of Adam, the chief offender, 



230 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Whose sinful Fall hath split us all, 
and brought us to this pass, 

sitting on a throne of glory before their eyes, might raise 
some doubts in their infant minds. We of maturer life and a 
broader religious faith cannot bring our consciences to confess 
the justice of the final doom. 

If the reader, who rejoices in the light of the nineteenth cen- 
tury, seeks yet farther to know the serious and honest belief of 
an earnest New England Puritan of the seventeenth century, a 
few verses, contrasting the fate of the " sinfull wights " with the 
exalted state of the saints, who " rejoyce to see judgment 
executed upon the wicked World," may suffice. 

As chaff that's dry, and dust doth fly 

before the Northern wind : 
Right so are they chased away, 

and can no Refuge find. 
They hasten to the Pit of Wo, 

guarded by Angels stout : 
Who to fulfill Christ's holy will 

attend this wicked Rout. 

Whom having brought, as they are taught, 

unto the brink of Hell 
(That dismal place far from Christ's face, 

where Death and Darkness dwell : 
Where God's fierce Ire kindleth the fire, 

and Vengeance feeds the flame 
With piles of wood and brimstone flood, 

so none can quench the same.) 

With Iron bands they bind their hands 

and cursed feet together, 
And cast them all, both great and small, 

into that Lake for ever. 
Where day and night, without respite, 

they wail, and cry and howl 
For tort'ring pain which they sustain 

in Body and in Soul. 

For day and night, in their despight, 

their torment's smoak ascendeth : 
Their pain and grief have no relief, 

their anguish never endeth. 
There must they lye, and never dye ; 

though dying every day : 
There must they dying ever ly ; 

and not consume away. 



MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH. 23 1 

Dye fain they would, if dye they could : 

but death will not be had. 
God's direful wrath their bodies hath 

For ev'r Immortal made. 
They live to lie in miserie, 

and bear eternal wo : 
And live they must whil'st God is just, 

that he may plague them so. 



The Saints behold with courage bold, 

and thankful wonderment, 
To see all those that were their foes 

thus sent to punishment : 
Then do they sing unto their King 

a Song of endless Praise : 
They praise his Name, and do proclaime, 

that just are all his wayes. 



Of such material and of such a form was the great New Eng- 
land epic of the seventeenth century. From a subject more 
vast and terrible than that of the great poem of Milton, which 
it preceded, the Maiden bard evolved a work which shook the 
religious heart of the Puritan world. Its sulphuric and sombre 
measures were caught at once upon the lips and sank deep into 
the minds of a whole people ; and its cruel influences, even now, 
have barely disappeared below the horizon of time to return no 
more. 

" Frightful and blasphemous " 15 though it may seem in the 
light of a later century, as a recent writer has intimated, we cannot 
afford to neglect it or to undervalue the part which it bore in 
the days of the elder New England. It is a part of the history 
of the past and we may shudder before it or ridicule it; but we 
must consider it and examine it, if we would become familiar 
with the religious hopes and fears of our fathers. 16 Happily, it 

la Tyler, History of American Litera- and firmness of resolve, for which we 

turf, ii. 34. almost venerate the old men who laid 

16 Samuel Kettell, in an article, the the foundation of our republic. Neither 

historical portion of which is rather of let the lover of the sacred nine despise 

imagination than of fact, says: — "Let the muse of our author. Homely and 

not the modern reader turn with disgust coarse of speech as she is, her voice 

from the perusal of his moral senti- probably sunk into the hearts of those 

ments. Repugnant as they may be to who listened to her rude melody, leav- 

our tastes, and grotesque as they appear ing there an impression deeper than any 

in an age of refinement, they contributed which the numbers of a Byron, a Southey, 

nevertheless mainly to the formation of or a Moore may ever produce." — Speci- 

that character for unbending integrity, mens of American Poetry, i. 36. 



232 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

is no longer a living thing, having power over the hearts of 
men. It is now dry bones — a literary curiosity, which has 
passed so far beyond the range of human interest that, as a lit- 
erary work, it is a subject neither for criticism nor praise. 

Mr. Dean prints a catalogue of the library of Wigglesworth, 
taken from the inventory in the Middlesex Probate files ; and 
elsewhere he draws attention to its character. 17 The preacher 
and the physician were consulted in its selection, but the tastes 
of the poet were set aside. A single volume, that of the sportive 
and polished Horace — a strange companion for the austere 
Puritan — relieved the sombre array of theology and mediaeval 
science. 

I cannot agree with those who have written of Wigglesworth 
that he borrowed nothing and that his verses show no indications 
of an acquaintance with those who had sung before him. In 
one of his most melodious flights he cries : — 

O Heaven, most holy place 

Which art our country dear ! 
What cause have I to long for thee, 

And Beg with many a tear. 

Earth is to me a Prison ; 

This Body an useless weight : 
And all things else vile, vain, and nought, 

To one in such ill plight. 18 

He has a dull ear and a duller perception who does not find 
here, both in spirit and form, an echo of that fine old hymn of 
the ages, that product of the piety and love of Hildebert, of 
Peter Damian, and of Davie Dickson — the New Jerusalem. 

O Mother dear, Jerusalem ! 

When shall I come to thee ? 
When shall my sorrows have an end — 

Thy joys when shall I see? 
O happy harbour of God's saints ! 

O sweet and pleasant soil ! 
In thee no sorrows can be found, 

No grief, no care, no toil. 

Similar indications may be found in other parts of the same 
volume, especially in the second part, entitled, Riddles 
Unriddled. 

17 Dean, Wigglesworth, 1 29, 1 51— 1 52. 18 Meat Out of the Eater, Meditation V., v. 9. 



MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH. 233 

Donald G. Mitchell, in his English Lands, Letters, and Kings, 
has drawn my attention to the possible indebtedness of Wiggles- 
worth to Thomas Dekker (1568- 1640) whose Dreame of the 
Last Judgement may have suggested the Day of Doom. It is, as 
Mr. Mitchell remarks, " as if this New England poet of fifty 
years later may have dipped his brush into the same paint-pot." 
Compare this passage of Dekker with similar passages in the 
work of Wigglesworth. 

Their cries, nor yelling did the Judge regard, 
For all the doores of Mercy up were bar'd : 
Justice and Wrath in wrinkles knit his forhead, 
And thus he spake : You cursed and abhorred, 
You brood of Sathan, sonnes of death and hell, 
In fires that still shall burne,you still shall dwell; 
In hoopes of Iron : then were they bound up strong, 
(Shrikes being the Burden of their dolefull song ) 

While the Day of Doom was passing through the press, Mr. 
Wigglesworth wrote another " Composure" entitled, Gods Con- 
troversy with New- England, written in the time of the great 
drought Ajiuo 1662, by a Lover of New- England's Prosperity. 
This poem remained unpublished and unknown until 1850, when 
it came into the hands of the Rev. Alexander W. McClure, 
who was then preparing his portion of the Bi-Centcnnial Book of 
Jl/aldeu, in the pages of which parts of it were printed. It then 
disappeared from sight, and eager inquiries and a wide search 
failed to discover its hiding place until 1871, when, with other 
papers, it came into the possession of the Rev. Thomas 
J. Greenwood, formerly of the First Parish, who presented it to 
the Massachusetts Historical Society, in whose Proceedings it 
was printed in full. 

It was written in a year of discouragements and troubles and 
its author found full scope for his peculiar powers. In England 
the Puritan cause had failed and the Stuarts had returned ; and 
the cruel Act of Uniformity was driving faithful and pious men, 
like Marmaduke Matthews, into exile abroad or want at home. 
Political ruin to the colonies was imminent, and the day of their 
liberties seemed almost at an end. Besides these, canker worms, 
that ancient as well as modern pest, had devoured the foliage of 
the trees and destroyed their fruits, and a great drought, threat- 



234 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

ening pestilence and famine, pervaded New England and much 
sickness prevailed. Then first appeared that dread disease, the 
croup, which has never since been absent from the land. All 
these woes are characteristically referred to the wickedness and 
unthankfulness of the people ; and the poet, after drawing a 
lively picture of the prosperity and decline of New England, 
introduces the Almighty, who rates and threatens the ungodly 
generation in good set terms, concluding with a menace of phys- 
ical annihilation. 

Now therefore hearken and encline yo r ear, 

In judgement I will henceforth with you plead; 

And if by that you will not learn to fear, 
But still go on a sensuall life to lead : 

I'le strike at once an All-Consuming stroke ; 

Nor cries nor tears shall then my fierce intent revoke. 

Then begins the punishment — the pleading judgment, in the 
vivid description of which we may see the burnt fields of New 
England and the afflicted households of " last Autumn and this 
spring." 

Thus ceast his Dreadful-threatning voice 

The High & lofty-One. 
The Heavens stood still Appal'd thereat; 

The Earth beneath did gioane : 
Soon after I beheld and saw 

A mortall dart come flying : 
I lookt again, & quickly saw 

Some fainting, others dying. 

The Heavens more began to lowre, 

The welkin Blacker grew : 
And all things seemed to forebode 

Sad changes to ensew. 
From that day forward hath the Lord 

Apparently contended 
With us in Anger, and in Wrath : 

But we have not amended. 

Our healthfull dayes are at an end, 

And sicknesses come on 
From yeer to yeer, becaus o r hearts 

Away from God are gone. 
New-England, where for many yeers 

You scarcely heard a cough, 
And where Physicians had no work, 

Now finds them work enough. 

Now colds and coughs, Rhewms, and sore-throats, 

Do more & more abound : 
Now Agues sore & Feavers strong 

In every place are found. 



MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH. 235 

How many houses have we seen 

Last Autumn, and this spring, 
Wherein the healthful were too few 

To help the languishing. 

One wave another followeth, 

And one disease begins 
Before another cease, becaus 

We turn not from our sins. 
We stopp our ear against reproof, 

And hearken not to God : 
God stops his ear against o r prayer. 

And takes not off his rod. 

Our fruitful seasons have been turnd 

Of late to barrenness, 
Sometimes through great and parching drought, 

Sometimes through rain's excess. 
Yea now the pastures & corn fields 

For want of rain do languish : 
The cattell mourn, & hearts of men 

Are fill'd with fear & anguish. 

The clouds are often gathered, 

As if we should have rain : 
But for o r great unworthiness 

Are scattered again. 
We pray & fast, & make fair shewes, 

As if we meant to turn : 
But whilst we turn not, God goes on 

Our field, & fruits to burn. 

And burnt are all things in such sort, 

That nothing now appears, 
But what may wound our hearts with grief, 

And draw foorth floods of teares. 
All things a famine do presage 

In that extremity, 
As if both men, and also beasts, 

Should soon be done to dy. 

This O New-England hast thou got 

By riot, & excess : 
This hast thou brought upon thy self 

By pride & wantonness. 
Thus must thy worldlyness be whipt. 

They, that too much do crave, 
Provoke the Lord to take away 

Such blessings as they have. 

We have been also threatened 

With worser things then these : 
And God can bring them on us still, 

To morrow if he please. 
For if his mercy be abus'd, 

Which holpe us at our need 
And mov'd his heart to pitty us, 

We shall be plagu'd indeed. 



236 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Beware, () sinful Land, beware; 

And do not think it strange 
That sorer judgements are at hand, 

Unless thou quickly change. 
Or God, or thou, must quickly change; 

Or else thou art undon : 
Wrath cannot cease, if sin remain, 

Where judgement is begun. 

Ah dear New England! dearest land to me; 

Which unto God hast hitherto been dear, 
And mayst be still more dear than formerlie, 

If to his voice thou wilt incline thine ear. 

Consider wel & wisely what the rod, 

Wherewith thou art from yeer to yeer chastized, 

Instructed! thee. Repent, & turn to God, 
Who wil not have his nurture be despized. 

Thou still hast in thee many praying saints, 
Of great account, and precious with the Lord, 

Who dayly powre out unto him their plaints, 
And strive to please him both in deed & word. 

Cheer on, sweet souls, my heart is with you all, 
And shall be with you, maugre Sathan's might : 

And whereso'ere this body be a Thrall, 

Still in New-England shall be my delight. 19 

His bodily weaknesses continuing, if not increasing, " Alter 
y e first impression of my books was sold," Mr. Wigglesworth 
writes, " I had a great mind to go to Bermuda, and found many 
incouragers and incouragements thereto." He records that he 
got together "a pretty compet. estate" to take with him, and 
that physicians, with the exception of John Winthrop, 20 
encouraged him; and "so we set sayl about the 23 of Sept. 
1663." 

19 Mass. Hist. So. Proc. May, 1871, obtaining the charter which united the 

83-93. colonies of Connecticut and New Haven, 

-" This was John Winthrop, Jr., son and was prominent in the affairs of New 

of the Governor of Massachusetts, whom England for many years. His practice 

Wigglesworth frequently consulted. He as a physician seems to have followed 

was graduated at Dublin University ; from his scientific attainments, which 

and after performing some public ser- were large and which led him to become 

vice in England, he followed his father one of the founders of the Royal Society 

to Massachusetts Bay, but soon re- of London. "Physicians incouraged," 

turned. Coming again in 1635 to New wrote Mr. Wigglesworth, "except M 

England, under a commission from Lord Winthrope, whose counsel came too 

Say and Sele and others, holding under late, nor did his reasons seem sufri- 

the patent of Robert Rich, Earl of War- cient." Several years later he writes : 

wick, he built a fort, which he called "M r Winthrope being consulted, dares 

Saybrook, at the mouth of the Connec- not meddle at such a distance." 
ticut River. He was instrumental in 



MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH. 2tf 

The voyage was long and tedious, so that he " received much 
hurt, & got so much cold as took away much of y e benefit of 
that sweet & temperate air." A sojourn of about seven months 
and a half did not result in any great improvement of his 
health ; and this, with other unfavorable conditions, was made 
the ground of a speedy return. After a " short and comfort- 
able " voyage, the Lord brought him home, "in some compet: 
measure of Health, blessed be his name." 

In a season of characteristic moralizing, Mr. Wigglesworth 
leads us to believe that his removal, if only for a season, was 
not wholly unwelcome to his discontented flock. He says: — 

Peradventure the Lord removed me for a season, that he might set a 
better watchman over this his flock, & a more painful labourer in his 
vineyard. This was one thing that I aimed at in removing (to help 
the peoples modesty in this case) & I do beleeve that the Lord aimed 
at it in removing me for a season. 

Cotton Mather smooths the matter in another way. " The 
Kindness of his Tender Flock unto him," he says, "was an- 
swered in his Kind concern to have them Served by other 
Hands." 21 I do not consider this testimony to be of much 
weight, opposed to the apparent meaning of Mr. Wiggles- 
worth's own words. The younger Mather was sometimes as 
unreliable as he was bombastic, and his flowers of rhetoric may 
be found as false as the deceitful vanities of the world, which he 
habitually bewailed. 

The absence of Mr. Wigglesworth may have softened what- 
ever feelings of dislike the people had towards him ; or a better 
state of health, bringing a more cheerful mind, may have caused 
him to see them and their actions in a clearer light. That some 
change had taken place is evident, for he writes : — 

I have found more love from the people g"rally (both Church & 
Town) since my return then I did before, and they have done more for 
me of their own accord w n left to their liberty then they had done for 
some yeers before I went away. And the Lord hath also made me 
more serviceable to them, at least in a private way, & given more 
incouragement & success in y e conversion of souls then ever before. 

21 A Faithful Man, 23. 



238 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

What shall I render to y e Lord for all his benefits ! How mysterious are 
his dealings, & his ways unsearchable ! He brings meat out of the 
Eater. O blessed be thy graci s & holy name, most dear Fath ! 

While Mr. Wiggles worth was in Bermuda, the church and 
town called a pastor to the field which had become for a season 
without a teacher. This was Benjamin Bunker, the second son 
of George and Judith Bunker of Charlestown, who was born in 

September, 1635, 22 and was gradu- 

Ckf^^twr^^^cJL,^, ated at Harvard College in 1658. 
* Having become a member in full 

communion of the church at Charlestown, April 29, 1660, 23 he 
was, according to an entry of the Rev. Samuel Danforth in the 
records of the First Church of Roxbury, ordained "to y c office 
of a Pastor in Maldon," December 9, 1663. 24 His elder brother, 
John, had married Hannah Mellows, a stepdaughter of Joseph 
Hills, who, as has been seen, was the leading supporter of Mr. 
Matthews; and it is not unlikely that the influence of Mr. Hills 
may have brought him to Maiden, in opposition to Mr. Wig- 
glesworth. 

Little is known of Mr. Bunker, either in relation to his charac- 
ter or his attainments. Mr. Savage, falling into error, in one 
respect at least, remarks : — 

That he well filled his post of duty, though never married (as seems 
to be essential to the character of a New England minister,) we may be 
confident, for the long and lamentable verses of his senior colleague re- 
veal no tendency to fiction. 25 

22 " [ J 635] !'■ mo : day 20. Beniamine sum of thirty pounds, or twenty pounds 

Buncker the son of George Buncker and his Diet. 

and of Judith his wife was Babtised." " It is Inacted by the Towne the 22d 

Records of First Church, Charlestown. of february, 1660, that a leve should be 

28 He was called to the church at made for the sume of five and twenty 

liridgewater ; and it is not -improbable pounds upon every mans estate, which 

that he may have preached there be- is what they promised to Mr. Bunker 

tween the time of his becoming a for the earning Along of the Lords 

church member and his coming to days Exercise and his diet before his 

.Maiden. time or his year is fully expyred." 

" It is ordered and Agreed upon by Bridgewater Records ; Mass. Hist. So. 
the towne of Bridgewater freely and Proc, July, 1S73, 68. 
willingly to give unto Mr. Buncker, if 2i Report of the [Boston] Record Corn- 
he shall come hether to supply our missioners, vi. 201. 
wants in the way of the ministrey, the 25 Genealogical Diet., i. 298. 



MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH, 



?39 



That he was married is very evident; for his widow, Mary, 
resided in Maiden after his death and afterwards removed to 
Roxbury, where she was living, January 12, 167^7. 

That he occupied the parsonage, I am not sure — it seems 
likely that he did ; for it is supposed that Mr. Wigglesworth had 
not returned to his former home, but had built himself a small 
house on the six and a half acres which he owned east of the 
ministry lands. 26 In 1666 Mr. Bunker bought the house and 



26 Mr. Wigglesworth purchased of 
Paul Wilson, December 31, 1657, for 
thirteen pounds, six and one-half acres 
of land '"lying in Mauldon aforesaid, 
being lately the land of Jno. Lewis now 
deceased, & was Sometime part of the 
propper lott of m r Jno. Allen of Charls- 
towne." Midd. Co. Deeds, ii. 161. This 
land was bounded easterly by James 
Green ; westerly by the ministry land ; 
southerly by the highway to Winnisim- 
met ; and northerly by the common land. 
Its prior history is related in the con- 
veyance, and its passage from hand to 
hand had been rapid. Its acquirement 
by John Allen in the allotment of the 
two hundred acres of reserved land in 
1640 has already been mentioned. Allen 
sold to Lewis, March 16, 165^7, his 
twenty acres of land, " more or less," 
lying south of the common field and 
east of the land of William Bracken- 
bury and that which the town had pur- 
chased of James Green for the use of 
the ministry. Midd. Co. Deeds, ii. 42. 
John Lewis died in the following Sep- 
tember, having, as was afterwards de- 
posed, executed a writing, or deed, by 
which he conveyed to Paul Wilson his 
dwelling house, with the five-acre lot 
upon which it stood, and " his 20 acre 
lot of land without the common-field, 
y l was sometimes M r . John Aliens lot." 
Deposition of Mary Cutler, "sometime 
the wife of John Lewis, late of Mauldon, 
deceased." Midd. Co. Deeds, hi. 204. 
The land which Mr. Wigglesworth pur- 
chased was the northern portion of the 
twenty acres. 

That the title of Wilson to the Lewis 
property was early considered to be 
somewhat doubtful is evident. No 
record of the transfer was ever made, 



and its documentary evidence could not 
be produced a few years later, although 
several witnesses testified, in 1662-63, 
to its previous existence. As has just 
been mentioned, Mary Lewis, herself, 
was a witness in its favor, although, as 
administratrix, she had sold to James 
Green a portion of the twenty acres 
soon after the death of her husband. 
If any adverse claim was then made, it 
was allowed to rest for more than thirty 
years, and was revived in 1695, when 
Mr. Wigglesworth, by a payment of ten 
pounds, obtained a quitclaim from the 
Lewis heirs. Midd. Co. Deeds, x. 419. 

Here Mr. Wigglesworth built his 
house, which appears to have been one 
of no great pretensions or capacity, 
although it was, somewhat grandilo- 
quently, called a mansion in a release 
given by Samuel Wigglesworth in i"j°y i0 . 
It stood far back from the road to 
Mystic Side, which then ran in a south- 
easterly direction from the meeting 
house and crossed the line of the present 
Cross Street, near the corner of Han- 
cock Street. On the land at the north- 
easterly corner of High and Ashland 
Streets, near the wall which formerly 
divided the land of David Hutchins 
from the old ministry lands, traces of 
the chimney and cellar of the house, 
and the location of its well could be 
discerned a few years ago. 

For a more convenient way between 
it and the meeting house, it was voted, 
March 1, i68 4 / 5 , "at a publick Town 
Meeting that mister wigelsworth have a 
hy way Granted to his house throw the 
townes land." In 17 10, when the way 
over the town's land became no longer 
necessary, by reason of the stoppage of 
the " Stoney Lane," and its removal. 



240 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



land of Ralph Shepard, comprising about fourteen acres lying 
north of the parsonage and meeting house lots on both sides of 
" the road to Penny Ferry." The house was upon the westerly 
side of the road ; and the whole property, in some unrecorded 
way, afterwards came into the possession of the Rev. Benjamin 
Blakeman, by whom eight acres adjoining the house were sold, 
February 20, 16789, to John Green. The land lying east of the 
road was sold to the town soon after and became an addition to 
the ministry lands, as has been related. Blakeman's title was 
imperfect ; and when John Bunker claimed the estate of his uncle, 
in 1695, the westerly lot of eight acres was released on the 
payment of ten pounds and twelve shillings, and afterwards 
remained in the hands of the Green family until their possessions 
were invaded and divided in the ruthless march of modern im- 
provement. It was the well-known Bell Rock pasture ; but it 
did not, however, include the site of the meeting house below 
the rock, which was still a portion of the old parsonage estate 
in 1898. 



northerly to form what has since been 
known as Hutchinson's Lane, Peter 
Tufts's Lane, and Cross Street, and 
when the house had passed into other 
hands, it was voted: "That y l vote y c 
past formerly and entred upon y e book 
Kefering to a way ouer The Towns land 
To m r wigglesworths hous Js Resumed 
and made voide." 

After the death of Mr. Wigglesworth, 
his widow, by virtue of his will, sold his 
real estate, comprising seven parcels, 
with the house and barn standing upon 
the home lot, to John Hutchinson of 
Lynn, for eighty-seven pounds. Febru- 
ary 28, 1705/6, Midd. Co. Deeds, xiv. 
151. Hutchinson moved into the house, 
where he appears to have lived until 
about 17 10, when, it proving too small, 
and having, perhaps, become out of 
repair, he built a new house further to 
the southeast and upon the highest part 
of the land, by the side of the way 
which had just been laid out along the 
southerly line of his field. The tragedy 
connected with this house and its de- 
struction by fire in 1730 are related else- 
where. The new house of 1730 was 



built around the chimney of the old 
house, which attracted much attention, 
when it was demolished in 1883, by 
its size and the peculiarly shaped and 
somewhat rudely burned bricks of which 
it was composed. 

Early in this century, Wigglesworth's 
barn was still standing on its original 
site. It was then removed to the land 
on the east side of the Hutchinson house, 
where it withstood the great September 
gale of 1815, although a recent addition 
was blown down. It was demolished 
about the year 1840. 

John Hutchinson was a blacksmith 
and had his shop near the hoifse. At 
his death, August 21, 1762, he left the 
shop with his smith's tools and one half 
of his real estate to John Tufts, the 
son of his deceased daughter, Mary, 
who by the death of his spinster aunt 
Mehitable, February 13, 1780, came into 
the possession of the improvement of 
the other moiety. Hutchinson and the 
Tuftses added neighboring lands to the 
Wigglesworth lot, portions of which 
are still in the possession of their 
descendants. 



MICHAEL WIGGLESU'ORTH. 



241 



As Mr. Wigglesworth's colleague — or neighbor, if the former 
term be incorrect — whatever may have been the aims of the 
dissatisfied members of the church, Mr. Bunker appears to have 
gained the teacher's love and esteem ; and the friendship which 
a companionship of six years had cemented was celebrated by 
the poet in an elegy, which rebuked the sins of " Maldon," 
while it praised the departed saint. He died, February 3, \($9/ 10 , 
and the record styles him " Pastour of the Church of Christ at 
Mauldon." 27 He must have been buried at Sandy Bank, but no 
stone marks the spot where his dust returned unto the earth ; 
and his only memorial is the " Composure " of his friend, 
Michael Wigglesworth. 

Upon the much lamented Death of that Precious 

servant of Christ, M r . Benjamin Buncker, pasto r 

of the Church at Maldon, who deceased 

on the 3 of y e 12 th moneth 1669. 

M" Buncker'' s Character. 



He was another Timothie 

That from his very youth 
With holy writt, acquainted was 

And vers't ith' word of truth. 
Who as he grew to riper yeers 

He also grew in Grace ; 
And as he drew more neer his End, 

He mended still his Pace. 



He was most sound and Orthodox, 

A down-right honest Teacher, 
And of soul-searching needful 1 Truths 

A zealous, painfull Preacher. 
And God his pious Labours hath 

To many hearers blest, 
As by themselves hath publiquely 

Been owned & confest. 



He was a true Nathaniel, 

Plain-hearted Israelite, 
In whom appear'd sincerity 

And not a guilefull sp'rite, 
Serious in all he went about 

Doing it with his Heart, 
And not content to put off Christ 

With the eternall part. 



He hath in few yeers learned more, 

And greater progress made 
In Christianity, then some 

That thrice the time have had. 
A humble, broken-hearted man 

Still vile in his own eyes 
That from the feeling of his wants 

Christ's Grace did highly prize. 



27 His estate, the inventory of which 
was taken by John Wayte, Thomas 
Lynde, and John Sprague, amounted 
t0 ^4 2 i 4s. 6d. in personal and real es- 
tate, including books to the amount of 
£17 16s. 6d., which were appraised by 
Mr. Wigglesworth. Midd. Probate Files- 
The latter portion of the inventory is 



interesting, as being a list of books, 
which were selected by one who seems 
to have been a scholar as well as a 
preacher. As a private library of the 
present day it might be considered as 
being rather heavy, although it contained 
a goodly share of mental nutriment both 
in the classics and divinity. 



16 



242 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



Still thirsting to obtain more full ; 

Assurance of God's Love : 
And striving to be liker Christ 

And to the Saints above. 
Although he was endu'ed with Gifts 

And Graces more then many's; 
Yet he himself esteemed still 

More poor & vile then any. 

In fruitless, empty, vain discourse, 

He took no good content : 
But when he talk't of Heav'nly things, 

That seem'd his element. 
There you might see his heart, & know 

What was his greatest Pleasure, 
To speak & hear concerning Christ 

Who was his onely Treasure ; 

His constant self-denying frame, 

To all true saints his love, 
His meekness, sweetness, Innocence 

And spirit of a Dove, 
Let there be graven on our hearts 

And never be forgot. 
The name of precious saints shall live, 

When wicked mens shall rot. 



O Maldon, Maldon thou hast long 

Enjoy'd a day of Grace ; 
Thou hast a precious man of God 

Possessed in this place : 
But for thy sin, thou art bereft 

Of what thou did'st possess ; 
Oh let thy sins afflict thee more 

Then do thy wants thee press. 

Great strokes, Great Anger do proclaime, 

Great Anger, Greater sins. 
We first provoke, before the Lord 

To punish us begins. 
Good Lord awaken all our hearts 

By this most solemn stroke 
To search for, find oute, and forsake 

Our sins that thee provoke 



Awake, awake, secure hard hearts; 

Do you not hear the Bell 
That for your Pastours Funerall 

Soundeth a dolefull Knell ? 
You that would never hear nor heed 

Th' instructions that he gave, 
Me-thinks you should awake & learn 

One lesson at his Grave. 

Repent, Repent, It 's more then time 

The Harvest's well nigh past, 
And Summer ended : but thy soul 

Not saved, first nor last. 
The Belows they are burnt with fire, 

The Instruments are gone, 
But still thy Lusts are unconsumed : 

Read then thy Portion ; 

If that the ffounder melts in vain 

(Thy lusts do not decay) 
God will account thee worthless Dross 

Fit to be cast away. 
Since words could not awaken us, 

God tries what blowes can do : 
He strikes us on the head, & makes 

Us stagger to and fro. 

Much more I might have said, but 
Time 

Will not the same permit. 
Come let us put our mouths in Dust 

And down in Ashes sit. 
The Lord hath giv'n us Gall to drink, 

And laid us in the Dust : 
What shall we say ? Behold we're vile. 

But thou, O Lord, art just. 

If this, and such like awfull strokes 

Do not our hearts awaken, 
Doubtless the Gospel will ere long 

Be wholly from us taken. 
If we repent, return to God, 

Esteem his Gospel more 
Improve it better : then the Lord 

Hath mercies yet in store 28 



28 This elegy, copied from the auto- 
graph original in the library of the New 
England Historic Genealogical Society, 
Ewer MSS. i. 8, has been printed in 
the Puritan Recorder, Oct. II, 1855; in 
the Maiden Messenger, April 4, 1857 ; 
and in the N. E. Hist, and Geneal. Regis- 
ter, xxvi. 11. In the latter publication 
was printed, at the same time, an ear- 
lier poem of Mr. Wigglesworth, which 



apparently alludes to the condition of 
the New England churches at that 
time. The halfway covenant, which was 
sharply assailed and advocated in Mas- 
sachusetts from 1659 until long after 
its adoption by the celebrated synod 
of 1662, was evidently in the mind of 
the author when he wrote the first two 
verses. 



MICHAEL WIGGLESIVORTH. 



243 



We must infer, from several indications, that when Mr. Wig- 
glesworth returned from Bermuda his physical condition pre- 
vented him from taking any very active part in the ministry. 
Several years after he wrote : — 

My bodily weaknesses evidently increase & grow upon me ; espe- 
cially that old Malady that annoys me most by night. And what fear 
& distress it often (yea ever & anon) puts me into, Lord thou knowest, 
For my sighs & groanings (with my tears) are not hid from thee. By 
thine immediate hand it hath hitherto been quelled and restrained, 
when all y e means y ( I can think off are of no force. But still it con- 
tinueth, & my bondage is greatly increased by reason of it, having no 
means nor medicine that yields any releef. 

Cotton Mather speaks of him as one " that had been for near 
Twenty years almost Buried Alive." 29 It was about this time 
that, medicines having failed him, he "spent much time & Labor 
in studying & seeking after what might be helpful." He adds : — 

But yet, I find no releefe in any thing, but am forced to look imme- 
diately to the Lord for help, & blessed be his name he hath many & 
many a time wonderfully and graciously answered me : & rebuked it for 
me. 30 



" When as the wayes of Jesus Christ 

Are counted too precise, 
Not onely by some Babes or ffooles, 

But also by the wise : 
When men grow weary of the yoke 

Of godly discipline, 
And seek to burst those golden barres 

Which doe their lusts confine. 

" When some within, and some without, 

Kick down the Churches wall 
Because the doore is found to be 

Too strait to let in all : 
The best can then nought else expect 

But to be turned out, 
Or to be trampled under foot 

By the unruly rout." 

29 A Faithful Man, 24. 

33 He had at this time to bemoan the 
loss of Dr. John Alcock, H. C, 1646, 
who practised at Boston, where he died 
March 27, 1667. He writes in his diary : 
" Mr. Alcock is gone, whose plaister was 
heretofore of great efficacy for y e repress- 
ing it [his disease], w n more trouble- 
some then ordinary. Mr. Winthrope 
[of New London] being consulted, dares 
not meddle at such a distance." Later 
he received an unexpected remedy in 
relation to which he writes : — 



" After much exercise this way ..V 
many secret sighs unto y e Lord under 
the pressure of this & many other in- 
firmities, the Providence of y e Lord hath 
presented to me & provided for me an 
unexpected & unknown medicine, a box 
of Mr. Lockier's pills, (whose booke 
with some pills my Cosen Reyner met 
with at his Landlords at Mendham, & 
signifying to me the high commenda- 
tions given them by their author, & y e 
experience of sundry there of good by 
them, at my request he p r cured me a 
sight of y e book & a box of the pills for 
5 s .) And these pills I am now begin- 
ning to take this 19 of March, 1669. 
Lord, be pleased even beyond expecta- 
tion to bless them, as thou hast by an 
unexpected & a strange Providence pre- 
sented them to me, & provided them 
for me." 

Lockyer died in 1672 and was buried 
in St. Mary Overies, London, where 
Judge Sewall saw his monument with 
this couplet : — 

" His virtues and his pills are so well known 
That envy can't confine them under stone." 



244 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Out of his experiences with his own infirmities, based, per- 
haps, on the knowledge which he may have acquired at college 
while he intended to follow " y e study & Practise of Physick," 
he came to be often called upon, by his own sympathy and 
charity or the importunities of his neighbors, to prescribe for 
the bodily ills of others. Cotton Mather says : — 

His long Weakness and Illness, made him an Able Physician. He 
studied Physic ; and was a Faithful Physician for the Body as well as 
the Soul. God made him a Successful Physician, & a Beloved one. 31 

He continued the practice of medicine, even after he became 
himself restored to health and had assumed the full discharge 
of all the duties of the pastoral office. Increase Mather, who 
appears to have held him in especial friendship, addressing " the 
Church and Congregation at Maldon in New England," after 
the death of Mr. Wigglesworth, says : — 

Although in some of the Reformed Churches, they do not permit a 
Minister of the Gospel to practise as a Physician, lest he should thereby 
be too much diverted from his Sacred Employments, one of these Call- 
ings being ordinarily as much as one man can duly attend ; nevertheless 
the Lord enabled him to manage both with good Success : so that in 
being bereaved of him you have lost an able Physician both for Soul 
and Body. Nor are the People in Maldon the only Persons who have 
sustained a loss by his Death. 32 

It is said that his visits extended far into the adjoining towns, 
which is very probable ; as practitioners were not many in those 
days, and the sick were obliged to seek help, beyond the homely 
practices of old housewives, at long distances. Mr. Wiggles- 
worth, himself, sought relief from at least two physicians in Con- 
necticut. Of his abilities as a leech we have the testimony of 
the Mathers, just quoted, and the general reputation in which 
he was held. Samuel Sewall says he was "very useful as a 
Physician." 83 The Balsam of Fennel, a favorite medicine of the 

31 A Faithful Man, 25. glesworth and his Wife from Deacon 

32 Dedication to A Faithful Man. Barnard's in the Coach ; to discourse 
88 Mass. Hist.Coll., xlvi. 133. Sewall with my Wife about her and Judith's 

gives other testimony as to the ap- Maladies." Ibid. So. "Aug 1 . 4, [1703], 

preciation of Mr. Wigglesworth's ability I carried Mary to Mr. Wigglesworth's 

as a physician by himself and others, and left her there ; to see if he could 

"[June 18, 1703,] I sent for Mr. Wig- help her against her Sickness and In- 



MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH. 



2 45 



celebrated Dr. Holyoke of Salem, is said to have been prepared 
from a recipe of Mr. Wigglesworth. 34 

It may be that he received some compensation for the prac- 
tice of physic and that this, combined with what income he may 
have received from his books, supported him during the long 
period of his sickness. 35 His relationship to the Maiden church 



firmity. Augt. 6. I visited Mary as I 
promis'd her. Mr. Wigglesworth thinks 
her distemper is of a Convulsive na- 
ture." Ibid. 83. " Octob r 14 th . 1704. 
visited Col. Savage. He has kept house 
7 weeks. Mr. Wigglesworth came to 
Town the 9 th Inst 1 and administers to 
him." Ibid. 117. 

34 Mr. Dean, Wigglesworth, 128, sup- 
poses that " Dr. Holyoke obtained the 
recipe from Rev. Samuel Wigglesworth, 
probably while he was studying medi- 
cine with Dr. Berry of the neighboring 
parish of Ipswich." Edward-Stephen, 
a great-grandson of Mr. Wigglesworth, 
studied with Dr. Holyoke about the 
year 1790, and the recipe may have 
come from him ; and, to state another 
possible means of transmission, it may 
be mentioned that Dr. Berry, himself, 
one of the most distinguished practi- 
tioners of his time, was a student, after 
his graduation in 17 12, with Dr. Thomas 
Graves of Charlestown, with whom 
Samuel Wigglesworth had studied in 
1709. 

Of the medicine itself it is said : 
" The article so well known in this 
place, [Salem], by the name of the 
' white balsam drops ' or ' fennel bal- 
sam,' is a strong solution of sub-carbon- 
ate of potass with the addition of a 
little of the essential oil of sweet fennel, 
and is a valuable diaphoretic and car- 
minative, especially to children. This 
was a favorite medicine during his whole 
practice. He obtained his first knowl- 
edge of it from a Mr. Wigglesworth 
of Maiden." Memoir of Edward A. 
Holyoke, M. D., LL. D. "(Boston, 1829). 
20-2 1 . 

The recipe is as follows : — 

" Balsam of Fennel. Take equal parts 
of Cream Tartar (or, which will answer 
as well, of White Tartar, if it be very 
good,) and common Nitre, let them be 
reduced in a mortar to a fine powder 



and thoroughly mixed together; put 
them into a flat vessel and place it in 
a chimney, set it on fire by putting into 
it a small live coal or a red hot iron, 
when the deflagration is finished and 
the cake of salt is cool enough to handle, 
take it out and with a knife scrape off 
all the black part, and powder it in a 
mortar; it will be found reduced in 
weight one full half. Put the powdered 
salt into a glass vessel capable of con- 
taining three times its quantity, add 
pure water to it by an ounce or two at 
a time, stirring it after every addition of 
water very briskly with an iron or strong 
wooden spatula, and adding gradually 
about 3iss or 3'j of the chemical Oil 
of Fennel to each pound weight of the 
salt. This stirring or violent agitation 
of the mixture, ought to be frequently 
repeated for a day or two, after a suffi- 
cient quantity of water has been added, 
which will be when a quantity nearly 
equal to the salt is added. 

" This Balsam, as it is very improperly 
called, is a very useful remedy where an 
alkaline medicine is wanted, particularly 
for infants, or in those cases in which 
acidity is predominant in the stomach, 
and is diaphoretic and diuretic." Ibid., 
68-69. 

35 Mr. Dean thinks it not unlikely 
that "he may also have gained some- 
thing, as ministers frequently did, by 
teaching young men who were prepar- 
ing for college or the ministry; " and he 
cites a letter written in 1677, by the Rev. 
Samuel Hooker, of Farmington, to the 
Rev. Increase Mather, in relation to the 
education of his son, in which occur these 
words: "I hear Mr. Wigglesworth, be- 
ing at greater leisure than som others 
(becaus of his rare preaching) is thought 
a man very Idoneous for such instruc- 
tion as he needs." Mr. Dean adds: 
" From this it seems that his health was 
supposed to be strong enough to enable 



246 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

is very vague. Although the constant use of later writers has 
led us to consider him as the teacher and the second and third 
pastors as his colleagues, it is not altogether clear that the rela- 
tionship was not suspended ; and the title, if used at all, may 
have been one of courtesy and not of actual right. I am alto- 
gether persuaded that he was not treated as one who had a con- 
tinuous claim upon the town and church. Often have I cause 
to regret the loss of the early town records, never more than 
while striving to unravel the confused tangle of ecclesiastical 
affairs. What were the original terms of Mr. Wigglesworth's 
settlement? and who performed the ministerial functions during 
the four years succeeding Mr. Bunker's death? Were services 
held occasionally, as Mr. Wigglesworth's health allowed? or, 
was another pastor settled here? The fact of Mr. Bunker's 
pastorate is only known to us by accidental entries in the Rox- 
bury Church records, by the return of his death to the County 
Court, and the fortunate preservation of the elegy; otherwise it 
had been wholly unknown to us, as the settlement of another 
pastor or assistant may be. 

During the pastorate of Mr. Bunker, the pen of Mr. Wiggles- 
worth had not been idle. In September, 1669, he wrote: — 

I have been long imployed in a great work composing Poems about 
y e cross. I have already found exceeding much help & assistance 
from Heaven, even to admiration, so y 4 in 3 weeks time I have trans- 
cribed 3 sheets fair, & made between whiles above 100 staves of verses 
besides. Some dayes y c Lord hath so asisted me y* I have made neer 
or above 20 staves. For w ch his great m r cy I bless his name from my 
soul, desiring stil to make him my a & co in This great work. Lord 
assist me now this day. Tu mihi Pr inc. \ipium\ tu mihi finis eris. a 
deo et ad deu m ra iravra. 

To this work, which he completed on his thirty-ninth birth- 
day, October 18, 1669, he gave the following title: Meat out of 

him to teach." Cf. Dean, Wigglesworth, Doom. Mr. Danforth writes : "21. i m 6%. 

97 ; Mass. Hist. Coll., xxxviii. 338. There was a publick Fast throughout 

I I is certain that he received some y e Jurisdictson. This day o r church 
assistance from the contributions of made a Collection for m r Wigglesworth, 
churches other than his own, partly, 4 lb 17 s ." Roxbury Church Records, in 
perhaps, because his condition was ne- Report of the [Boslo//] Record Commis- 
cessitous, and partly as a deserved com- sio>ie>s, vi. 205. 

pliment to the author of the Day of 



MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH. 



247 



the Eater Or Meditations Concerning The Necessity, End, and 
Usefulness of Afflictions Unto Gods Children. All tending to 
Prepare them For, and Comfort them Under the Cross. 



MEAT 

Out of the 

EATER 

R, 

Meditations 

Concerning the Neceffity, End, 
and Ufefulnefs of 

&fflifttons 

UNTO 

God's Children. 

All tending to Prepare them For, and 
Comfort cheai Under the 

CROSS. 



By Michael Wigglefivorth. 

Corrected and Amended by (he Author, 
in the Year 17°}. 

— =— — — — — . 1 — 

The Fifth Edition. 



Btfltn, Printed by J. <Alhn,, for Robert Starke, near 
the New North Meeting-Houfe. 1717. 



it was published soon after. Although it did not attain the 
great popularity of the Day of Doom, it was very successful ; 
and six editions have been published, the last having appeared 
in 1770. Mr. Dean says: — 

Except the Day of Doom and the Bay Psalm Book, I know of no 
poetical volume published in New England previous to the Revolution, 
that has passed through so many editions as Meat out of the Eater?* 

36 Wiggles-worth, 84. 



248 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

It treats of afflictions, trials, and temptations ; and " truly," 
says Dr. McClure, " affliction, which had devoured so many of 
the good man's dearest joys, was made to disgorge far richer 
treasures than it took away." 37 Professor Tyler esteems it less. 
He says : — 

Here we have simply the Christian doctrine of comfort in sorrow, 
translated into metrical jingles. With nearly all sensitiveness to literary 
form torpid in New England, and with devout feeling warm and alert, 
it is not strange that this clumsy but sympathetic poem should have 
found there a multitude of admirers. It was first published, probably, 
in 1669; ten years afterward, it had passed through at least four 
editions ; and during the entire colonial age, it was a much-read 
manual of solace in affliction. And indeed, it is such poetry as might 
still serve that purpose, at least by plucking from the memory, for a 
moment, a rooted sorrow, and substituting a literary anguish in place 
of it. 38 

The larger part of the volume has a sub-title — Riddles Un- 
riddled, Or Christian Paradoxes Broke open smelling like sweet 
Spice New taken out of Boxes. The paradoxes are enumerated 
in the following verse, which forms a poetical table of contents 
or a guide to the " songs and meditations" which follow. 

Light in Darkness, Sick mens Health, 
Strength in Weakness, Poor mens Wealth, 
In Confinement, Liberty, 
In Solitude, Good Company, 
Joy in sorrow, Life in Deaths, 
Heavenly Crowns for Thorny Wreaths. 

Are presented to thy view 
In the Poems that ensue. 

If mv Trials had been thine 

These would cheer thee more than Wine. 

Of the several poems which follow, the fourth song of Heavenly 
Crowns for Tlwrny Wreaths is perhaps one of the best. It is 
a good specimen of Mr. Wigglesworth's versification ; although 
it lacks the action and realism of the Day of Doom which, so 
far as his genius was able to rise above its limitations, were his 
strongest points. 

87 Bi-Centenmal Book of Maiden, 148. 38 Hist, of American Literature, ii. 27. 



MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH. 



249 



(1) 

Behold what matchless love 

The God of Heaven shows 
To those on whom Eternal Life 

And Glory he bestows ! 

If now God calls them Sons ; 

How Glorious shall they be, 
When being made like Christ they shall 

Him in his Glory see ? 

(2) 

Their Body frail and vile 

That's in Corruption sown, 
Shall then be raised up again 

In Incorruption. 

This mortal must be cloath'd 

With Immortality : 
And then shall Death be swallow'd up 

In perfect Victory. 

(3) 

It is at present sown 

A Body Natural : 
But shall arise again e're long 

A Body Spiritual. 

We now need many helps 

Our vigor to maintain. 
As Meat Drink Sleep: but shall need none 

After we rise again. 

(4) 

It's now in weakness sown ; 

But shall be rais'd in power : 
Sown in Dishonour : but shall rise 

In Glory at that hour. 

It shall be wholly freed 

From all Infirmities, 
And be most active, hale and strong, 

When once it doth arise. 

(5) 
Though subject to reproach 
Whilst living; and when dead 

Must needs be carried out of sight, 
And quickly buried : 
Yet Christ shall raise it up 
With beauty shining bright, 

More lovely than the morning fair, 
With Heavenly Glory dight. 

(6) 
And if the Body shew 
So beautiful and fair : 
How shall the Soul be beautify'd 
And shine beyond compare ? 



Adorn 'd with costly Robes, 
More precious far than Gold, 
Of Christ's unspotted Righteousness 
Most lovely to behold. 

(7) 

When as God's blessed Image 

That was defac'd by Sin 
Is perfectly restor'd again, 

And ever dwells therein 

When as it shall behold 

God's Glory shining bright, 
And be transform'd, and glorious made 

By that most glorious sight. 

(8) 
When like a Glass it shall 
Receive those Glorious Rayes, 

And back again reflect the same 
To God's Eternal Praise. 
When in the Sea of Bliss 
It constantly shall move : 

And be for ever ravish'd with 
The sweetness of his Love. 

(9) 

If Moses face did shine 

By being forty dayes 
I'th mount : How shall their faces shine 

That dwell with God always ? 

Moses his Back-parts saw, 

But they shall see his face ; 
And to their joy unspeakable 

Enjoy the God of Grace. 

(10) 
Oh happy, happy Souls, 
That in God's Bosome rest ! 

That of the Fountain of all Bliss 
Already are possest ! 
Your Labour's at an end 
Your seed in tears was sown, 

But now you reap a joyful Crop, 
And wear a Glorious Crown. 

(n) 

We that are still below 

Have much work yet undone. 
A War to wage, sharp Thorns to wear, 

A painful Race to run. 

Lord help us so to run, 

As that we may obtain : 
That when this Life is at an end 

We may in Glory reign. 



250 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



It does not appear that Mr. Wigglesworth resumed the labors 
of the pen to any great extent after the publication of Meat out 
of the Eater. The only poem known to have been written by 
him after this time is that which follows, the author's auto- 
graph copy of which is in the possession of Mr. John Ward 
Dean, his biographer and descendant. The evident allusions to 
his own case eive it an interest which it would not otherwise 



possess. 



Upon y return of my dear frie?id M'' Foster 

w th his son out of eaptivity 

unde r f Moors. 89 

A Song of Praise to keep in remembrance 

the loving kindness of y e Lord. 

I 2 



Come hither, hearken unto me, 

All ye that God do fear, 
And what he hath done for my soul 

I will to you declare. 
I to y e Lord fro my distress 

Did cry & he gave ear, 
Out of Hell's belly I did cry, 

And he my prayer did hear. 



I shall not die, but live, and shall 
The works of Jah declare : 

The Lord did sorely chasten mee 
Yet mee from death did spare. 

set wide open unto mee 
The gates of righteousness. 

1 will go into them, & will 
The praise of Jah confess. 



33 Captain William Foster of Charles- 
town, who had married Anne, daughter 
of William Brackenbury, and sister of 
the husband of Mercy Wigglesworth, 
■was captured by corsairs, while on a 
voyage in the "small ship" Dolphin to 
Bilbao with fish, in the summer or early 
fall of 1671. His son Isaac, who was 
probably the one who was taken with 
him, had just been graduated at Cam- 
bridge, at the head of the class of 1671 ; 
and he afterwards became the minister of 
Hartford. He died at the early age of 
thirty years, August 20, 1682. The cap- 
tives were redeemed and returned home 
in November, 1673. Cotton Mather, 
with his usual love for the marvellous, 
ascribes their liberation to a miraculous 
interposition of Providence, caused by a 
prayer of the Apostle Eliot. He says : — 

" There was a godly Gentleman of 
Charlestown, one Mr. Foster, who, with 
his Son was taken Captive by Turkish 
Enemies. Much prayer was employed, 
both privately and publickly by the good 
people here, for the Redemption of that 
Gentleman ; but we were at last in- 
formed, that the bloody Prince in whose 



Dominions he was now a Slave, was re- 
solved that in his Life-time no Prisoner 
should be released; and so the Dis- 
tressed Friends of this Prisoner, now 
concluded, Our Hope is Lost! Well 
upon this, Mr. Eliot in some of his next 
prayers, before a very solemn Congre- 
gation, very broadly beg'd, Heavenly Fa- 
ther, work for the Redemption of thy poor 
Servant Foster ; and if the Prince which 
detains him zuill not, as they say, dismiss 
him as long as himself lives, Lord we pray 
thee to kill that cruel Prince ; kill him, 
and glorify thyself ttpoti him. And now 
behold the answer. The poor Captived 
Gentleman quickly Returns to us that 
had been mourning for him as a lost 
man, and brings us News, that the 
Prince which had hitherto held him, was 
come to an untimely Death, by which 
means he was now set at Liberty. Thus 
we now know, That a Prophet has been 
among us." Mather, Life of Joint Eliot 
(1691), 445; Mather, Magnolia, iii. Cf. 
A r . E. Hist, and Gencal. Reg., xxv. 67 ; 
American Historical Record, i. 392-393; 
Arclnrologia Americana, iii. 231-232 ; Sib- 
ley, Harvard Graduates, ii. 336-341. 



MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH. 



251 



Bless thou the Lord, my soul, & all 

In me, his holy name 
Bless thou y e Lord, my soul, & all 

His boundless minde the same. 
With me together o do yee 

Jehovah magnify ! 
And let us all herein agree 

To lift his name on high. 



Thou broken hast y e iron Barrs 

And loos'd y e fetters strong, 
Thou rescu'd hast y e poor-opprest 

From all that did them wrong. 
Out of y e Dungeon dark & deep 

Thou hast my soul set free 
So long as I a being have 

My praise shall be of thee. 



The God hee of Salvation is 

That is our God most strong 
And to y e Lord Jehovah doth 

Issues of Death belong. 
The Right-hand of Jehovah is 

Exalted upon high : 
The Right-hand of Jehovah is 

A working valiantly. 



How beautiful Jehovah is 

Oh taste, & see likewise 
Oh great is that man's blessedness 

Whose trust on him relies ! 
Upon y e Lord for evermore 

See that yo r selves you stay 
For there is with Jehovah store 

Of strength y l lasts for ay. 



On Princes poure comtempt doth Hee 

Lays Tyrants in y5 dust 
Who proudly crush the innocent 

To satisfy their lust. 
He breaks y e teeth of cruel Beasts 

That raven for y e prey 
Out of y e Lion's bloody jawes 

Hee plucks y e sheep away. 



Oh love y e Lord all yee his saints 

The faithful he doth guard 
But he unto proud doers grants 

A plentyfull reward. 
Because y e Lord y e poor doth hear 

Nor's prisoners doth despise 
Let Heav'n, earth, sea, him praise, and all 

That moves therein likewise. 



Of the second colleague of Mr. Wigglesworth, the Rev. Ben- 
jamin Blakeman, 40 we know but little as concerning his connection 
with the Maiden church. He was the youngest son of the Rev. 
Adam Blakeman of Stratford in the Colony of New Haven, who 
had been a clergyman of the established church in Leicester- 
shire and Derbyshire. Mather relates that, 

Coming to New-England, from the Storm that began to look black 
upon him, he was attended with a desirable Company of the Faithful, 
who said unto him, " Entreat us not to leave yon, or to return from 



40 I style him Reverend, as I call him 
the colleague of Mr. Wigglesworth, the 
former in deference to his apparent office, 
and the latter in deference to what has 
been the general belief. I cannot per- 
ceive that he had a complete right to 
either title ; for there are indications that 
he was never ordained; and, as will be 
seen, he repeatedly styled himself — not 
Reverend, or Clerk, as was the custom, 
but — Gentleman. His name is not ital- 



icized, as that of a minister, in the early 
college catalogues. 

He always wrote his name as in the 
text, as did his father. It is written 
Blakman in the Maiden records, except 
in one instance, nine years after he had 
left the town, when it is spelled Black- 
man, a form which the college catalogues 
and the persistency of later writers have 
almost made to supersede the elder and 
correct orthography. 




252 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

following after you : For whither you go, we will go ; and your God shall 
be our God." 41 

Benjamin Blakeman was born at Stratford about the year 
1643, and was graduated at Harvard College in 1663. 42 Two 
years after his graduation we learn that, " his thoughts ... be 

not to attend the 
work of Christ in 
the ministry," evi- 
dently to the dis- 
appointment of his 
father, who diverted from his use a legacy of books in conse- 
quence, saying in his will : — 

Concerning my books, which I intended for my son Benjamin, . . . 
my wish is that my son Atwater 43 make his son Joshua a scholler and to 
fit him for that work I give unto him my Lattin books ; but if not, they 
shall be put into my estate and disposed of as my wife and my over- 
seers shall think fit. 

Mr. Sibley sententiously adds : " Young Atwater did not be- 
come a minister and take the ' Lattin books.' Benjamin Blake- 
man studied divinity." In 1670 he was at Stratford and was 
sought to keep the town school. 44 

In 1674 he was still in Stratford; but the next year he had 
become settled in Maiden. Mr. Savage, with his usual felicity 
in guessing, says he was ordained here in 1674; but there are 
no indications that he was ever ordained ; and I see reasons for 
accepting as a fact that which another has intimated — that he 
was " only statedly employed to preach there for a considerable 
length of time, without ordination." 45 In June, 1675, he styled 

41 Mather, Magnolia, Book iii. (2), "[December 17, 1661.] Benjamin 

chap. 7. Blackmail appearing in Court. & being 

4 - He appears to have been not al- convicted of abusive disturbance to 

together blameless in his college life, Abram Smith & his family, the Court 

which may have caused the beginning sentenced him to be admonished, & to 

of the disappointment which his father pay the costs of the Court, six shill." 

subsequently felt. The following ex- Midd. Court Records, i. 241. 
tracts relate to this period of his life. 43 Joshua Atwater of New Haven, 

[December 9, 1661.] The constable who had married his daughter Mary. 
of Cambridge is ordered "towarne Ben- 44 Cf. Sibley, Harvard Graduates, ii. 

jamin Blackman f he appeare at y e s d 140-141 ; Goodwin, Genealogical Notes, 

Court to Answer for abuse offered to 1-2. 

Abram Smith of Charlstown." Midd. i!i American Quarterly Register, xi. 

Court files, in loco. 193. 



MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH. 253 

himself, " gentleman, inhabitant of Maldon in the colony of the 
Massachusetts," which he would hardly have done had he be- 
come an ordained minister. 

He was married, April I, 1675, to Rebecca, daughter of 
Joshua Scottow of Boston. 46 That he lived in the " ministry 
house" is certain; and, as has been mentioned, he appears as 
the owner of the neighboring lands which had been in the 
possession of his predecessor. Of his ministry nothing is known, 
and as little of his character. If he may be judged by his after 
life, he was an active and energetic man of business — a buyer 
and seller and a getter of gain, rather than a self-denying 
minister of Christ. Some discontent appears to have preceded 
his departure from Maiden. 47 The town record, which now, for 
the first time, gives its aid to the perplexed antiquary, opens 
with a memorandum upon its fly-leaf of a settlement with him, 
by which it appears that he had preached four years and that 
" of these 4 years m r Blakm" was absent 6 m°." At a " Geirall 
meeting," in February, i6y^g, it was 

Voted that Serg 1 Haward and Phin s Sprague be added to y e Select- 
men who with them are impowr? a comitte for y e Towne to treat com- 
pound & agre with m r Blakma" for w* he hath done about y e house & 
land thereto adjoyning according to \v l y e Town 6 is ingaged or to reffer 
y e same to men chosen between them 

Voted that y e said Comittee Purchase for the Towne all m r Blakmans 
Land on y e East side of y e Highway, And that y e said House with all 
y e land belonging thereto shall Henceforth be & remaine to y e vse of 
y e ministry for ever. 

Voted That y e said Comitte have liberty & power to sell the commo" 

45 Scottow is well known to antiqua- church, which called for a synod in 1679, 
ries as an author, a Boston merchant, appears by a paper printed with the Con- 
and an early operator in eastern lands, fession of Faith in 1823. A " Publick 
His eastern speculations failed, and his Day of Humiliation " was kept by the 
mercantile transactions apparently came church April 15, 16S0, by the advice 
to naught. His family did not survive of the synod, when a renewal of cove- 
the second generation, and his name has nant was made by the adoption of an 
disappeared from New England. He " Instrument " composed by Mr. Wig- 
was author of Old Men's Tears for their glesworth. This instrument appears to 
070)1 Declensions [1691], and A A T arra- have furnished the material from whence 
tive of the Planting of the Massachusetts was drawn the renewal of covenant of 
Colony [1694]. A memoir of him is in 1727, on a day of fasting and prayer oc- 
Mass. Hist. Coll. xiv. 100-104. casioned by the great earthquake of that 

47 That there were difficulties in the year, which is noticed in its proper place. 



254 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Land at Sandy Banke & some remote land on y' common for mony to 
pay towards y e purchase of m r Blakmans land. 

In accordance with these votes, the committee " treated, com- 
pounded, and agreed " with Mr. Blakeman, who executed a 
deed, March 4, 167%, in which he styles himself "Benjamin 
Blakeman of Maldon Gent m ," by which he conveyed to the 
town a portion of the Bunker land as has been stated., and 
also 

My right title & interest to or in the dwelling house for the ministry 
in the s' 1 Towne or any the lands thereto adjoyning by vertue of any 
former gift or grant to me by the s d Towne or by vertue of or for any 
disbursements costs or charges by me expended or done either about 
or upon the s d House or land thereto adjoyning whatsoever [except 
& reserving to my selfe the barne built by m r Bunker & the nursery 
fenced in by the Kitchin.] 48 

The consideration named in this deed of sale and quit claim 
was one hundred and twenty-five pounds, or according to the 
report of the committee, made soon after, 

The Towne is to pay Mr Blakm" or his ordr at y e s d House in this 
Town 6 the sume of 125^ Wherof 65^ is to be in mony & to be p d in 
Man r . followg : Namly. 30^ in Neat Catle not exceeding 8 yeares old 
y e beging of June next : And 32-^ 10. mony by y e midle of July next. 
And 32^ 10. mony and 30^ in Indian corne the 25^ day of March 
1680. And the said Committe are bound in 200^ bond in behalf of 
the Towne for the paym' thereof. 49 

As an illustration of the business habits of the men of that 
time, it may be mentioned that this deed was not recorded until 
May 25, 1686, 50 about which time, perhaps, Mr. Blakeman be- 

48 Midd. Co. Deeds, x. 574. cient title; and many of the colonists 

49 Maiden Town Records, in loco. came slowly, or not at all, to observe its 
80 Although the General Court had wise provisions. Many deeds were not 

early passed a law in relation to the recorded until some emergency arose, 

public records, and provided that all like that in the text, and- others, not at 

unrecorded land conveyances might be all. Several instances of either kind 

considered void after a certain time, a may be found in the present volume, 

strict attention to its regulations was From these causes came much of the 

by no means universal. The system of obscurity which rests upon the early 

land records was unknown in England, land titles of this and other Massachu- 

where the preservation of original grants setts towns, 
or a long occupancy of land gave a suffi- 



MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH. 2$$ 

gan to push the town for the dues which appear to have been 
unpaid. At a meeting, May 21, 1688, it was 

voted that in case m r Blackman should mak any farthr demand of 
pay from the Tovvne the inhabitance of the Towne haue chosen a com- 
mitty John Sprague Se r ensine linds left Samuell Sprague Phinias Sprague 
Deacon green left william green Henery green Joses Bucknam to defend 
the case if need be 

voted and farther the Towne doe Jngage to defray all charges in 
defending of the Towne in this case depending betweene the Towne 
and m r Blackman. 

Soon after leaving Maiden, he went to Black Point, on the 
Saco River, where his father-in-law, Joshua Scottow, had con- 
veyed to him a small tract of land. It appears that he preached 
in the neighboring town of Scarborough, although he declined 
a settlement; and he represented that town, in 1682, in the 
General Assembly of the Province, under the administration of 
President Danforth. The next year he removed to Saco, and 
continued a Member of the General Assembly at York as repre- 
sentative from that town. Savage says that " during the great 
French and Indian war being driven to Boston, he served, 1683, 
as representative for Saco, but continued to live at Boston ; " 
and he cites the fact that his son Benjamin was baptized, Sep- 
tember 13, 1685, at the Third Church. 51 As no other writer 
has knowledge of an Indian war in Maine from 1678 to 1688, 
some doubt must be thrown upon this statement; and although 
his wife may have been with her father in Boston, and Mr. 
Blakeman, himself, may have come to Massachusetts Bay on 
" matters of affairs," it seems certain that he continued to live 
at Saco, where he was a magistrate, being commissioned by 
Sir Edmund Andros, until his final removal about the year 
1689. 

He made several purchases of land upon the Saco River; 
and built a saw-mill upon the falls still known as Blakeman's 
Falls, where the Pepperell Mills now stand. He added a large 
tract of land to the purchases already made, with the supposed 
intention of forming a new settlement of Massachusetts men. 52 

&1 Genealogical Diet. ,i. 194. 52 Folsom, Hist. Saco and Biddeford, 168-169. 



256 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

In the summer of 1688 he was still upon the Saco, when the 
Indians, incited by the Baron de St. Castine, having commenced 
depredations in the neighborhood, he seized eighteen or twenty 
of them, and sent them " with a good Guard to Falmouth in 
Casco-Bajt." Mather styles him " Captain Blackman " at this 
time. 53 The Indians immediately began to make reprisals ; and 
the consequent uncertainty of affairs apparently preventing the 
intended settlement of his lands, he soon after removed to Bos- 
ton, and never returned as a resident to Saco. No farther trace 
of him has been found; and as he is starred in the Harvard 
Triennial of 1700, it is supposed that he died before that year. 54 
His wife, Rebecca, died March 29, 17 15, aged about sixty-three 
years ; and his daughter, Rebecca, 55 was living in that year, the 
wife of " Thomas Goodwill of Boston, shipwright." The son 
was dead. 

53 Cf. Hutchinson, History of Massa- the testator had no great confidence in 
chusetts Bay, i. 364; Mather, Magnalia, his son-in-law. He says: "And as for 
Book vii. art. 1. Mr. Blakeman's intre- my Legacy to my Daughter Rebecca 
pid promptness did not gain him the Blackmail, I do will it to be left in the 
thanks of Governor Andros, who, after hands of my Son Samuel Checkley and 
the Indians had been sent from Fal- my Daughter Elizabeth Savage to be 
mouth to Boston, imprudently "set them paid to her as she shall need it." Suf 
all at liberty; not so much as taking folk Co. Wills, viii. no. It may be that 
care to redeem those of our English Mr. Blakeman was in Maiden in 1700, 
for them that were in their hands." and died in that year. One Benjamin 

54 The will of Joshua Scottow was "Blackman" witnessed a deed of John 
made June 3, 1696, and proved March Greenland, August 1, 1700, and another 
3, 169^. It devised his property to his four days later. It may have been the 
children, Thomas Scottow, Elizabeth son, who was then fifteen years old. 
Savage, Rebecca Blakeman, and Mary 55 Baptized at the Third (Old South) 
Checkley. The manner of the bequest Church in Boston, April 14, 1689. Sib- 
to Rebecca Blakeman may indicate that ley, Harvard Graduates, ii. 143. 

Mr. Blakeman was then dead, or that 



CHAPTER IX. 

CHEEVER AND WIGGLESWORTH. 

WITHIN a year after the withdrawal or dismission of Mr. 
Blakeman, the Rev. Thomas Cheever began to preach at 
Maiden. He was a son of Mr. Wigglesworth's old school- 
master, the famous Ezekiel Cheever, the author of the long- 
lived Latin Accidence, who had himself been asked to settle in 
Maiden before the coming of Mr. Matthews. His mother was 
Ellen Lathrop, sister of the unfortunate Captain Thomas 
Lathrop of Beverly, who with most of his company, "the 
flower of Essex," was slain by the Indians at Bloody Brook, 
near Deerfield, September 18, 1675. He was born at Ipswich, 
August 23, 1658, and was graduated at Harvard College, at the 
head of his class, like Mr. Wigglesworth, in 1677. 

The Bi-Ccntennial Book, copying a writer in the American 
Quarterly Reviciv} says he "began to preach at Maiden, 
February 14, 1679;" but the town record states that "mister 
cheevers began the worke of the ministry the 14 day feberary 
1679 [i679s ]," which, that day falling upon Saturday in that 
year, indicates the time when he entered upon his contracted 
work, and not that he then preached his first sermon. As a 
considerable interval of time had elapsed since the departure of 
Mr. Blakeman, he had probably preached as a candidate and 
had become known to the people. His preaching apparently 
proving acceptable, the church ceased negotiations with another ; 
and at a general meeting of the town, March 8, i67%o, 

It being declared to y e Inhabitants that y e church had sent a letter to 
M r ffletch r to forbear coming hither & the reasons thereof — 2 And allso 

1 Bi-Centennidl Book of Maiden, 157; might have repeated their experience in 
American Quarterly Review, xi. 193. the Matthews case had they not "sent a 

2 The members of the Maiden church letter to M^ ffletch r to forbear cominc; 



?5< 



HISTORY OF MALDEX. 



their motion to M r Tho Chevis for his helpe & continance in y e worke- 
of the minstry here. The Inhabitants manifested their consent & desyr 
of M r Chevis continance amongst them in y e work of y e Ministy. 

Voted That M r Chevis shall have fifftie pounds in mony p d him for 
this yeare he continuing in y e worke of y e ministy here. 

[December 27, 1680,] Att a meeting of all y e Jnhabitants warned 
by y e Const le to Consider about m r Chevis the year being neer vpp 
And to renew their former motion to him for Setlem' Among' vs in y e 
work of the mintry 

voted The Inhabitants vnanimously manifested their consent and 
desyre of m r Tho Chevis continuance & settlem! Amongst them in 
y e worke of y e minstry. 

voted That m r Chevis shall haue 60^ p r ami. y e one halfe in mony & 
the other halfe in comon pay. or fiffty pounds all in mony which he 
pleas to Accept : And allso the vse of y e Towns Howse & land therto 
belonging. And his fyre wood free. 3 

Allso Agreed that in Case s d m r Chevis shall dye here & leave his 
Widdow here that then his s d widdow shall haue Eighty pounds paid 



hither ; " for I take Mr. Fletcher to 
have been the Rev. Seth Fletcher who 
left Southampton, Long Island, about 
that time, and who had been that " in- 
convenient" preacher at Wells who was 
silenced by the General Court in 1660. 

He had gone to Wells in 1655 with- 
out ordination, at a time when that 
place was in that graceless condition 
which seemed in that day of small 
things to characterize most of the settle- 
ments on the coast of Maine. Bourne 
says of him, that he "stirred up strifes 
and contentions wherever he undertook 
to minister the Word." He remained 
at Wells until 1660, when the General 
Court of Massachusetts, taking cogni- 
zance of complaints "as touching his 
unfittnes for the place of the ministrje," 
passed the following order : — 

"[October 16, 1660,] The Court, 
hauing pervsed the severall evidences 
presented to this Court refering to M r 
Fletcher & the toune of Wells, doe 
judge meete to declare to the sajd 
inhabitants that they haue not only 
liberty, but are hereby enjoyned, to 
procure some godly able minister to be 
helpfull to them, and that the sajd 
Fletcher is hereby enjoyned to forbeare 
any more to preach amongst them." 
Mass. Colony Records, iv. (1), 434. 



Although silenced in Wells, he 
preached at Saco the next year and 
thereafter at other places. Bourne re- 
marks that he " was continually exciting 
dissensions," but allows that " there was 
something in his ministrations which 
captivated the attention of many good 
men." He was a friend of the Rev. John 
Wheelwright and may have followed 
him in his Antinomian doctrines, which 
would account for the dislike of the 
General Court. He returned to Saco 
in 166S and was regularly settled there, 
the people showing much attachment to 
him. Here, marrying Mary, daughter 
of Bryan Pendleton, a prominent set- 
tler, he remained until driven away by 
the Indian troubles of 1675. He then 
preached at Southampton for two or 
three years ; and, leaving there in 1679, 
he soon after removed to Elizabeth- 
town, N. J., where he preached until 
his death in 16S2. Cf. Folsom, Saco 
and Biddeford, 130-136; Bourne, Wells 
and Kennelntnk, 96-101. 

3 As an addition, the town voted 
soon after, "[March. 10, 168^,] That 
y e Select men Hyre thre or fowr acres 
of salt marsh annally of m r Wades or 
else where for y e vse of y e Ministey : to> 
be p cl for by y e Town." 



CHE EVER AND WIGGLESWORTH. 259 

her within two Yeares next after his decease, the one half part therof in 
mony & the other halfe part therof in common pay. 

Mr. Cheever was not ordained until July 27, 168 1, when he 
became the third pastor of the church. Mr. Wigglesworth 
apparently still remained in retirement, and no compensation 
was voted to him by the town. There can be no doubt that he 
was still looked upon by the people as one who had no claim 
upon them ; and the only instance of a payment or gift to him 
during a period of thirteen years after the settlement of Mr. 
Cheever appears in the following record: — 

[4. 10. 82]. voted, that the cutters & carts in y e Town cutt & cart 
one load of fire Wood for M r Wigglesworth : on y c next second day. 

voted. Corp rl Jo. Green & serg f Skin r overseers to se y e wood cutt & 
carted. 

The salary of Mr. Cheever was regularly paid, in accordance 
with the vote, at the rate of fifty pounds in money, " which he 
pleas to Accept ; " and the agreement in respect to " fyre wood " 
seems to have been faithfully kept, although it appears that at 
one time, at least, there were some " carts behinde." 

4. 9 mo 81 Att a Meeting of the Selectmen at J. W. 4 Appointed the 
9 th of novemb r being y e next 4 th day to cutt & cart wood for m r Chevis 
Cutters y e 4 th day 

Symo" Grouer Will Teale 

Sam Lewis Sam Haward 

Ben a Whittamor John winsleed 

Will East Jacob winslead 

Robt: Cally Jsack green 
Carts y l carryed wood each one load 

2 d . day Jos Bucknam Hen. Swnaway 

4 th day John Green Jos wayte 

Hen Green Jo. Green, hill 

Sam Green Sam. Sprague 

Jo. Sprague jn r Laz Grouer 

Jo Lynde Phin Vppam 

Ens Lynds corn' Green 

John wayt Sen r Jonath knoher 

leu 1 Sprague Jo. Greenland 

nath Haward most of them Cutt 
their wood. 

4 Captain John Wayte. 



260 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Carts behinde 

Phin Sprague \Vill Bordman 

Jo. Chadwike Joel Jenkins 

lem Jenkins Jo. Paull 

Jonath. Spragu Jo. Sargent 

Tho Birditt Jo Chamb r la n 

Jo. Scholly Jacob Park r 

Lewis Will Buckn m 

Sam. wayt Phill Atwood. 

Mr. Cheever continued to live in the town's house, although 
he followed the example of his predecessors and purchased a 
house and land of his own. 5 Incidental entries in relation to his 
occupancy of the parsonage and its lands may be found in the 
records. 

Paid to M r Cheevers two pound in silver in part of pay for the 
bulding of a leanto aioyning to his barne and he promising to keep it 
in repaire the twentieth six of May, 1685. 

After Mr. Cheever had been in Maiden four or five years, the 
health of Mr. Wigglesworth was very much changed, and he 
began to "enter into the ways of men." If we may believe 
Cotton Mather, the troubles in the church had not only con- 
tinued, but had largely increased. He says : — 

It pleased God, when the Distresses of the church in Maldon, did 
extremely call for it, wondrously to Restore His Faithful Servant. He 
that had been for near Twenty years almost Buried Alive, comes 
abroad again ; and for as many years more, must in a Publick Useful- 
ness, receive the Answer and Harvest of the Thousands of Supplica- 
tions, with which the God of his Health, had been addressed by him & 
for him. 6 

Of the nature of the troubles which preceded, and were in 
existence at the time of Mr. Wigglesworth's recovery, we have 
no precise information: perhaps the later trouble with Mr. 
Cheever had already begun to show itself. It is evident that 
the old dissatisfaction with Mr. Wigglesworth, having its root, 

•' This farm was in the south-east Kenicott in T67S. Besides the home 

portion of the town, apparently near land and house, it embraced meadow 

Turkey Hill. It passed to Mr. Cheever and marshlands at Moulton's Island and 

by an unrecorded conveyance from Pemberton's Pond near the South River, 

tenant John Smith of Winnisim- within Charlestown bounds, 

met, who had purchased it of Roger 6 A Faithful Man, 24. 



CHE EVER AND WJGGLESWORTH. 



26l 



perhaps, in the Matthews troubles of more than thirty years 
before, and increased by the apparent neglect of the teacher in 
performing his duties, had never ceased. And to this cause 
had been added another, in producing which Mr. Wigglesworth 
himself had been directly instrumental. 

For nearly twenty years after the death of his first wife, Mary 
Reyner, he remained unmarried, preferring, perhaps, to bear 
alone the ills to which an untimely fate had made him heir. 
Perhaps the marriage of his only child, Mercy, and her removal 
to Boston in 1673, 7 ~ 

may have left him ^y 
alone and the forlorn *JG/}71VJ 
experiences of the 
next few years have turned his thoughts towards a change. 
That he continued to live in his little house, on the land that 
" was sometime part of the proper lot of M r . John Allen," 
is not unlikely. That he had a youthful housekeeper is very 
certain, and the result was not unnatural. He was in his forty- 
eighth year when he resolved to change his manner of living; 
and the means by which he proposed to make that change 
was then about eighteen years of age. When the news came to 



sM. ^ra/^^ru . 



7 Mercy Wigglesworth married Sam- 
uel Brackenbury. He was the only son 
of William and Alice Brackenbury of 
Charlestown and Maiden, and was born, 
February 10, 164? i ; was graduated, 
H. C. 1664; and preached as assistant 
to the Rev. Samuel Phillips at Rowley 
about two years. He was made a free- 
man, May 7, 1673, and in the same year 
removed to Boston, where he settled as 
a physician and was admitted to the 
Second Church, November 4, 1677. He 
died of small-pox, January 16, 167^. 
His widow married the Rev. Samuel 
Belcher, who preached at the Isles of 
Shoals and Newbury ; and, outliving 
him, she died, November 14, 1723. 

The children of Samuel and Mercy 
(Wigglesworth) Brackenbury were : — 

Samuel, born at Maiden, February 
1 ^>7%', was a physician in Boston : mar- 
ried, October 22, 1694, Ann Chickering, 
who died, January 22, 170^ ; and dying, 
November 26, 1 702, was buried at Maiden. 



Mary, born in Boston, March 12, 
16734:. 

William, born in Boston ; lived at 
Ipswich. 

Of Dr. Brackenbury's short profes- 
sional life little is known. He appears 
to have been the family physician of 
John Hull, the celebrated mint-master 
of the Colony ; and Samuel Sewall, who 
married Hull's only surviving daughter, 
relates that he was called to "Mother 
Hull " in September, 1676, and the next 
day dissected one of three Indians who 
were executed at Boston. The diarist, 
in a confused account of the sickness of 
"Mother Hull" and " Han Sewall," his 
wife, soon after says that " Dr. Bracken- 
bury advises Diacodium to move Rest, 
and approves Peppar boyled in Milk 
and Water, alike of each," in cases of 
dysentery and diarrhcea ; but subsequent 
events caused the observant Sewall to 
"mistrust Diacodion." 



262 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

him, Increase Mather, in a letter of alarm and counsel, wrote to 
Mr. Wigglesvvorth : — 

These for the Retf my respected friend M". W. Pastor of the Church 
in M. 

Rev d S r , — Since I saw you the last in B. one that doth vn- 
feignedly desire your welfare hath bin with mee, expressing grief of h rt 
with reference vnto a matf wherein yourselfe is concerned. I owe you 
that respect (& much more) as to informe you what I have bin told. 
The Report is, that you are designing to marry with your servant mayd, 
& that she is one of obscure parentage, & not 20 years old, & of no 
Ch r ch, nor so much as Baptised. If it be as is related, I w ld hu m ly en- 
treat you (before it be too late) to consid r of these arg ts in opositio". 
1. For you to doe this, which will be a grief of heart to your dear Rela- 
tions, if it be not a matt r which God doth command to be done, (for no 
man will deny but one ought rather to grieve his friends, than to 
p voice the Lord) is not advisable. Now I hear that they are much 
troubled at your intended p r ceedings, & I suppose there is no divine 
precept requiring your marrying with such an one. Is it not then bet- 
ter to desist? 2. I doubt that considering her youth, & your age, & 
great bodily infirmities, such a change of your conditio", if that which is 
intimated by the Holy Ap s le, 1 Cor. 7, 3, s d be attended, your days 
would be shortned, & consequently the 5 th Com n dm m broken. 3. Such 
general Rules as those, Phil. 4, 8, doe concern as all clVns, so most 
eminently Ministers of Ch. And doubtless it will male audire for you 
to doe this thing, yea, I fear it will leave a blott vpo" your Name aft r 
you shall cease to be in this world. 4. The ministry will be blamed, 
which wee should be very carefull to p r vent. 2 Cor. 6. 3. The 
mouths of carnal ones will be opened, not onely to censure you, but 
your brethren in the ministry will be condemned also. The world will 
say, theres such an one, Hee was as justified a man as any of them, & 
yet wee see vnto what his affections have carried him. 5. I am afraid 
that if you s d p r ceed, that Rule, 2 Cor. 6. 14. will be transgressed. It 
vseth to be said nube pari, but to marry with one so much your Inferio 1 " 
on all accounts, is not nubere pari. And to take one that was never 
baptised into such nearness of Relation, seemeth contrary to the Gos- 
pell ; esp c lly for a Minisf of Ct to doe it. The like never was in N. E. 
Nay, I questio" whetlV the like hath bin known in the chr" world. 6. 
Doth not that Script. 1 Tim. 3. 11, with others of the like importance, 
p r hibit such pceedings? 

Thus have I made bold to suggest my thoughts unto you. And if I 
had not respected the interest of Religion, & your credit & comfort, I 
should have bin wholly silent in a matf that concerns another & not 
me, furth r than as I am bound to seeke your welfare, &: doe what I may 



CHE EVER AND WIGGLESWORTH. 263 

to prevent trouble from coming vpo n my neighbo r , & broth r esp c lly such 
an one, whose Name hath bin, & I hope may still be of precious 
esteem with the L ds people. 

Though your affections s cl be too far gone in this matter, I doubt 
not but if you put the object out of your sight, & looke vp to the Lord 
Jesus for supplies of grace, you will be enabled to ov come these 
Temptations. The Lord be with you, I am 

3 m 84 1679. Yours vnfeignedly, I. M. 8 

Hardly had this admonitory and exhortatory epistle been 
written, when, before it had left the writer's hands, came Mr. 
Blakeman, who it would appear had not yet removed from 
Maiden, bringing, as Mr. Mather wrote, " your papers, which 
state the case & mention the Reasons inducing you to marry 
your servant." Mr. Wigglesworth's case and reasons were com- 
municated to the reverend pastors of the First and Third (Old 
South) churches of Boston, to the apostle Eliot of Roxbury, and 
to Mather's friend, Samuel Nowell ; but these pious and learned 
men were " not very forward to give advice." Mr. Mather com- 
forted himself and attempted to confound the Maiden lover by- 
writing that they supposed " it is now too late. It is not good 
after vows to make enquiry. Had you advised with them before 
your treating with the party concerned, you may be sure they 
would earnestly have disswaded. Nor is there any of them that 
dare encourage your proceedings as things are now circum- 
stanced." His letter indicates that the people of Maiden were 
not disposed to look with complacency upon the intended mar- 
riage and that some scandal was abroad. He says : — 

I have heard such uncomfortable Reflections since I wrote the en- 
closed as that I see no cause to alter my mind as to what is therein 
expressed. Indeed if the good people in Maiden did approve of your 
proceedings, & if there were an eminency of the fear of God discerne- 
able in your Damosel, notwithstanding her obscurity upon other 
accounts, there would be less of scandal in proceedings. But I do not 
hear any one but yourself speak much concerning that matter. And it 
is thought that your Affection doth biass your Judgment, & that there- 
fore in this case you are not so competent a Judge. The Lord in mercy 
be with you, & direct you to do that which shal be pleasing in His 
sight, & for the honour of His name, yea, & of your own name, & the 
comfort of those that are concerned in you. 9 

8 Mass. Hist. Coll., xxxviii. 94-95. 9 Ibid., 95-96. 



264 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

The latter letter was written May 12, 1679, and the two were 
sent together to Maiden. If Mr. Wigglesworth had not changed 
since his college days, the reading of those " composures " must 
have been the cause of much self-examination and abasement. 
But the stubborn singer of the Day of Doom was not disposed to 
" put the object out of sight," nor to " ov come these Tempta- 
tions ; " and in spite of Increase Mather and his " not very for- 
ward friends," and the displeasure of his relations and the Maiden 
people, he let affection " bias his judgment" and married Martha 
Mudge, without regard to her " obscure parentage, her youth, 
and her being no church member." 

She was the youngest child of a Maiden farmer, Thomas 
Mudge, and was about six years younger than Mercy Wiggles- 
worth; but she made the teacher a good wife and bore him five 
daughters and one son, 10 among whose descendants have been 
and are honored clergymen, lawyers, professors, and scholars, 
who need not hold otherwise than in honor the day when 
Michael Wigglesworth married his youthful " servant mayd." 
Her husband testified to her worth in after years ; for in writing 
to Mrs. Sybil Avery of Dedham, seeking her as his third wife, 
he said : " My Late wife was a means under God of my recover- 
ing a better state of Health." n It is worthy of note that the 
marriage of Mr. Wigglesworth does not appear upon the returns 

10 Samuel, the son, was born, Feb- 171^, he writes: "came to Live att y e 

ruary 4, 168%, and was graduated at Southwest precinct of Ipswich being in- 

Harvard College, 1707. Harris says he vited to y e ministry There." He was 

pursued his studies two years longer ordained at Ipswich Hamlet, October 

at Cambridge and began the study of 27, 1714, being the first minister of that 

physic in June, 1709, with Ur. Graves parish. Harris says of him: — "Besides 

of Charlestown. Dr. Thomas Graves attending to the public and private 

of Charlestown had died in 1697; but duties of the sacred office, he still culti- 

whoever was his master, Wigglesworth vated his first profession, and like his 

entered upon the practice of medicine father, was often useful in prescribing 

at Ipswich Hamlet, now Hamilton, in for the ills of the body as well as of the 

March, 17 10, where he remained until soul." He died, September 3, 176S. 

the following December, when he re- Harris, Genealogical Sketch of tlie Wig- 

turned to Maiden. Here he taught glesworth Family, in manuscript. Ac- 

school, studied theology, and followed count Book of S. Wigglesworth, in the 

his former profession of medicine. In library of the N. E. Historic Genealogi- 

17 12, his account book shows charges cal So. 

for attendance on people in Dracut and n N. E. Hist, and Geneal. Reg. xvii. 

Chelmsford, where he may, perhaps, 141. 
have been for a time. January 29, 



CHEEVER AND WIGGLESWORTH. 26$ 

of the town clerk of Maiden nor has its record been found 
elsewhere. 

That the people of Maiden did not look upon this marriage 
with favor may be readily understood. Added to the dissatis- 
faction which already existed, it did not lessen the difficulties 
which were between the members of the church and its teacher. 
The testimony of Cotton Mather in relation to " the Distresses 
of the Church in Maldon" has already been mentioned; and 
further indications of hostility or lukewarmness towards Mr. 
Wigglesworth will appear in the course of our story. 

But if the Maiden church and people continued to look upon 
him with disfavor, the displeasure of Mr. Mather and the breth- 
ren of other churches passed away; and the author of the Day 
of Doom came to be esteemed and held in "good opinion." 
Among the MatJicr Papers was found the following letter of Mr. 
Wigglesworth. 

These for the Rev rd and hon' d Mr. Increase Mather Pasto" of the 
North- Church in Boston. At his house. With care 

Rev d Sir, — I received your loving lines, and having seriously con- 
sidered the contents thereof, as I find great cause to thank you and 
other worthy friends, for your & their good will & good opinion of me, 
yet as to myself, I cannot think my bodily health and strength com- 
petent to undertake or manage such a weighty work as you mention, 
if it were desired, nor have I reason to judge myself in any measure fit 
upon other accounts. Wherefore I hope the Colledge & Overseers 
will think of and apply themselves to a fitter person, and that they may 
speed well in so doing, is and shall be my prayer, who am, Sir, ever 

Yours heartily to hono r and serve you, 

Michael Wigglesworth. 12 
Maldon, Octob. 27, 1684. 

Mr. Mather was acting at that time as temporary President of 
Harvard College, the Rev. John Rogers, the former Presi- 
dent, having died, July 2, 1684; and it is very likely that the 
" weighty work " was that office which had been offered him by 
the college authorities. 13 

12 Mass. Hist. Coll., xxxviii. 645. 56; Dean, Wigglesworth, 88-89; Sibley, 

13 Cf. Quincy, Hist. Harvard Univ., Harvard Graduates, i. 275. 
i. 3S ; Peirce, Hist. Harvard Univ., 49, 



266 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

September 14, 1685, he preached at Cambridge, before the 
Artillery Company of Middlesex, from the text, Fight the good 
fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life. Judge Sewall says he 
preached excellently. 14 He delivered the annual Election ser- 
mon, May 12, 1686. Sewall says: — 

Mr. Wigglesworth preaches from Rev. 2. 4 and part of 5'.'' v. and do 
thy first works, end of the text. Shew'd the want of Love, or abating 
in it, was ground enough of Controversy, whatsoever outward perform- 
ances a people might have. In 's prayer said, That may know the 
things of our peace in this our day, and it may be the last of our days. 
Acknowledged God as to the Election, and bringing forth him as 'twere 
a dead Man, — had been reckoned among the dead, — to preach. 15 

This sermon was ordered to be prepared for the press, " the 
Court judging that the printing of it will be for publick bene- 
fitt ; " 16 but as no copy has been found and its title is un- 
known, it is probable that the early advent of the Andros 
government prevented its publication. 

It was now that the difficulties of the Maiden church were 
to assume a different form ; and there can be but little doubt 
that the animosities and jealousies which the pastorate of Mr. 
Matthews had introduced, and which the petty quarrels of 
thirty-five years had not allowed to cease, bore no small part 
in shaping the charges which in the end were to leave the 
church without a pastor. 

14 Mass. Hist. Coll., xlv. 95. This is 7™ I preached at Charlstown, unto a very 
the first notice of his public appearance great Assembly, a Sermon, which was 
after his recovery and has before been afterwards printed, under y e Title of 
unnoticed. The Middlesex Artillery Co. Military Duties" Mather, MS. Diary. 
had always, since their organization, met Sewall says: — "The Artillery Com- 
at Cambridge and had never gone out pany had like to have been broken up ; 
of the county for a preacher ; but the the animosity so high between Charles- 
next year their election was held at town and Cambridge Men about the 
Charlestown and a minister was brought Place of Training." Mass. Hist. Coll., 
from Suffolk to address them. Cotton xlv. 151. 
Mather says : — Vo Mass. Hist. Coll., xlv. 136. There 

"[16S6.] The Artillery-Company of was in his prayer an evident allusion to 

Middlesex this year did a New Thing, the evil days which were about to come 

in Ordering their Anniversary solemni- upon the colonies. Randolph came two 

ties to bee at Charlestown, and not at days later with the official copy of the 

Cambridge; and they did another New judgment against the charter; and in 

Thing, in choosing, as they never did December, Sir Edmund Andros arrived 

before or since, a Minister not belonging with a commission as Governor of all 

to their own County to be their preacher ; New England. 
and this was my poor self. So, on 13 1 . 1 l6 Mass. Colony Records, v. 515. 



CHEEVER AND WIGGLESWORTH. 267 

It appears that Mr. Cheever had been accused " as Guilty of 
great Scandals, by more than 2 or 3 witnesses ; " of " speaking 
such words as are scandalous breaches of the Third Command- 
ment, as appears by the Testimony of Mrs. Eliza. Wade and 
Abigail Russell; " and of using "light and obscene expressions 
(not fit to be named) in an Ordinary at Salem, as by the Testi- 
mony of Samuel Sprague, Jacob Parker, Isaac Hill : Also as 
he was travailing on the Rode, as p. the Testimony of Thomas, 
Ester and Eliza. Newhall." 17 That the majority of the church 
members considered these accusations as of little weight is evi- 
dent ; for they persistently " declin'd all Testimonies against 
him as to Scandals committed before his Ordination; as also 
some other Testimonies respecting matters very criminal since 
that; because they judged the Witnesses on account of Preju- 
dices and otherwise, incompetent." How easily they could 
forgive the little guilt which they found in him appeared, Au- 
gust 9, 1685, when, "Mr. Chiever made an Acknowledgement 
of some Evils to the Brethren of that Church, whereto he stands 
related ; and the most part of them were willing to take up with 
a slender satisfaction." It is added " that on the next Lord's- 
day, he manifested so little sense and sorrow for his great sins, 
as that the generality of the Brethren were more dissatisfied 
than formerly." 

That the church as a whole was not inclined to act upon 
charges preferred by prejudiced witnesses is very evident; 
while it seems clear that there were a few who were not dis- 
posed to lose their hold upon so formidable a weapon as that 
which seemed to be ready to their hands. There is an indica- 
tion that Mr. Wigglesworth, himself, was in opposition to Mr. 
Cheever, and that he thought that his settlement had been 
made with undue haste. The soil was fertile and all the con- 
ditions were favorable for a plentiful crop : that the affairs of 
the pastor grew worse may be readily imagined. 

Sewall wrote in his diary : — 

[March 15, 168%.] Mr. Wigglesworth here, speaks about a Coun- 
cil respecting Mr. Thomas Chiever. 18 

17 Mass. Hist. Coll., xlvi. 21*. 18 Ibid., xlv. 127. 



268 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

[Sunday, March 28, 1686.] The Lord give me a holy godly Life 
without End. Letter read from Maldon directed to the three Churches 
in Boston, desiring Council respecting their Pastor Mr. Tho. Chiever, 
who is charg'd with scandalous immoralities, for which hath not given 
satisfaction. Mr. Eliot and my Self to accompany Mr. Willard thither 
next Wednesday come Sennight, 7"' April. 19 

On the appointed day, the diarist " Got up about 4 mane 
to go and accompany Mr. Willard to Maldon, went most by 
Water, some by Land." Those who went by land, doubtless, 
crossed the Charlestown ferry, and passing up the neck, came 
about by the way of Medford ; while "Those that went by 
Water were landed at Switzer's Point, then went about 2 miles 
on foot." 20 To realize the simple manners of that age, imagine 
for a moment a party of divines and laymen sailing up the 
Mystic to Van Voorhis's Point, and then trudging two miles or 
more to attend an ecclesiastical council in Maiden to-day. In- 
ward repinings might neutralize their outward prayers, or bodily 
weariness confuse their sense of justice. 

There were fifteen members of the Council at Maiden, and 
among them were five famous ministers from the Boston 
churches, Increase Mather with his son and colleague, Cotton 
Mather, James Allen and Joshua Moody from the First Church, 
and Samuel Willard of the Third or South Church, all bright 
and shining lights and " painful workers in the vineyard." With 
them, though not acting as members of the Council, were 
Ezekiel Cheever, father of the offending clergyman, with long 
and pointed white beard, 21 and Samuel Parris of Salem Village, 
who was soon to become notorious and forever infamous by 
his connection with the sad tale of Witchcraft. 

The Council met at the house of " Father Green," probably 
James Green, a part of whose house is still in existence, hidden 
within the walls of the Perkins house now standing on Appleton 

19 Mass. Hist. Coll., xlv. 130. knew the famous Grammar schoolmaster, 

20 Ibid., 131. Mr. E. Cheever of Boston, author of the 

21 President Stiles of Yale College, in Accidence; that he wore a long white 
his Diary, quoted by Barnard, Biograph- beard, terminating in a point ; that when 
ical Sketch of Ezekiel Cheever, 21, men- he stroked his beard to the point, it was 
tions the aged Rev. Samuel Maxwell, of a sign for the boys to stand clear." 
Warren, R. I., who told him, "he well 



CHEEVER AND WIGGLESWORTH. 269 

Street. After a prayer by Mr. Allen, it was debated whether 
they should have two moderators; it was decided to have but 
one, and Increase Mather was chosen. After some discourse, 
they apparently went to the meeting house, where Mr. Mather 
prayed and " some Debates " were heard. They returned again 
to their " Quarters " and " had the witnesses and Mr. Tho. Chiever 
face to face." The Council rejected most of the testimony, as 
had the church, and upon the same considerations; but testi- 
mony was admitted and accepted in regard to spoken words 
upon which all the subsequent action appears to have been 
based. 

Mr. Cheever " absolutely denyed " these words and did not 
show to the members of the Council " that humble penitential 
frame that would have become him," so that they saw " cause 
to fear that he had been too much accustomed to an evil course 
of Levity and Profaneness." 22 Sewall says : — 

In the evening Mr. Chiever the Pastor was sent for, Mr. Moodey and 
others acquainted him how grievous his carriage had been and that day 
not so humble and in such a frame as ought ; told him expected not an 
Answer, but that should sleep on't. Debated considerably what to do 
till about 10 at night. Mr. Moderator pray'd, went to Bed, Mr. Mod- 
erator and his son to Mr. Wigglesworth's, some to Mr. Chiever. Major 
Richards and self Kept the House. In the Morn. Thorsday, Ap. 8, 
Mr. Moderator went to prayer : read over what was drawn up, then dis- 
cours'd about it. Sent for Mr. Chiever, to see what [he] had to say.- 3 

The Council, not finding satisfaction, unanimously agreed 
upon a " Declaration and Advice." That Mr. Cheever had used 

22 A "humble penitential frame "does Of the pastor of Maiden, Edward 
not seem to have been natural to Mr. Randolph, the infamous agent of the 
Cheever ; indeed, there are indications British Crown in its tyrannical dealings 
that he was possessed of great self-reli- with New England, speaks in his " Nar- 
ance and some temper to back it. His rative of the Delivery of kis Majesty's writ 
father owned like traits, as was shown of quo warranto," presented to the Privy 
in his troubles with the church at New Council, February 14, 168^, cited by 
Haven, which ended in his seclusion. Palfrey, Hist, of A T ezu Engl a nd, iii. 3S7: — 
In the language of a contemporary MS., " Seven or eight days before the Assem- 
being charged "with a stiff, proud, con- bly broke up, a libellous paper was dis- 
tradictory frame of spirit," he was " cast persed in Boston. ... It was verily 
out of the body till the proud flesh [should] believed that one Cheevers, a hot- 
be destroyed, and he be brought into a headed minister was the author of that 
more memberlike frame." Cf. Trial of paper." 

Ezekiel Cheever before the Church at Xew - 3 Mass. Hist. Coll., xlvi. 21*. 

Haven, in Conn. Hist. Coll., i. 22-51. 



2/0 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

language not becoming a minister seems likely: that he was not 
guilty of worse practices, as has been intimated, appears clearly 
in the sequel. That the Council rejected the testimony of pre- 
judiced witnesses has been seen; and only a present suspension 
of his office as a pastor and his privileges as a church member 
was the immediate result of the session at Maiden. The report 
recites the facts, which have been given, and closes with the 
following advice : — 

We conceive it to be Duty and accordingly advise the Church of 
Maldon, to Suspend Mr. Tho. Chiever from the Exercise of his minis- 
terial Function ; and also to debar him from partaking with them at 
the Lord's Table, for the space of Six Weeks, untill which time the 
Council will adjourn themselves, to meet at Boston. And that in case 
he shall in the mean while manifest that Repentance which the Rule 
requires, they should confirm their Love to him, and (if possible) 
improve him again in the Lord's Work among them. 

And this, our Advice, is grounded on these Scriptures and Reasons. 
( i ) . Among the Lord's People in the dayes of the O. Testament, no 
man might be permitted to execute the Priest's office that had a blemish : 
He might not come nigh to offer the offerings of the Lord. Levit. 21, 
17, 21, which teaches that Men under moral blemishes, are unfit for 
holy ministrations, untill they be, in a way of Repentance, healed. 
(2) It is in the New Testament required, that an Elder should be 
sober and of good behaviour, and moreover he must have a good Re- 
port of them that are without, 1 Tim. 3, 2, 7. (3) Christ's Discipline 
ought to be exercised impartially, without respect to Persons. 1 Tim. 
5, 21. Nor does Mr. Chiever's standing in a Sacred Office-Relation 
any way lessen, but greatly aggravate his sin. (4) There is no prob- 
ability that Mr. Chiever's Ministry will be blessed for good to Souls, 
untill such time as his Conversation shall declare him to be a true 
penitent. Mat. 5, 13. 

Finally, we exhort and advise our beloved Brethren of the Church of 
Maldon to set a day apart, solemnly to humble themselves by Fasting 
and Prayer before the Lord under this awfull dispensation, and for 
whatever failings have attended them, as to the management of their 
Differences, in this hour of Temptation which they have been subject 
unto. Particularly, for not observing the Rules of Christ, in endeavour- 
ing to prevent Evils by giving seasonable notice to Mr. Chiever of their 
Dissatisfactions. And for that want of Love, and for that bitterness of 
Spirit, which appears in sundry of them. So we pray the God of Love 
and Peace and Truth to dwell among you. 24 

21 Mass. Hist. Coll., xlvi. 22*, 23* 



CHEEVER AND WIGGLESWORTH. 27 1 

The closing scenes of the Council in Maiden are thus related 
by Sewall : — 

Thorsday, Ap. 8. the Bell was rung ; went in publick. Mr. Modera- 
tor pray'd, read the Council's Report. Mr. Wigglesworth spake, thank'd 
him and the Council ; said had cause to condemn themselves, as for 
other sins, so their sudden laying Hands on Mr. Chiever ; and now 
God was whipping them with a Rod of their own making. Mr. Chiever 
the Father, stood up and pathetically desir'd his son might speak, but 
Mr. Moderator and others judg'd it not convenient, he not having by 
what he said given the Council encouragement. Mr. Allin pray'd ; 
went to Dinner ; Council adjourned to that day 6 weeks. Came Home 
well. 25 

That Mr. Cheever repented, so that the Maiden church could 
improve him again, does not appear; but it is said that he, 
at last, confessed to words " more than were charged upon 
him," and that " with shame and sorrow." The Council held 
three sessions in Boston and finally adopted the following 
report : — 

The Elders & Messengers of y e churches assembled in council 
April 7. 1686 at y e desire of the church in Maldon, having upon 
adjournment mett at Boston May 20 & 27 & June 10, and there taken 
the state of that church into further consideration, do declare & advise 
as followeth : 

I. Inasmuch as wee understand that M r Thorn 5 cheever has now 
declared, that as to y e scandalous words which have been Testified and 
proved against him, he doth know and with shame and sorrow confess 
that he has spoken words of y e same nature more then is charged upon 
him, and doth not deny but he might use those very expressions which 
are by y e witnesses mentioned, and that he doth judge himself before 
God and man as one that has exposed Religion and y e ministry to 
Reproach, opened y e mouthes of y e wicked, sadned y e hearts of 
y e Lords servants, for which he beggs pardon of God & his people. 
And considering that some of y e Brethren testify, that they have 
observed his Late conversation to be humble & penitent : Wee conceive 
that y e church in Maldon may without breach of y u Rule so far confirm 
their Love to him, as to Restore him to their communion, & to grant 
him a Loving Dismission to some church according as himself shall 
desire. We therefore commend to their consideration these scriptures 
following. 2 Cor. 2, 7, 8. 1 Cor. 13, 4, 7. Deut. 29, 29. 

25 Mass. Hist. Coll., xlvi. 23*. 



272 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

II. Since it is not probable that M r Cheever's continuence in 
Maldon, nor yet the present exercise of his ministry there, will tend 
to y e peace of that place, or to y e edification of y e church, nor to his 
own comfort : wee advise him the said M r Cheever to request his dis- 
mission, and we advise y e church to comply with his desires therein. 
This counsel we conceive to be grounded on such scriptures as these, 
2 Cor. 10, 8 and 12, 19. 2 Thess. 3, 16. 1 Tim. 3, 7. 2 Cor. 6. 

III. Wee advise the Church & Congregation of Maldon duely to in- 
courage and to hold in Reputation their Rever d & faithful Teacher 
M r Wigglesworth, according as God in his word does require them to 
do. 1 Thess. 5, 12, 13. And that they conscientiously endeavour 
to live and Love as Bretheren, forbearing one another, and forgiving 
one another, if any man have a quarrel against any, even as christ 
forgave you, so also do yee. 

Thus do we commend you to y e grace of o r Lord Jesus Christ. 

Jncrease Mather Moderato" 
Jn y e name & with y 
unanimous consent of y e council.' 26 

Mr. Cheever probably removed at once ; it is certain that he 
was living at Rumney Marsh in the winter of i68]4,> He sold 
his house and lands in Maiden to Thomas Oakes, April 9, 
1689, 27 and is found soon after in the occupancy of the farm of 
one hundred and twenty-seven acres, which had formerly been 
a part of the possessions of the unfortunate Sir Henry Vane, 
and which he bought of his wife's father and brothers, James, 
Jonathan, and Joshua Bill, of Pullen Point, for three hundred 
and fifty-seven pounds, October 22, 1689. 28 Here he remained 

26 Original in the possession of Arte- Chelsea and Revere, and extending from 
mas Barrett, of Melrose, 1866. the Charlestown (Mystic Side) line to 

27 Midd. Co. Deeds, xi. 87 a. the highway on the east, now known as 

28 Suffolk Co. Deeds, xv. 2. This land, School Street, in Revere. As early as 
overlooking the sea and the green 1640, if not a little earlier, it had become, 
marshes and meadows of Rumney Marsh, in an unrecorded way, a portion of the 
lies upon the southern and eastern slopes possessions of Nicholas Parker, when 
of Cheever's Hill, in Revere. It was for it is described as consisting of two hun- 
many years known as the Fenno farm, dred and sixty acres. Boston Book of 
from its later possessors. In 1894 it Possessions, 72. Parker sold the west- 
was laid out for building purposes, ern portion, called eight score acres, to 
and has now lost much of its original George Burden, the ancestor of the Bur- 
character, ditts of Maiden, who had built a house 

The allotment of Sir Henry Vane, upon it when he sold it with lands at 

being the first of " The great Allottments Mystic Side to Aaron Way and William 

at Rumley Marsh and Pullen Point," Ireland, in February, 165^. Suffolk Co. 

comprised two hundred acres, lying Deeds, i. 206. It was from Wav's house 

north of the creek, which now divides that Increase Mather escaped, by the 



CHE EVER AND WIGGLESWORTH. 



273 



during the remainder of his long life. He continued to be 
styled "Cleric;" and for a few years he taught school — per- 
haps as early as 1700, as in that year the town of Boston estab- 
lished in Rumney Marsh " a free School to Teach them to 
Read, Write & Cypher." 29 A report is extant which shows 
that he taught thirty-three scholars in the winter of 1 7°94 , some 
of them coming from a long distance. 30 

It is not improbable that he varied his occupation by preach- 
ing to the sparse population which occupied the farms of 
Rumney Marsh, Winnisimmet, Pullen Point, and Hog Island. 31 



way of Newgate's landing, to the ship 
in which he sailed to England in 16SS. 

The eastern portion of the Vane allot- 
ment was retained by Parker, and was 
sold by his heirs to Thomas Savage, 
whose son, Ebenezer, sold it to Samuel 
Sewall in 1683, at which time it was in 
the occupancy of Thomas Townsend. 
Sewall, whose gossiping diary has often 
been of service in the preparation of 
these pages, sold the farm, in April, 16S5, 
to the Bills, who transferred it to Mr. 
Cheever, as stated in the text. 

It is stated that Mr. Cheever occupied 
the Newgate house, which is still stand- 
ing in Mill Street, in Revere ; but he was 
living upon the Parker farm before the 
time of his purchase. The Newgate land 
bounded his own on two sides and the 
Newgate house was not far away from 
that of Mr. Cheever. It is possible that 
the houses have become confused in the 
uncertain processes of the village tradi- 
tions which have preserved the memory 
of his residence. The house in which 
Mr. Cheever lived stood within the line 
of the present street north of Fenno's 
Corner and came into the possession of 
his son, Nathan, with the farm. The 
latter built another house a little to the 
westward of it, which stood at the present 
northerly corner of Broadway and Fenno 
Street until 1893, when it was demol- 
ished. At the death of Nathan Cheever, 
the older house descended to his son, 
Nathan (H. C, 1741), who died in 1787, 
and who was the father of the revolu- 
tionary officer, Joseph Cheever, after- 
wards of Maiden. 

The late Benjamin II. Dewing of 



Revere was informed by the aged Mrs. 
Anna Stowers, a great-granddaughter of 
Thomas Cheever, that she was present 
at a party in the old house. When go- 
ing home they turned and saw that it 
was in flames ; and it was destroyed. It 
was supposed that some of the guests 
caused the fire in getting clothes from a 
a closet. Traces of the fire have been 
found while excavating in the street. 

29 Boston Town Records, March 11, 
170%. 

35 N. E. Hist, and Geneal. Reg., xviii. 
109. A report, made in February, 171^", 
by Mr. Cheever, is given in facsimile, 
Memorial History of Boston, ii. 3S0. 

31 Although it seems certain that no 
regular preaching had been continued in 
that remote district of Boston, an early 
attempt had been made to establish it. 
In March, 16^,,, Sergeant John Oliver, 
then about twenty-four years of age, was 
sent there by the Boston church on a 
motion " made by such as have farms at 
Rumney Marsh, that our brother Oliver 
may be sent to instruct their servants, 
and to be a help to them, because they 
cannot many times come hither, nor 
sometimes to Lynn, and sometimes no- 
where at all." Keayne's MS. quoted by 
Savage, IVint/zrop's History of Xetv Eng- 
land, i- 328. Oliver appears to have 
continued his ministrations at Rumney 
Marsh, although he entered II. C. and 
was graduated in 1645. ^ e c ^ ec l or a 
malignant fever in the spring of 1646, 
leaving a widow and five children. Win- 
throp characterizes him as " a gracious 
young man, not full thirty years of age, 
an expert soldier, an excellent surveyor 



18 



274 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

For several years the people there, among whom appear to 
have been several members of neighboring churches, had been 
moving towards the erection of a place of worship, when the 
town of Boston, April 29, 1709, voted "A Grant of One 
hundred pounds to be raised and Laid out in building a meet- 
ing House at Rumny Marsh." Under the date of July 10, 
1 710, Sewall says: — 

Mr. Jn° Marion and I went to Rumney-Marsh to the Raising of 
their Meetinghouse. I drove a Pin, gave a 5 s Bill, had a very good 
Treat at Mr. Chiever's ; went and came by Winnisimet ; and six 
days later: Extream hot wether. Mr. Cook, Bromfield and I goe 
to Rumney-Marsh in a Boat, to agree with Workmen to finish the 
Meetinghouse. Stowers is to make the windows. Got home well ; 
Lans Deo. Several died of the Heat at Salem. 32 

Although no church was immediately gathered, it is very 
probable that religious services were held and that Mr. Cheever 
preached there. That the people had become acquainted with 
his " gifts " is proved by their choice of him as their pastor. A 
church covenant was formed and signed by Mr. Cheever and 
eight brethren; and, October 19, 171 5, a Council, composed of 
delegates from the Second and New North churches of Boston 
and the churches of Lynn and Reading, received them as a 
sister church. Though both Cotton Mather and Samuel Sewall, 

of land, and one who, for the sweetness tempts to fix its location and asserts 

of his disposition and usefulness through that it was built of logs. Chelsea Tele- 

a public spirit, was generally beloved, graph, March u, 18S2. Samuel Mav- 

and greatly lamented." He adds : " For erick, writing of Rumney Marsh in 1660, 

some few years past he had given up says: — "There are many good farmes 

himself to the ministry of the gospel, belonging to Bostone, which have a 

and was become very hopeful that way, Metting House, as it were a Chapel of 

(being a good scholar and of able gifts Ease," N. E. Hist, and Geneal. Register, 

otherwise, and had exercised publicly for xxxix. 38. 

two years)." Winthrop, New England, 3i Mass. Hist. Coll., xlvi. 283. The 

ii. 257. window-maker was probably Samuel 

After the death of Mr. Oliver, there Stowers, a carpenter, of Mystic Side, 

is no record of any attempt being made The meeting house then built is still 

to hold public worship at Rumney Marsh standing in Revere, on the road from 

until the time of Mr. Cheever ; and the Fenno's Corner to the beach. It for- 

inhabitants became connected, if at all, merly faced towards the north, and its 

with the neighboring churches of Bos- appearance has been greatly changed by 

ton, Maiden, and Lynn. Chamberlain modern alterations. A view as it ap. 

has brought out the fact, however, that peared some years since is given by 

a meeting house existed earlier than the Chamberlain, Memorial Hist, of Boston,. 

one erected in 1710; and tradition at- ii. 378. 



CHE EVER AND WIGGLESWORTH. 275 

who had been members of the Council at Maiden, were present, 
the former being chosen " to manage and Moderate the whole 
affair," 33 no objection was made to Mr. Cheever, and he appears 
to have outlived the "sorrow and shame" of the Maiden affair, 
even if his character had ever been tarnished in the minds and 
by the report of those who were conversant with the whole 
matter. Dr. Tuckerman says : — 

Whatever were the circumstances which occasioned his separation 
from that church, they do not appear to have come before the coun- 
cil ivhich ordained him here. 34 

Sewall records the " Church Gathering and Ordination " in 
his Diary as follows : — 

Sf 19. Went to Rumney Marsh in Comp a of Dr. C. Mather, Mr. 
Stobo, Squire Webb, Dr. Oakes, &c. Mr. Brown of Reading pray'd, 
Mr. Tho. Chiever preach'd. Neither he that planteth. 1 Cor. 3. 7. 
Dr. C. Mather gave them a Covenant which they made. They chose 
Mr. Chiever their Pastor. Dr. M". gave him the Charge, he, Mr. 
Shepard of Lin, Mr. Brown of Reading, laying on Hands, with Mr. 
Webb, and praying. Mr. Shepard gave the right Hand of Fellowship. 
Sung the 3 last Staves of the 133 d Psalm, which Deacon Marion read 
and set the Tune. Mr. Chiever gave the Blessing. 35 

If ever there had been a real cloud over the reputation of 
Mr. Cheever, it had now passed away; and thenceforth he 
became the beloved pastor and father of his little flock. Dr. 
Tuckerman, his successor in the pastoral office, writing in 1821, 
when some who had sat under his ministry were still alive, 
says : — 

I am told that he was much respected at home ; and his records 
bear ample testimony to the regard that was felt for him by neighbouring 
churches. There was at that time more of ostensible discipline in the 
church, than there is at this day ; and the minute detail which he 
has left of complaints and investigations, of publick censures, acknowl- 
edgments and pardons, at once indicate the strong feeling which the 
church then had of its power and its duty, and shew that he was not 
behind those of his cotemporaries, who were most zealous for minis- 
terial fidelity, in this department of the sacred office. 36 

33 Cheever in Rumney-Marisk Church 3 -5 Mass. Hist. Coll., xlvii. 65. 
Book (MS). 3J Tuckerman, Sermon, 5. 

34 Tuckerman, Sermon Preached on the Twentieth Anniversary of his Ordination 
(1821), 5. 



2j6 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

The historian of Chelsea, in his preparatory sketches, 
writes : — 

His services were constantly sought in ecclesiastical councils ; and he 
most assiduously entered the letters-missive, the proceedings and the 
results, in his records, which constitute a mine that has often been 
worked by those curious in such matters. 37 

Perhaps some of his constitutional stubbornness and fire 
came out in the memorable installation of the Rev. Peter 
Thacher as colleague of the Rev. John Webb of the New North 
Church in Boston in 1720, when, after "a long and shameful 
Tumultuous disturbance in the Meeting-house," he alone stood 
out in opposition to the Boston ministers, and, asking the neces- 
sary questions, declared the candidate " to be the Pastor of that 
church." judge Sevvall adds: — " No Psalm was sung." 3S By 
one of those strange coincidences by which time sometimes 
works a double justice, the man whom the Maiden church had 
rejected in his prime, stood fearlessly in his old age and helped 
to win a first victory of those principles for which she had suf- 
fered nearly seventy years before. Out of this conflict was born 
again the full right of churches and congregations to choose 
their own officers - a right which had lain in abeyance since 
the Maiden brethren bowed before the secular power. Five 
years later, Cotton Mather and the Convention of Ministers, 
" sorrowing over the mournful decadence of what they esteemed 
to be good order in the churches," 39 endeavored to procure the 
intervention of the General Court and the ordering of a Synod 
to consider " what may be the most Evangelical and Effectual 
Expedients to put a Stop unto those, or the like, Miscar- 
riages." 40 History repeated itself. As in the days of the Mat- 
thews troubles, the aristocratic Council would have acted as of 
yore ; but the democratic deputies, full of the nerve and sense 
of the people, stamped upon the measure; and the day of 
synods, supported by the power of the state, passed away for- 
ever. It is pleasant to read that, when the Rumney Marsh 

37 Hon. Mellen Chamberlain in CV/t'/.Tii'tf 40 Hutchinson, History of Massachn- 

Telegraph, March 4, 1882. setts-Bay, ii. 323. 

:,s Mass. Hist. Coll., xlvii. 242. 
39 Dexter, Congregationalism of the Last Three Hundred Years, 500. 



CHE EVER AND WIGGLES WORTH. 2J7 

pastor returned to his church and recited the affair of the Coun- 
cil, they " declared their approbation of the same." 41 

Of the religious views of Mr. Cheever little may now be 
gathered. Three sermons preached by him were published 
during his lifetime. Of one, The Churches Duty and Safety, 
^[Boston. 171o.] the title only is known. The others, bearing the 
running-titles of Constancy in Use of Means : A Duty ; and Be- 
cause there is Wrath, Beware, were published together in 1726, 
under the title of Two Sermons Preached at Maldon. He 
appears to have been a puritan of the old stock in principles 
and faith, tempered, perhaps, by the varied experiences of a 
long life. Dr. Tuckerman says : — 

It is not improbable, that when he grew old, Mr. Cheever became 
more liberal in his feelings, than he was in the early part of his life. It 
is the natural tendency of a strong mind, profiting by its own observa- 
tion and experience. 42 

He remained in the pulpit, serving God and respected by 
men, until he had passed the full age of ninety years, when in 
consequence of his age and infir- 
mities, a colleague was ordained ^JrWyno^f J? /> 
and he was released from the 

cares of his pastorate. A little longer he waited until his change 
should come, and passed from this life, December 27, 1749, 43 
" retaining the unabated affection of those to whom he had dis- 
pensed the word and ordinances of the gospel." 44 In the little 
retired and neglected burying ground at Rumney Marsh, which 
his son Joshua gave to the town of Chelsea, 45 stand, side by 
side, two rude stones, mossy and weather-worn. They are the 
crumbling memorials of two who bore together the burden of 



41 Rummy- Marish Church Book. said Town forever, for that use only, 

42 Tuckerman, Sermon, 6. with so much more land contiguous as 

43 " He lived to be the oldest surviv- shall be necessary for that use, w th a 
ing graduate of the College ; Samuel convenient way to Carry their Dead to 
Andrew, of the Class of 1675, the next said Burying Ground, reserving to my 
oldest before him, having died in 1738." Heirs, Executors, adm IS & assignees for- 
Sibley, Harvard Graduates, ii. 503. ever the Herbage." Will of Joshua 

44 Tuckerman, Sermon, 6. Cheever, dated October 17, 1750 ; proved 

45 "Item the Burying Ground in my December 18, 1751, Suffolk Co. Wills, 
Land at Chelsea I give the same to the x lv. 601. 



278 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

the cross which was laid upon them in the Maiden church — 
Thomas Cheever and his wife, Sarah Bill. 

Memento Mori 

Here Lies y e Body of Here Lyes Buried 

M rs Sarah Cheeuer y e Body of y e Rev nd 

Wife To Muster M r Thomas Cheever 

Thomas Cheeuer Who Departed This Life 

Aged 47 Years Decem br 27 th Anno Dom 

Died January *749 Aged 92 Years. 

the 30 th i7o4/^. 

Much division and many troubles appear to have occurred 
after Mr. Cheever left Maiden. Whatever reasons the Council 
may have had in advising the encouragement of Mr. Wiggles- 
worth, they do not appear to have had any great weight with 
" the Church and Congregation of Maldon ; " nor do the people 
appear to have held their teacher in greater " Reputation." An 
attempt was made to have the town " com to a loueing agree- 
ment," at a meeting on the first day of the succeeding October. 
The summons by which this meeting was called is worthy of 
preservation, not only as illustrative of the condition of ecclesi- 
astical affairs but as being the earliest Maiden warrant known to 
be in existence. 

To constable John Sprague you are in his majestyes name required to 1 
warne the inhabitance of the Towne to consider what is the best course 
to take for the providing for goodman felt : and that we may com to a 
loueing agreement for the vp holding and maintaineing of the worke of 
the minnistry amongst vs : the time of meeting is the first of October 
which is friday next at eaight of the clock in the morning. 

By order and in the name of the selectmen 
September: 25: 86: John Spra-gue. 46 

At the meeting, which was duly held, measures were taken for 
the relief of " ould felt ; " but, whatever discussion may have 
taken place, and doubtless the debate was earnest — angry, per- 
haps, there is no indication that any agreement, loving ©r other- 
wise, was proposed. The records are silent upon that matter- 
In the following December, the spirit of dissension was still; alive 

* Original in the possession of Artemas B.'jxrett ot Melrose, t866, 



CHE EVER AND IVIGGLESWORTH. 279 

in the Maiden church, and the Government again interposed in 
its affairs. 

At a Councill held in Boston New England December 8, 1686. 

Upon reading the Petition of severall Inhabitants of Maiden relateing 
to their Ministry 

Ordered: That M r Stoughton, Cap" Winthrop and M r Wharton (with 
such other of the Members of the Councill as can be present) with Mf 
Mather and Mr Willard be impoured a Com te . e to repair to Maiden on 
Tuesday next the 14 th inst: and to call before them the Petitioners and 
other Inhabitants of Maiden, and to hear and finally determine and 
settle the maintainance of the Ministry there, and that the Clerk of the 
Councill do give forth Warrant to the Constables of Maiden to warn a 
generall meeting at time & place accordingly. 47 

The committee " repayred " to Maiden at the appointed 
time; and its report shows that a minority of the people, at 
Jeast, desired the restoration of Mr. Cheever. 

In observance of an Order of the President and Councill &c. Wee 
underwritten on the 14 th Inst: repayred to Maiden and upon a full 
hearing of all partyes do find that the former usage of that Towne hath 
been for many years to raise sixty pound per annum by a Rate upon 
the Inhabitants of the Towne for the maintainance of the Ministry, 
which of late by a Town vote & agreement hath been converted and 
altered to fifty pound in mony. 

That Mf Wigglesworth was many years since by choice and agree- 
ment universall ordained Teacher to the Church there, and though by 
sickness and indisposition he was for some years uncapiable to perform 
his worke, yet for many months last past he hath constantly attended 
the service of the Ministry and administration of the Sacraments 
amongst them, and declares his willingness so to do untill the people 
can upon a good agreement invite and obtaine some other Assistant to 
him and them therein. 

That tho' there hath been for some years past an other person 
(viz' M r Cheevers) ordained to the Service of the Ministry there, yet 
the said Cheevers haveing been convicted of severall grevious faults 
and debaucheries very Scandelous to his Ministry, whereby he is made 
uncapiable of his Office there ; 

Wee. do therefore Order. That the select Men of Maiden for the 
time being, do according to former usage lay the Rate of Sixty pounds 
half mony upon the Inhabitants of the said Towne equally, and attend 
the usuall method for collecting the same, and pay it unto M". Wiggles- 

47 Council Records, ii. 96. 



280 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

worth for his service, he continueing there in the supply & support of 
the publick Worship and ordinances Of God, and that no further dis- 
turbance or offer be made by any of the Inhabitants againe to restore 
the said Cheevers to the service of the Ministry in that place which 
will so apparently attend to the disturbance of the peace, and dis- 
honour of God. 

\V¥ Stoughton 
R° Wharton. 

The foregoing are true copyes. Attested this 20 th day of December 
1686. 

Ed: Randolph Sec*?** 

On the day when Randolph signed the record, Sir Edmund 
Andros landed at Boston. He cared as little for the ecclesi- 
astical affairs of the colonists as the Maiden people appeared to 
care for the report and order of the committee ; and the 
Government made no attempt to enforce that which the people 
seemed in no haste to obey. The selectmen laid no ministerial 
rates, and nothing favorable to Mr. Wigglesworth came out of 
the matter. 

Not only is there no evidence that the town did anything 
towards the support of Mr. Wigglesworth; but for more than 
five years after the meeting of the committee of the Council, he 
is not so much as mentioned upon the records. The people 
still appear to have looked upon him as one who had no claims 
upon them beyond what they might voluntarily choose to give ; 
and it is probable that by contributions and gifts made irregu- 
larly, joined with what meagre harvest his six and one-half 
acres might yield, and the sale of his books and his precarious 
gatherings as a physician, and, perhaps, as a teacher of youth 
preparing for the college or the ministry, he lived during this 
period of his life. That he considered himself as settled by the 
town and possessed of a claim upon it is evident from this 
tantalizing passage in the Bi-Ccntcnnial Book: — 

It appears by an old letter still extant, addressed to Mr. Wiggles- 
worth by Samuel Sprague, of date July 22, 16S7, that Mr. W. never 
resigned his pastoral charge. 49 

48 Council Records, ii. 101-102. 49 Bi-Centeimial Book of Maiden, 156. 



CHE EVER AND WIGGLESWORTH. 28 I 

That which was extant in 1849 has since disappeared with 
other papers, the loss of which I must frequently bewail. There 
is no indication that Mr. Wigglesworth ever attempted to en- 
force the recognition of his supposed or real rights. He pre- 
ferred, perhaps, to rely upon the sense of justice in the people, 
which he may have thought would awaken when he, himself, 
could properly discharge his pastoral duties. 

It was during this period that he met with a serious loss in 
the death of his young wife, who had been a blessing and help 
to him. She died September 4, 1690, at the age of about 
twenty-eight years. 50 Mr. Wigglesworth was now near his 
sixtieth year ; and the happy experiences of his second marriage 
and the care of six young children, of whom the eldest was not 
yet ten years old, were the probable inducements which led him 
soon to cast about for another helpmeet. That the second rea- 
son was, however, subordinate to the first must appear, however 
unwelcome, in the fact that when the candidate objected to the 
number of children he replied : " The Number may be lessened 
if there be need of it." 

Sybil Sparhawk, the daughter of Nathaniel and Patience 
Sparhawk of Cambridge, was born about 1655. Her maternal 
grandfather, the Rev. Samuel Newman, in the wilderness of 
Rehoboth, by the light of blazing knots, wrote the first Con- 
cordance in the English language, which became the basis of 
the work of Cruden and all later compilers. 51 She married, 
Jul\' 22, 1679, Dr. Jonathan Avery, who died not long before 
Mrs. Wigglesworth ; and she was living a widow at her house in 
Dedham when Mr. Wigglesworth was there in October, 1690. 
That she made an instant impression upon the heart of the 
bereaved and lonely poet may readily be gathered from a letter 
which he wrote in the following February. 

50 Mr. Wigglesworth took part in the agreed to "meet constantly, at the Col- 
formation of an association of the min- lege in Cambridge, on a Monday at nine 
isters of Boston and vicinity, October 13, or ten of the clock in the morning, once 
1690, and was the third signer of its in six weeks, or oftener if need be." Cf. 
articles. The objects of this association Mather, Magnalia, Bk. v. (2); Dean, 
were " the promoting of the Gospel, and Wigglesworth, 106. 

our mutual assistance and furtherance 51 Newman, Rehoboth in the Past, 

in that great work ; " and its members 52-53- 



282 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

These for his esteemed friend, Mrs. Avery, widdow at her house, 
Dcdham. 
Mrs. Avery — 

I heartily salute you in the Lord, giving you many thankes for 
yo r courtesies when I was at yo r house last October ; since which time 
I have had many thoughts of you, and desires to speak with you : But 
not judging it seasonable, I have been still thus long. And now I 
make bold to visit you with a line or two, desiring to know how it 
fareth with yourself & children this sickly time, 2iy whither you still 
continue in yo r widdowhood, & be at Liberty or free from any Engage- 
ment, that a man may visit you without offence, 3b/ And if you be 
free, whither a visit from me in order unto some further acquaintance 
would be welcome to you. To which queries if you please to return 
me a brief Answer by this bearer, I shall take it for a kindness, & 
shall better understand what God calls me to do, being ready to wait 
upon you by a visit y e first opportunity, if you incourage me so to 
doe. Not else at present, but with my hearty Prayers for yourself & 
yours I rest, 

yo r loving Friend 
Maldon, Feb r n, 1690. Micha l Wigglesworth. 

If you cannot conveniently return an answer in writing so speedily, 
you may trust the Messenger to bring it by word of mouth, who is 
grave & faithful, and knows upon what errant he is sent. . . . 

farewell. 52 

This was so well received that a second visit followed on " y e 
first opportunity; " and that a serious matter was proposed and 
met with some objections is evident from the long and somewhat 
curious document which follows : — 

Mrs. Avery 
cV my very kind friend. 

I heartily salute you in y e Lord with many thanks for yo r kind 
entertainment when I was with you March 2d. I have made bold 
once more to visit you by a few lines in y e inclosed paper, not to pre- 
vent a personal visit, but rather to make way for it, which I fully 
intend the beginning of y e next week if weather and health Prevent 
not, craving the favor that you will not be from home at that Time, 
yet if yo r occasions cannot comply with that Time, I shall endeavor 
to wait upon you at any other Time that may suit you better. Not 
further to trouble you at this Time, but only to present y e inclosed to 
yo r serious thoughts, I commend both it. & you to y c Lord & wait for 

52 Christian Register, June I, 1850; N. E. Hist, and Geneal. Reg. xvii. 139. 



CHE EVER AND WIGGLESWORTH. 283 

an Answer from Heaven in due season, meanwhile I am & shall 
remain, Yo r True Friend 

& wel-wisher, 
Maldon March 23, 1691. Michael Wigglesworth. 

I make bold to spread before you these following considerations 
which Possibly may help to clear up yo r way before y u return an 
answer unto y e Motion w ch I have made to you, I hope you will take 
them in good Part and Ponder them seriously. 

i st . I have a great perswasion that y e motion is of God, for diverse 
Reasons. 

As first that I should get a little acquaintance with you by a short & 
transient visit having been altogether a stranger to you before, and that 
so little acquaintance should leave such impressions behind it, as neither 
length of Time, distance of Place, nor any other objects could wear off, 
but that my thoughts & heart have been toward you ever since. 

2 ly . That upon serious, earnest and frequent seeking of God for 
guidance & Direction in so weighty a matter, my thoughts have still 
been determined unto and fixed upon yo r self as the most suitable Person 
for me. 

3 ly . In that I have not been led hereunto by fancy (as too many 
are in like cases) but by sound Reason & judgment, Principally Loving 
and desiring you for those gifts & graces God had bestowed upon you, 
and Propounding y e Glory of God, the adorning and furtherance of y e 
Gospel. The spiritual as wel as outward good of myself and family, 
together w th y e good of yo r self & children, as my Ends inducing me 
hereunto. 

2 ,y . Be Pleased to Consider, that although you may Peradventure 
have offers made you by Persons more Eligible, yet you can hardly 
meet with one that can love you better, or whose love is built upon 
a surer foundation, or that may be capable of doing more for you in 
some respects than myself. But let this be spoken with all humility, 
& without ostentation. I can never think meanly enough of myself. 

3 ly . Whither there be not a great sutableness in it for one that hath 
been a Physician's wife to match with a Physician, By this means you 
may in some things & at some Times afford more help than another, 
& in like manner receive help, get an increase of skill, and become 
capable of doing more that way hereafter if need should be. 

4 ,y . Whither God doth not now invite you to y e doing of some more 
Eminent Service for him, than you are capable of doing in yo r Present 
Private capacity? and whither those many Emptyings from vessel to 
vessel & great afflictions that have befaln you might not be sent with 
a design to fit you for further service, & to losen you from y e Place & 
way you have been in ? 



284 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

5 ,y . Whither y e enjoyment of Christ in all his ordinances (which at 
present cannot be had where you are) be not a thing of that weight 
that may render this motion at this time somewhat more considerable ? 

6 ly . Consider, if you should continue where you are whither y e look- 
ing after & managing of yo r outward Business & affairs may not be too 
hard for you, and hazzard your health again? 

7 ly . If God should exercise you with sickness again whither it were 
not more comfortable and safe to have a neer and dear friend to take 
care of you and yours at such a Time, especially now when yo r dear 
mother is gone to Heaven. 

8 ly . This following summer is Likely to be full of Troubles (unless 
God prevent them beyond the expectation of man) by reason of our 
Indian and French Enemyes : now whither it may not be more com- 
fortable and safe to get neerer y e heart of the Country, than to con- 
tinue where you are & to live as you do? 

9 Iy . The consideration of y e many afflictions, losses & Bereavements 
which have befallen you, as it hath affected my heart with deep sym- 
pathy, so it hath been no small inducement to me to make this motion, 
hopeing that if God should give it acceptance with you I might be 
a friend & a Comforter to you instead of yo r many lost relations ; and 
I hope upon trial you would find it so. 

io Iy . As my Late wife was a means under God of my recovering 
a better state of Health ; so who knows but God may make you instru- 
mental to Preserve & Prolong my health & life to do him service. 

Obj. As to that main objection in respect to my Age, I can say 
nothing to that, But my Times are in the hands of God, who as he 
hath restored my health beyond expectation, can also if he Please Pro- 
long it while he hath any service for me to do for his Name. And in 
y e mean time, if God shall Please and yourself be willing to Put me in 
that Capacity, I hope I shall do you as much Good in a little time as. 
it is Possible for me to do, & use some endeavours also to Provide for 
yo r future, as wel as Present, welfare, as God's Bounty shall enable me ; 
for true love cannot be idle. 

Ob. And for y e other objection from y e number of my children & 
difficulty of guiding such a family. i st . the Number may be lessened 
if there be need of it. 

2 ly . I shall gladly improve my authority to strengthen yours (if 
God shall so Perswade your heart) to do what lieth in me to make the 
burden as light & comfortable as may be. And I am perswaded there 
would be a great suitableness in our tempers, spirits, Principles, & con- 
sequently a sweet and harmonious agreement in those matters (& in all 
other matters) betwixt us, and indeed this Persvvasion is a Principle 
thing w ch hath induced me to make this motion to yo r self & to no other. 



CHE EVER AND WIGGLESWORTH. 



285 



Finally that I be not over tedious. I have great hope, that if God 
shall Perswade you to close with this motion, the Consequents will be 
for y e furthurance of y e Gospel, for y e Comfort of us both, & of both 
our familyes & that y° Lord will make us mutual helpers & Blessings 
to each other, & that we shall enjoy much of God together in such 
a Relation, without which no relation can be truly sweet. 53 

That Mr. Wigglesworth went to Dedham very soon, if not as 
early as " the beginning of y e next week," as proposed, and 
that the objections of his " very kind friend" were overcome is 
very evident ; for they were married by the Rev. Moses Fiske 
of Braintree, June 23, 1691. 54 "She was beloved for her kind 
and charitable disposition," says Mr. Dean; " and her character 
and standing in society may have aided her husband in allaying 
the troubles in his parish." 55 



53 Christian Register, June I, 1850; 
N. E. Hist, and Geneal. Reg. xvii. 140- 
142. 

54 " In the course of his wooing, at 
what period there is no record, a silver 
locket in the form of a heart was pre- 
sented to the lady by her lover. This 
locket, not larger than a fourpence, is 
curiously wrought. On the front is a 
heart with wings on each side. It rests 
against an anchor ; as if it hath flown to 
her, and there found its resting place. 
On the back, the words ' thine forever ' 
are marked. After the death of Mrs. 
Wigglesworth it became the property of 
one of her daughters by her first mar- 
riage, Dorothy Avery ; and descended 
to the great-grandson of the original 
owner, Rev. Thomas Cary, pastor of the 
first religious society in Newburyport. 
Mr. Cary's colleague, Rev. Dr. Andrews, 
married a descendant of Michael Wig- 
glesworth, a granddaughter of the first 
Professor of Divinity in Harvard Col- 
lege, who was the only child born to Mr. 
Wigglesworth, after his marriage with 
Mrs. Avery. Soon after the death of 
Mr. Cary's only daughter, the family of 
his colleague were passing a day at his 
house. After dinner Mr. Cary told the 
story of the locket and produced it. A 
lilac ribbon had suspended it from the 
neck of a former owner. Mr. Cary 
placed it on that of his colleague's 
daughter, saying, that it had remained 



in his family long enough, and now 
ought to go to another branch. There 
seemed indeed a propriety in its be- 
longing to a descendant of both parties. 
The mother of the child to whom it 
was given, had, after her father's death, 
received among other things a small sil- 
ver box, the cover made of an English 
shilling, and on the bottom the letters 
S. W. were marked — the initials of Mrs. 
Avery's name after her second marriage. 
For what purpose the silver box was 
made had never been discovered or con- 
jectured. A finger ring, unless smaller 
than the usual size, could not lie in it ; 
but the little silver heart fitted in ex- 
actly. It was agreed by all who saw 
them that the box must have been made 
to keep the locket from harm ; but that 
the latter having been worn round the 
neck, for a length of time, the box was 
forgotten ; and on the death of Mrs. 
Wigglesworth, and the division of her 
effects among her children — her son had 
taken the box, and one of her daughters 
the locket, and so they had descended 
in different branches of the family ; and 
after being separated three generations 
were re-united in the fourth " The Rev. 
Andrew P. Peabody, D.D., in the Chris- 
tian Register, June 1, 1850. 

65 Dean, Wigglesworth, 105. There 
was one child by this marriage. Ed- 
ward Wigglesworth was born in or soon 
after the year 1692, and was graduated 



286 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Under the date of March 14, 169*4, appears the first recorded 
mention of Mr. Wigglesworth as one to whom the town owed 
aught; and there is an air of constraint about the record which 
makes the grant appear to have been grudgingly given. 

noted at the same time that the towne will find m r wegelsworth with 
wood in a general way at sartaine dayes a pointed for this present 
yeare if any refuse or nelect after the time apointed more than 6 days 
for a teme of 4 oxen to pay : 6 Shillings and for 2 oxen to pay : 
4 Shillings and for a man : 2 Shillings and this to be taken by destres 
by a constabel : by warrent from the selectmen. 

The next year, "The 21 of this Instant: March Is apointed 
to cut and cart wood for m r Wigglesworth ;" and a year later, 
the selectmen passed an order with more directness and force. 

At a Meeting of y e select men at Isaac Hills y e 19 of Ianuary 169^ r 
Jt is ordered y' one Wensday next which is y e 24 of this Jnstant Janeu- 
ary shall be a day for all y e Jnhabitants of this Town to cut an carry 
firewood for m r Wigglesworth. 

The tide of public opinion had now turned in Mr. Wiggles- 
worth's favor; and during the remainder of his life he met with 
the support and respect which his position and his natural good 
qualities as a man and a Christian deserved. It is probable 
that his trials and experience in life had chastened and refined 
his mind and modified or, perhaps, eradicated its morbid ten- 

at Harvard College, 1710. He was for seventy-two years, and was succeeded in 
a while usher of a grammar school in his chair by his only son, Edward, who 
Boston "and left it with the design of was born at Cambridge, Feb. 7, 173^ 
settling in the ministry. He took a and died June 17, 1794. The latter was 
chamber at college, lived there and father of Thomas Wigglesworth, a well 
preached occasionally 'till June 28, 1721, known and successful merchant of Eos- 
when he was elected the first Hollis ton during the first half of this century. 
Professor of Divinity, at the age of The third Hollis Professor was the 
thirty years. He was inaugurated to Rev. David Tappan, a grandson of Mr. 
this office, October 21, 1722, and held Wigglesworth's second daughter, Abi- 
it, with high repute for his piety and gail, the eldest child of the youthful 
learning, upwards of forty years. He Martha Mudge. " It is a very remark- 
was a Fellow of the Corporation of this able circumstance," says Dr. McClure, 
University, and received the degree of "that of the four Hollis Professors, the 
Doctor of Divinity from Edinburgh in first three, who held the chair for eighty 
1730." Thaddeus William Harris, MS. successive years, with high reputation, 
Genealogical Sketch of the Wiggleszvorth should have been respectively the son, 
Family. grandson, and great-grandson of that 
Professor Wigglesworth died at Cam- good man." Bi- Centennial Book of Mai 
bridge, January 16, 1765, at the age of den, 156. 



CHEEVER AND WIGGLESWORTH. 287 

dencies, which in his earlier days, and while suffering with his 
many bodily troubles, had not been an especially pleasant qual- 
ity in his character. His physical weaknesses had passed away; 
and he was, as Increase Mather says, " restored to such a meas- 
ure of Health, as to be able to Preach for many years twice 
every Lords Day, after he had been for a long time in a Lan- 
guishing condition." 56 

Another generation of men and women had succeeded to the 
places of those who had formed the church and congregation 
in earlier days ; and most of those who had favored Mr. Mat- 
thews, and who had undoubtedly exercised a disturbing influ- 
ence and formed an opposition to Mr. Wigglesworth, had passed 
away. Of the nine who withstood the General Court, not one 
was living in March, 169^ ; and it is significant that one of the 
most prominent, Captain John VVayte, who, after the removal 
of Joseph Hills to Newbury, had been the most influential man 
of the town and church, had died but a few months before. 57 
If any unjust prejudices and opposition had existed in regard 
to the teacher they were now forgotten ; and thenceforth Mr. 
Wigglesworth became the faithful counsellor and friend of his 
flock — " Mauldens Physician for Soul and Body two." 

His position and claims were first distinctly and fully recog- 
nized, March 12, 169-^, when it was voted: — 

That y e town will alow m r Wigglesworth fifty five pounds a yeer 
yeerly Jn money : And y e use of the passonag. and a suficant suply of 
fierwood. so Long as He carrieth one y e work of y e minestrey : y e yeere 
begineth y e 12 of March 1694; . . . voted that m r Wigglesworth shall 
haue Thirty Cord of Cordvvood Laid a his dore for this present yeer. 

At a meeting held, May 18, 1694, it was voted : — 

That y e Select men hath liberty granted to order and lay a penalty 
upon those y l shall neglect to carry their proportion of wood for m r 

5R I. Mather in dedication prefixed to Joseph Hills, at Newbury, February 

C. Mather, A Faithful Man. 5, i6S%, ae. 85 ; 

57 Abraham Hill, February 13, \6^/ 70 ; Captain John Sprague, June 25, 1692, 

Thomas Call, May, 1676, ae. 79 ; ' ae. 68 ; 

John Upham, February 25, i68j^, Ralph Shepard, September 11,1693, 

a e. 84 ; ae. 90 ; 

Edward Carrington, 1684; Captain John Wayte, September 26,. 

James Green, March 29, 16S7 ; 1693, ae. 75. 



288 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Wigglesworth for This present yeere : and that y e Select men are hereby 
Jmpowered to grant warranty to The constables to take y e forfiturs by 
destress. 

The salary was somewhat changed, perhaps Increased, March 
1 8, 1695/6, when it was voted: — 

That m r wigglesworth shall Haue fifty pounds jn money for this pres- 
ent yeere : to be Raised one this form : by taking a new Jnvoice of all 
Reatable Estate : And all y e Straingers money y* corns Jnto y e contri- 
butien box m r wigglesworth shall haue ouer and aboue. 

The method of gathering the contributions and the distinction 
of " Straingers money " are explained in a vote passed a short 
time previous. 

All the inhabitance of this Town that contrabute to the minestry doe 
pute thare mony in papers with thare names and some of mony in it 
and all those that doue not contrabute shall pay in thare mony quar- 
terly to the deakens and if any man pute in his mony in to the box 
naked it shall be luked at as Strangers mony and so lowset. 

At a meeting, May 8, 1696, it was voted, 

That all male parsons of one and twenty yeers and upwards shall be 
Reated three shillings p r head to y e minestars sallerey for this presant 
yeer Excepting such parsons as y e select men hes Just cause to omit by 
Reson of pouerty or other wise. 

Mr. Wigglesworth received three lots in the division of com- 
mon lands in 1695 '■> an d. m addition, it was voted that 

m r wigglesworth shall haue all the land betwene his lote in the sec- 
cand diuision on the weste side the Riuer and Charlestowne line which 
is aboute ane accer and a halfe. 

Mr. Dean suggests that, 

The delay of the town in recognizing him as their minister, by vot- 
ing him a salary, may have been partly owing to an apprehension that 
by so doing they would render themselves liable to him for past 
services. 58 

There is some color to this supposition. A full settlement of 
all arrears appears to have been made at the end of the first 
year; and a receipt was entered and signed upon the town 
book, which, although no sum was named, was broad enough to 

58 Dean, Wigglesworth, 105. 



CHE EVER AND WIGGLESWORTH. 289 

cover any claim which Mr. Wigglesworth may have been able 
to make. 

These lines are to let all men understand That I, Michael Wiggles- 
worth of Maiden, doe Herhy discharg And acquit the Town of Maiden 
from all claimes that may be made heerafter by my self my haires exe- 
cutors Administrators or a signes upon the acount of aney Salary debt 
or dues to me for the work of y e ministery from the begining of The 
world untill the 12 of March i6o-} 5 . In witness of y e primeses, I have 
hereunto set my hand and seall this 28 of March, 1695/6- 

Michael Wigglesworth [sealJ]. 

June 1, 1696, while his parishioner, Colonel Nicholas Paige, 
was captain of the " Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company," 
he preached the annual sermon before that body. It was never 
printed. Sewall writes : — 

Mr. Wigglesworth preaches the Artillery sermon from Ephes. 6, 11, 
Put on the whole Armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against 
the wiles of the Devil. In the Applications, said 't was necessary we 
should doe so by reason of the evil of the Times or else of Popery, or 
something as bad as Popery should come to be set up. What should 
we doe? Mentioned Rev. 16, 15, said the Garments there and 
Armour in the Text were the same. About Dinner Time the Guns 
were fired at the Castle and Battery for joy that the Plot was 
discovered. 59 

That Mr. Wigglesworth in taking up the duties of a pastor 
assumed the title as well is uncertain. There is no indication 
that he styled himself otherwise than Teacher ; and he is so 
called in the later editions of the Day of Doom, issued during his 
lifetime. But the Mathers, who, surely, fully understood the 
difference between the terms, called him Pastor; and as such 
he appears in the inventory of his estate and upon his grave- 
stone. 

The few remaining years of his life passed quietly, in the 
gentle ministrations of his dual orifice of pastor and physician, 
and were free from the anxieties and cares, as well as the 
extreme bodily weaknesses, which had formerly been his por- 
tion ; but although he was in a measure restored to health, he 

59 Mass. Hist. Coll , xlv. 427. The of which had recently been received, 
rejoicing was on account of the dis- Cf. Macaulay, Hist, of England, chap, 
•covery cf the Popish Plot, the news xxi. 

19 



290 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

never became entirely well. Some time about 169J& he passed 
through a dangerous sickness — perhaps a return of his old 
malady. Of this and its effect upon the people Cotton 
Mather says, addressing " the Church and Congregation at 
Maldon " : — 

Your Love, show'd it self, when a Dangerous Fit of Sickness was 
upon him. You came together with Agony ; you Prayed, and Fasted 
and Wept before the Lord, with Public Supplications for his Life. 
God heard you ; God Loves to hear such Prayers. God Spared him 
yet unto you, Another Life. For Seven years more, you had him 
among you. eo 

Sewall adds his testimony to the health of Mr. Wigglesworth 
at this time. 

Feby r 21. [169^]. I rid over to Charlestons on the Ice, then over 
to Stoweri's, 61 go to Mr. Wigglesworth : The snow was so deep that I 
had a hard Journey, could go but a foot pace upon Mystick River, the 
snow was so deep. Mr. Wigglesworth preach'd Jan y 23. from those 
words, who can stand before his Cold ? Then by reason of his own 
and peoples sickness, Three Sabbaths pass'd without publick worship. 
Feb. 20. a very cold day, He preached from those words ; He sends 
forth his word and thaws them ; which began 21 and especially 22, and 
has thaw'd much and yet moderately. 6 ' 2 

It was doubtless this sickness which caused the town to vote, 
March 31, 1698, " y 1 y e town will aford m r wigglesworth sum 
help 4 or 5 sabath days in y e work of y e minestry." Perhaps he 
never recovered from this illness; for he was no longer young, 
and years of sickness had not tended to strengthen his powers 
of endurance. He speaks of himself in 1704 as one "with a 
weak body and trembling hands." 63 

Cotton Mather says of him : — 

60 Mather, A Faithful Man, 25. southerly junction of Broadway and Bow 

01 The "house of entertainment" Street in Everett, and was known as 

kept by Richard Stowers and his wife the Flagg house, may have been that 

Joanna was next to Penny Ferry on which was visited by Sewall. It was cer- 

Mystic Side. Both host and hostess tainly on or near the site of the Stowers 

were dead at the time of SewalPs visit ; house and it was in the possession of 

but the house may still have been kept descendants of John Sprague within this 

open by their heirs. It finally came into century. 

the possession of John Sprague, who G2 Mass. Hist. Coll., xlv. 471. 

married Elizabeth Stowers. The ancient G3 Ibid., xxxviii. 647. 

house, which stood until 1894 at the 



CHE EVER AXD WIGGLESWORTH. 



291 



It was a surprize unto us to see a Little Feeble Shadotv of a Man, 6 * 
beyond Seventy, Preaching usually Twice or Thrice in a Week ; Visiting 
and Comforting the Afflicted ; Encouraging the Private Meetings ; 
Catechizing the Children of the Flock ; and managing the Government 
of the Church ; and attending the Sick, not only as a Pastor, but as a 
Physician too; and this not only in his own Town, but also in all those 
of the Vicinity. Thus he did, unto the lasts and was but one Lords- 
Day taken off, before his Last. 65 

Of his character his descendant and biographer writes : — 

He was neither a cynic nor a misanthrope, though sickness, which 
nourishes and brings to light such dispositions where they exist, had 
long been his companion. His attenuated frame and feeble health were 
joined to genial manners ; and, though subject to fits of despondency, 
he seems generally to have maintained a cheerful temper. 66 

Of his characteristics as a poet I have already spoken. As a 
preacher, his sermons were marked by a modest though ener- 
getic clearness of thought, which, joined to the natural polish 
and grace of his manners, made him when he came to be known 
without the influence of prejudice and the memory of past 
troubles to be respected and beloved by his people. His 
memory long remained fragrant in the church and town and 
outlived the generation of those who had known him. 67 



64 From a passage in Sewall's Diary, 
Mass. Hist. Coll., xlvi. 37, it is inferred 
that Mr. Wigglesworth, contrary to the 
prevailing fashion of men at that time, 
wore his own hair, and, like the elder 
Cheever, " He abominated Perriwigs." 

The wearing of wigs was a fruitful 
source of trouble to the simple-minded 
Chief Justice. In another place he re- 
lates how Mr. Wadsworth appeared in 
one of the abominations, and he adds : 
" Mr. Chiever is griev'd at it." Sewall 
was not alone in his opposition to the 
new fashion ; for, while many other 
worthies discountenanced it by their 
example, Mr. Higginson wrote an essay 
against it, which Sewall wished to have 
printed, and Mr. Symmes strove against 
it, although he was "repulsed." The 
sorrow and surprise of the diarist were 
great when in a Thursday lecture Cot- 
ton Mather vindicated the custom and 



deprecated hypocrisy. Sewall was not 
a great friend of the Mathers. Later 
in life, when he had lost his hair by sick- 
ness, he wore a plain black cap as his 
protest against the vain periwigs which 
had so troubled him. 

05 Mather, A Faithful Man, 26. 

00 Dean, Wigglesworth* 9-10. 

C7 Within the memory of the living 
his name has been a sacred one in many 
families. The late Rev. Samuel Sewall 
says: — "According to a current tradi- 
tion in Maiden, the venerable Deacon 
[John] Ramsdell, who died there about 
1S25 [February 7, 1825, ae. 85.], at a 
very advanced age and had doubtless 
heard in his youth from his parents or 
others of Mr. Wigglesworth's ' good re- 
port' was accustomed as long as he 
lived, to make an annual visit to the 
Grave Yard in which the mortal remains 
of that good man were deposited, and 



292 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



At length, after a life of more than usual bodily trials and 
worldly crosses, while enjoying the full fruitage of a mind 




2t 5fatt!)fta ^art, 

Defcribed and Rewarded. 



SOME 

fbfervable & Serviceable! 

Paflages in the 

IFE and DEAT 

Late Paftor of MALDON ; 

[Who Rcfted from his Labours, on the] 

Lords- Day, June ioth. 1705. In the 

Seventy Fourth year of his Age. 

AND 

MEMORIALS of PIETY, 

Left behind him among his Written 

EXPERIENCES. 

r- — , — ______ 

With a jfUTieraL ^erttton Preached 

( for him) at Maldon $ June 24. I70f. 

By Cottotx fattier* 

Faftitium Vobis Sermonem in Omni f^rma 
Sanffitatis Dei S a rvus Kxhibu.lt. 

Bern, in obif. Humb. 

BoftOtt: Printed by 1$, $ttt% &r 

Benj. Eliot, at his Shop under the Weft- 
End of the Town-Houfe, 1 7 o y. 



carefully to rub off the moss, which had no Deacon Ramsdell was then left to 

gathered, in each interval, on the In- keep it plain and legible. Still 
scription, which told where he lay. The « The sweet remembrance of the just 

moss which had collected thickly upon Shall flourish, when he sleeps in dust.' " 

it in 1834, bore melancholy witness that American Quarterly Register, xiv. 400. 



CHEEVER AND WIGGLESWORTH. 293 

tempered and chastened by bitter experiences, subdued and 
rendered gentle and cheerful by Christian sympathy and di- 
vine trust, in the midst of a people who had outgrown opposi- 
tion and indifference and had learned to love him as " a dear 
friend, a wise counsellor, and a strong helper," the end came. 68 
He lived, as he had hoped, to serve God to the last, having 
preached on the Sunday before he was attacked by fever. He 
lingered about ten days and " Finnished his Work and Entre d 
apon an Eternal Sabbath of Rest on y e Lords Day Iune y e 10 
1705 in y e 74 Year of his Age." 69 While dying he said to one 
who spoke to him : — " For more than Fifty years together, I 
have been Labouring to uphold a Life of Communion with 
God; and I thank the Lord, I now find the Comfort of it." 70 

Among his manuscripts was found this verse which to him 
who reads it aright is as a cloud of gloomy thoughts, born of 
bitter experiences, illumined by the almost heavenly grace and 
faith of the dying teacher : — 

Death Expected and Welcomed. 

Welcome, Sweet Rest, by me so long Desired, 
Who have with Sins and Griefs, so long been tired. 
And Welcome, Death, my Fathers Messenger; 
Of my Felicity the Hastener. 
Welcome, Good Angels, who, for me Distrest, 
Are come to Guard me to Eternal Rest. 
Welcome, O Christ, who hast my Soul Redeemed; 
Whose Favour 1 have more than Life Esteemed. 71 



68 Mors, Separavit a Avoids, Dulcem Maldonatus Orthodoxus," a double allu- 
Amicum, Prudentem Consiliarinm, For- sion to his dwelling-place and the pious 
tern Auxiliarium. Hern, de Humberto. and learned Jesuit Johannes Maldona- 
Mather, A Faithful Man, 27. tus. Cf. Pierce, Hist, of Harvard Uni- 

69 Gravestone at Sandy Bank (Bell versify; 251; Mass. Hist. Coll. xlvi. 134; 
Rock). Sewall thus notices his death : — Dean, Wiggles-worth, 115. 

" Lord's Day, June 10, 1705. The Edward Wigglesworth wrote in the 

Learned and pious Mr. Michael Wig- commonplace book of his father: "It 

glesworth died at Maiden about 9. m. Pleased y e Almighty disposer of all 

Had been sick about 10. days of a Fe- things, in his wise providence to exercise 

ver; 73 years and 8 moneths old. He me with such an afflicting dispensation 

was the Author of the Poem entituled y r of, as y e bereaving me of him who 

The Day of Doom, which has been so should have been y e Guide of my Youth 

often printed: and was very useful as a by causing my Father to rest from his 

Physician." Mass. Hist. Coll., xlvi. 132. labours on y e Lords day, June y e io 1 .' 1 

At the following Commencement, Ed- 1705, In y e Seventy fourth year of his 

ward Holyoke, afterwards President of Age." 

the College, "began that part of his ora- 70 Mather, A Faithful Man, 27. 

tion relating to Mr. Wigglesworth with. 71 Ibid., 45. 



294 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



On Sunday, June 24, 1705, in the little meeting house by the 
side of Bell Rock, Cotton Mather preached a sermon on " a 
faithful man," in memory of " that Faithful and Aged Servant of 
God," 72 who a little earlier had been laid to rest in the burying 
ground at Sandy Bank, near by, in the midst of the dead, who 
when living had been the cause of both joy and sorrow in his 
heart. 73 

The preacher " remembered " him afterwards in an epitaph, 
which he appended to the funeral sermon. 

His Pen did once Meat from the Eater fetch ; 
And now he's gone beyond the Eaters reach. 
His Body, once so Thin, was next to None ; 
From Thence, he's to Unbodied Spirits flown. 
Once his rare skill did all Diseases heal; 
And he does nothing now uneasy feel. 
He to his Paradise is Joyful come ; 
And waits with Joy to see his Day of Doom. 

Full of quaint and characteristic conceits is the composure of 
the punning pastor of the Old North Church; but better known 



72 This sermon was preached from 
the following text : Be thou faithful unto 
death, and I will give thee a crown of 
life. Rev. ii. 10. It was soon after printed. 
A modernized edition, in which the au- 
thorship was carelessly ascribed to In- 
crease Mather, was issued in 1849, "at 
the instance, and chiefly at the expense " 
of the late Mrs. Dolly (Blanchard) Up- 
ham, and distributed among the inhabi- 
tants of Maiden, " in hopes of their shar- 
ing in the blessings she has received 
from its perusal." The reprint contains 
a short introduction by the Rev. Alex- 
ander W. McClure. 

73 The following vote was passed by 
the town, March 8, 170% ; " voted -f M rs 
Wigglesworth shall haue alowed her 4 
shiling p r weeke for her entertaining y e 
ministars sine M r Wigglesworth deces d : 
which is 30 weeks, voley* M rs Wiggles- 
worth shall haue 12. 10. o. money paid 
her for m r Wigglesworth Labour jn y c 
ministrey y c last quarter of a yeer he 
lived." 

Mrs. Wigglesworth remained a short 
time in Maiden, and then removed to 



Cambridge among her relatives, where 
Judge Sewall visited her, July 4, 1707, 
and found her suffering with the jaun- 
dice. She died, August 6, 1708, at the 
age of fifty-two years. Sewall writes ■ 
"Monday, Augf 9. 1708. Went to the 
Funeral of Mrs. Wigglesworth. Bearers 
of Mrs Wigglesworth, The President 
and Mr. Ilobart; Mr. Thacher, Mr. Dan- 
forth Dorch r ; Mr. Brattle, Mr. Walter. 
Only Col. Phillips and I of the Council 
were there : Mr. Speaker was there." 
Mass. Hist. Coll., xlvi. 229. Her son, 
Edward Wigglesworth, writes of her 
as "an affectionate, charitable, praying 
saint, one who desired the good of 
everybody, and likewise to be herself 
ever doing in good." He adds that she 
" endured many sorrows and underwent 
great afflictions, in all which she was a 
mirrour of patience and constancy, bear- 
ing all with true Christian fortitude, till 
at length God took her from a sinful 
and weary world to joy unspeakable and 
full of glory." MS. of E. Wigglesworth, 
cited by Dean, Wigglesworth, 123. 



CHE EVER AND WIGGLESWORTH. 295 

and more often quoted is the terse and homely couplet on the 
mossy stone at the dead teacher's head. 

Here Lies Interd in Silent Grau k 

Below Mauldens Physician 

For Soul and Body Two. 




fRnfir > i 'Int'* 



CHAPTER X. 



PIONEERS, SOLDIERS, AND WITCHCRAFT. 



WHATEVER the superficial observer may pretend to see 
in the past which is now two centuries agone, there 
was very little of romance in the lives of the foredvvellers of 
New England. The land which, when weary leagues away be- 
yond the sea, seemed to flow with milk and honey and to stand 
forth a later Canaan amid the virgin forests of the new world, 
became to their nearer vision a reality of bleak and rocky shores, 
a stubborn land of dark woods and rocky soil wherein Israel 
might rest; but where existence was to be had at the price of 
privations not unmixed with suffering, and where a livelihood 
was only to be gained by the literal sweat of the brow. 

Out of such surroundings and from such conditions arose a 
generation not unlike the country which had given them birth 
and in which their early youth had been passed. While the 
first generation of settlers, English born and bred as they were, 
were English in their ways, the second generation, to whom 
England was a far-off land — the land indeed of their fathers and 
mothers, but as unreal to them as a land of dreams, were a step 
removed from English manners and perhaps from English 
habits of thought. There was then a beginning of those charac- 
teristics of body and mind which had widely diverged from the 
English standards before the close of the provincial period, and 



PIONEERS. 297 

which at the present day distinguish the men of New England 
from their insular kinsmen. 

Much though there may have been of spiritual grace in these 
nun and women of the seventeenth century, there was little of 
that outward grace which tempers the manners of men and 
beautifies, if it does not elevate, the lives which fall within the 
circle of its influence. Out of the hard and simple lives which 
they led perforce came a race of hard and simple men and 
women, who were almost without a sense of the beautiful, think- 
ing little of those arts which had borne a rich fruitage in the 
land of their fathers, and who were as careless of the beautiful in 
nature as in art. Hardly within the pale of civilization could a 
people be found, even in the seventeenth century, so destitute 
of the aesthetic sense. In music, their knowledge was bounded 
by the few tunes which they painfully sung in a high and un- 
natural key in the dreary meeting houses, which matched the 
tunes they sung. Of painting and sculpture they knew com- 
paratively nothing; and poetry of a range above the Bay Psalms 
or the Day of Doom, and philosophy, except it came within the 
narrow limits of a prescribed theology, were forbidden fruits. 

What little of elegance they might possess was not of that 
kind which elevates and refines; but rather that which appealed 
to the lower senses. Something of affectation in dress, some 
little approach to luxury at table in the direction of richer food 
or costly wines, some little extravagances in house or lands 
there were now and then, but nothing more. Articles of silver 
there were here and there, sometimes, furniture of English make 
and superior fashion; but they were mostly articles of necessity 
or things which the love of father or mother had consecrated 
and which had come to New England in the moving of the 
household gods. Otherwise, the furniture and service of the 
people in general were rude and unhandy, save where pride had 
gathered something better or more costly for ostentatious pur- 
poses alone. 

Nor was the inner life of the people of a more pleasing cast. 
Over the souls of men there seemed to rest a sombre cloud, 
which obscured or wholly hid what might have been open and 



298 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

bright. As were the actions of men, so were their thoughts. 
They seemed to have been set in a minor key. There was dark- 
ness wherever they turned. Man, born in pain, passed through 
a life of trouble and died. Even the hopes or certainties of a 
blessed immortality were transmuted in the alembic of their 
gloomy minds into denunciations of wrath to the children of 
men ; and the brightest hopes and the deepest consolations that 
they could gather from the grave bore fruit in lugubrious wails 
and warnings, which at a later day looked out at the passer-by 
from beneath grinning or painful cherubs carved in all the rude- 
ness of the gravestone cutter's art. 

you that pass by this place may think on me, 
For as you are so once you dide me see ; 
what I am now will quickly be your doom ; 
Prepare for death before the summonds come. 

While such was the prevailing condition of society, if that can 
be called society where so much is wanting, there was yet a 
lower depth ; and where the influences which held men to a 
strict and rigid line of morality were relaxed there was a falling 
away, at times, into debasing crimes, some of which are rare or 
altogether unknown in New England at the present day. It 
must not be forgotten, in extenuation, that the seventeenth cen- 
tury was within the limits of the great age of brutality, which 
outlasted the middle ages and penetrated even into the years of 
our later civilization. It was an age of excess in all things, even 
in religion; and if religion, or the moral power which it exerts, 
were wanting and men indulged their more earthy passions, they 
ran to wild extremes and horrid depravities. 

Yet there was much of promise in the strait and formal habits 
of life and thought of the fathers of New England. Underlying 
all was a sound and uncompromising enmity to injustice and 
wrong, and an unflinching devotion to the right, as they under- 
stood it ; and more than all, there was a sturdy assertion of the 
independence of the individual and, through him, of the masses. 
There was an ever-present democracy, latent sometimes and 
sometimes militant, but always ready to spring into life and 
action. They were not always law-abiding ; but it was a wicked 



PIONEERS. 299 

or an unjust law which they resisted ; and their resistance was 
usually fortified by good and sufficient legal principles. These 
were English characteristics — or rather, Puritanic-English 
characteristics, tempered and changed in time by circumstances ; 
for the first comers possessed them at the beginning, although 
they were not inclined to act as readily and freely as their chil- 
dren of the next and succeeding generations, to whom was given 
to fill the measure of wrath against oppression. Out of these 
qualities came all that has endured of the old Puritanic fabric 
which the fathers reared ; and, while the mistakes and weaknesses 
of the past have disappeared one by one, these enduring quali- 
ties have remained with us as a people and are the corner-stones 
of a great nation. 

Of similar characteristics were the settlers and early inhabit- 
ants of Maiden ; and while they may not have reached the 
higher limits of those qualities, they, happily, did not descend 
to the lower depths of ignorance and crime. They were the 
common people of a common New England settlement of the 
lesser kind — farmers, woodsmen, and craftsmen, who cleared 
their lands and built their humble homes, jealously guarding 
their privileges as well against ecclesiastical as against civil en- 
croachments. I have already repeated some part of the story 
of their opposition to injustice and their independent assertion 
and defence of their invaded rights. Otherwise, they were a 
simple folk, as poor in worldly goods as they were in the out- 
ward graces ; but inwardly as rich in the Puritanic qualities of 
pluck and patience as they were outwardly poor. I cannot say 
for them that they were of the better class of settlers in the ex- 
traneous matters of birth and rank. There is only a faint indi- 
cation that William Brackenbury was of an aristocratic family; 
and William Sargeant was a son of a mayor of an English city. 
Joseph Hills and John Wayte divided with them the education 
and honors of the community. 1 Yet what were rank and family, 

1 Happy am I if I have not aroused "glorify" the fathers in the face of 

the ire of my fellow townsmen in assert- reason and reality. The founders of 

ing the humble origin of our forebears. New England were humble men, me- 

If I have read aright, the aim of many chanics and farmers — delvers for the 

writers of local history has been to most part; and their honors were not 



300 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

or even education, except so far as it strengthened the man who 
owned it, in the woods of Mystic Side? There were fields to 
clear, houses, roads, and mills to build, and above all, in God's 
providence, the foundations of a nation to lay deep, though they 
in their weakness knew it not, happily building better than they 
knew. 

These were the conditions of the people of Maiden during 
the period which intervened between their settlement and the 
war of the Indian Philip. Their work was that of subduing the 
forests and wild lands, and bringing them into forms fit for the 
uses of civilization. Then were laid out farms, whose boundary 
lines may still be traced, and roads, which from mere winding 
paths have become our principal streets. 

Although the bounds of Maiden have in the course of years 
become circumscribed, and its territory divided, it has room for 
a present population greater than the men of 1650 could have 
ever dreamed would occupy their lands ; yet the town was early 
found too strait for the handful of settlers who occupied it; and 
in 1662 they addressed the following petition to the General 
Court: — 

Maidens Petition for Pen"ycooke. 

To the honoured Court now Assembled at Boston the y' h of th f h M°. 
1662 : 

the petition of the inhabitants of Maldon humbly Shewing. 
That the Bounds of our Town are Exceeding streight ; the most of our 
Jmproued lands & Meadow being limited About two Miles in length 
and one in Breadth ; And that Allso the most part of it by purchase 
from Charlst . wherof wee were A small Branch ; from whom Allso wee 
had all the Com m ons wee haue ; which is verie small & Rockie. 
That hitherto, we haue had no Jnlargement from the Countrie ; nor 
can wee haue Any neere Adioyning, being Surrounded by sundry 
Townshipps. 

That our Charges to the Countrie & Ministry much Exceedeth sundry 
others, who haue many times our Accomodations And as many here 

such as spring from titles and rank, of humanity, intensified perhaps by the 

If, here and there, one exceeded the conditions in which they were placed; 

others in attainments and birth, it was and their virtues were tempered by them, 

an exception to the general rule. Nor Local historians have falsified and ob- 

were they always the heroes and saints scured the truth, thereby gratifying a 

which amateur writers affect to believe, false pride. They have their reward. 
Their weaknesses and faults were those 



PIONEERS. 301 

do know Our Teacher Allso hath been long visited with verie great 
weaknesses; from which it is much feared he will not be recouered. 
For this and other weightie Considerations Our most humble Petition 
to this much honoured Court is ; That A Tract of lands of About fowre 
Miles Square at A place Called Pen n ycooke may be Granted As an 
Addition to vs, for our better Support And Jncouragement ; in the 
Seruice of Christ & the Countrie ; to be layd out by m r Jonathan Dan- 
forth or some other Artist And Cap? Ed: Jonson or John Parker. 

So with our heartie prayers to Cod for your vtmost peace & pros- 
peritie ; wee Craue leaue to Subscribe ourselues 

y r . verie humble Seruants 
Joseph Hills : Will: Brakenbury 

John Wayte John Sprague 

Abra m : Hill Tho: Call 

Job Lane Peter Tufts. 

Robert Burdin 

Jn the name of the rest? 

But although the Court recognized the justice of the claim of 
the Maiden people, "the Deputyes [did] think not meete to 
graunt this pet 11 ," as the lands at Pennacook seemed more desir- 
able for other uses — for that of actual settlement, which the 
petitioners did not contemplate. Other towns asked for grants 
at the same place ; and the Deputies, foreseeing that an early 
settlement might be made there, passed the following order: — 

Upon Information that Pen n iecocke is An Apt place for A Town- 
shipp ; And in consideration of the lords great blessing upon the 
countrie in multiplying the inhabitants & plantations here ; And that 
All most All such places are Allreadie taken up Jt is Ordered by this 
Court that the lands at Pen n iecook be reserved for A plantation till so 
many of such as have petitioned for lands there or at others shall pre- 
sent to settle A plantation there. 

The Deputies have past this desiring the consent of o 1 Hono rd magist 5 
thereto. William Torrey, Cleric? 

A few days after, the Deputies, considering the Maiden peti- 
tion, declared : — 

This Courte Consideringe the Town of Maldon is very much straight- 
ened in regard of Lands, & having p r sented theire desires to this Court 

- Mass. Archives, cxii. 147. Penna- of the laud at the bend in the Merrimac, 
cook, the Crooked Place, was the name where now stands Concord, N. II. 

3 Ibid. 



302 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

for some Enlargment in Answer where vnto this Court think.es meete 
to graunt to the Church & Towne cf Maldon one thousand Aco rs of 
Land, where they can find a free place neere vnto some plantation 
where there is a settled ministery, to be & remayn to them & their 
successors for ever, towards the yearely Defraying of their Church 
Charges the Depu ts haue past this Desireinge the Consent of o r 

hono rd magis ts hereto 
21 (3 d ) 1662 William Torrey Cleric* 

The " hono rd magis ,s " found this order a little too free in its 
requirements, and substituted the following, which was " Con- 
sented to by y e DepuV 5 " on the same day. 

21. (3) 1662. Jn Answ r to the petition of maulden the Court do 
graunt to y e ministry there 1000 acc rs of land in any place not legally 
Disposed of. to be forev r appropriated to the vse & benefit of the min- 
istry of the s a place & not to be alienated or otherwise disposed off: & 
this on condition that they cause it to be bounded out, & put on im- 
p'vem' for the ends p r posed within 3 : years next ensueing : 

voted on y e affirmative by y e mag ts . 

T. Danforth p r E. R. S. 5 

This grant was laid out within the term allowed, and the Court 
accepted the surveyor's return at its session, May 3, 1665. 

Att the request of the inhabitants of Maulden, as also in obedience 
vnto the grant of the honored Generall Court of the Massachusets vnto 
the toune of Maulden for the benefit of the ministry of Maulden, layd 
out & exactly measured, according to rules of art, by me vnderwritten, 
one thousand acres of vpland & meadow, about two miles distant south- 
westerly from the southwest angle of Lancaster bounds, as also about 
a mile distant southwesterly from the lands formerly granted & layd out 
vnto Cap' Richard Dauenport, beginning at the south end of a high, 
rockey, pine hill, at a litle red oake marked w" 1 the letter M ; & from 
thence a ljne vpon an east southeast point, two hundred & twelue rods, 
vnto a pine marked M ; & from the pine marked as aforesaid, a line 
vpon a south point, sixe hundred & forty rods ; & from thence, a line 
vpon a west northwest point, three hundred & seventy rods ; & from 
thence, on line vpon a north & by east point, sixe degrees easterly, six 
hundred & twenty rods ; & these fower ljnes, so runne, making vp the 
full complement of the abouesajd one thousand acres, as is more plainly 
described by a plot ; humbly entreating of this honored Court that they 

4 Mass. Archives, x. 206. (2), 45. K. R. S. for E[dward] R[awson], 

5 Ibid. Cf. Mass. Colony Records, iv. Secretary]. 



PIONEERS. 303 

will be pleased to confirrae their grant, & that this returne may be 
recorded. Tho: Noyes, Surveyor. 6 

This tract as then located was in the northern part of that 
portion of Worcester which afterwards became the town of 
Holden, where a committee of the General Court found the 
ancient bound marks in 1742." But in the year 1701, the town 
having chosen Thomas Xewhall, John Dexter, and John Lynde, 
Jr. "to go to woster & run y e bounds of maiden farm," they 
found land " which bare some resemblance of Maiden grant." 
This tract, of which nine hundred acres were in the northern 
part of the present town of Shrewsbury and one hundred acres 
in that portion of Worcester which was afterwards Holden and 
West Boylston, was surveyed and " bounded out as belonging 
to Maiden," and was accepted as such by the General Court. 
It was reserved to Maiden in the grant which was made in 17 17 
to the proprietors of Shrewsbury. 8 This error of location 
caused considerable trouble in the course of time, and resulted 
in several law suits and much protracted business on the part of 
the General Court; but Maiden was finally confirmed in its title 
to the Shrewsbury land. 

Although this grant was made " to the vse & benefit of the 
ministry," the town endeavored to divert it from its original 
purpose, but failed to obtain the consent of the Court. 

[May 27, 1668] In ans r to the petition of Jn" Vpham, W m Bracken- 
bury, Jn° Wayte, Jn° Sprague, in behalf of y e toune of Maulden, the 
Court sees no reason to grant their request, but judge that the land 
mentioned in the petition shall remayne for the vse of the ministry 
w th out alteration, vnless they shall present that to the Court w ch they 
may judge better. 9 

Under this order the land remained for the use of the 
ministry until it was sold by the First, or North Parish, in 1754. 
It was the fruitful source of troubles and lawsuits for many 
years, not only with encroaching settlers and the towns in which 
it was located, but also between the precincts into which 
Maiden was afterwards divided. It may be questioned whether 

fi Mass. Colony Records, iv. (2), 14S. 8 Ibid., xvii. (3), 592. 

7 General Court Records, xvii. (3), 593. s Mass. Colony Records, iv. (2), 377. 



304 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

the scanty income which the ministry received was worth the 
years of litigation and anxiety which it cost the officers and 
voters of the simple little town. 

If the people of Maiden barely located their grant within the 
time allowed, they were still more dilatory in improving it " for 
the ends proposed," although the order required that it should 
be "put on imp r vem t within 3 : years." A committee of the 
Court complained, in 1669, that "it is now aboue sixe yeares 
since, & no improvement made," and that " if it be continued 
& confirmed in this place it will vtterly hinder the setling a 
plantation," which had been ordered to be established at that 
place. " This farme," say they, " conteines a chojce tract of 
land in the center of this village, & swallowes vp about one 
hundred acres " of the scant three hundred acres of meadow 
which the place affords ; and they hoped that if this and other 
obstructions should be removed " it will not be long before this 
place be setled in a good way, for the honour of God & the 
publick good." 10 The Court, however, excepted the " Maulden 
farme," and a smaller grant near by, from the lands which were 
"reserved for publicke vse ; " and allotments were soon after 
made there to persons contemplating actual settlement. 

This "new plantation" at Quansigamug, which was the first 
attempt to settle the town of Worcester, is described as being 
"vpon the roade to Sprinkfeild about 12 miles westward from 
Marlborough." A petition, dated May 27, 1674, contains the 
names of twenty-nine persons to whom lots had then been 
granted and laid out. Of these the following are the names of 
Maiden or Mystic Side men, who may have been led thither by 

the circumstance of the Maiden "-rant: 

Philip Atwood, Thomas Pratt, 

Lazarus Grovcr, John Provender, 

Simon Grover, Thomas Skinner, 

Stephen Grover, John Starkey, 

Thomas Grover, Henry Swillaway, 

Samuel Lee, Phineas Upham, 

Simon Meylin, Daniel Whittcmore, 

Pelatiah Whittemore. 11 

111 Mass. Colony Records, iv. (2), 436. n Mass. Archives, cxii. 237. 



PIONEERS. 305 

Besides these, Joel Jenkins, Tryal Newberry, John Paul, John 
Shaw, and Benjamin Webb were in the early part of the follow- 
ing year owners of grants which had been confirmed and 
registered. Joel Jenkins had a lot of one hundred acres; 
others had lots of twenty-five or fifty acres. Philip Atwood, 
Thomas Grover, Simon Meylin, John Provender, and Phineas 
Upham were actual settlers in the month of April, 1675, when 
the work was commenced with vigor and several houses were 
built. 12 That they contemplated a permanent settlement is 
evident, and other Maiden proprietors would probably have 
followed them, but the enterprise was of a short duration. On 
the fourteenth of July following, Matoonas, the Nipmuck chief 
who was afterwards executed on Boston Common for his ex- 
ploits, attacked the little settlement at Mendon in supposed 
revenge for the death of his son, who had been hanged for the 
murder of a man in Dedham in 1671. 13 

In the alarm which followed, induced by the insecurity which 
prevailed among the frontier towns, the pioneers withdrew into 
the security of the older towns, or took the field against the 
enemy. The deserted houses at Quansigamug were burned by 
the Indians, December 2, 1675, 14 , and the land was not again 
occupied until 1684. A meeting of a committee of the General 
Court and those who were interested in the plantation was held 
at Cambridge, March 3, 16789, at which Philip Atwood, Thomas 
Grover, Joel Jenkins, Simon Meylin, John Paul, Thomas 
Skinner, John Upham, and Benjamin Webb were present as 
proprietors; but it does not appear that they took personal 
parts in the resettlement. 15 

In the meantime, although, perhaps, impeded a little by the 
local causes of strife and the troubles of the church and Mr. 
Wigglesworth, — impeded somewhat, perhaps, by sickness and 
privations, by lack of labor and tools, the building of the little 
town above Mystic Side went on. Forests were felled and 
fertile fields were opened to the sun, and a school was estab- 

12 Cf. Lincoln, History of Worcester, 14 Ibid., 19. 

18-20. 15 Lincoln, History of Worcester, 33. 

13 Mather, Brief History of the War, 5, 43. 

20 



306 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

lished. By-laws and regulations were made for the general 
good, as simple as the manners of the people, sometimes as 
ludicrous as their makers were uncouth. Yet while we smile at 
their simplicity, we may remember that in those rules and in 
those manners were hid the germs, at least, of manliness and 
independence which burst forth after many years into a ripening 
harvest; and that the prosperity of the present was born out of 
the rudeness of that age, and the apparent sterility of that 
unpromising soil. 

In the midst of their labor and already heavy burdens, other 
troubles and heavier trials seemed about to burst upon them — 
did burst at last in blood and a great cost out of the little 
worldly treasure which they and their fellows in the Colony 
possessed. Rumors of fast couriers flitting from tribe to tribe, 
of secret meetings in remote and lonely fastnesses of nature, of 
combinations and threatened uprisings, were frequent. Plow- 
ever much they may have despised the Indian, they now began 
to fear him, and portents were not wanting to add to the general 
alarm. The disquietude and fears which as mental spectres 
had oppressed their thoughts stalked forth as visible spectres 
upon the earth and in the air. Increase Mather tells the 
story. 

Anno 1667. There were fears on the spirits of many of the English, 
concerning Philip and his Indians, and that year, Novemb. 30, about 
9, or 10 ho. A. M. being a very clear, still Sun-shine morning, there 
were diverse Persons in Maldon, who heard in the air on the Southeast 
of them, a great Gun go off, and as soon as that was past, they heard 
the report of small Guns like musket shott, discharging very thick, as if 
it had been at a general Training ; but that which did most of all 
amaze them, was the flying of the Bullets which came singing over their 
heads, and seemed to be very near them, after this they heard drums 
passing by them and going Westward. The same day, at Scituatc, (and 
in other places) in Pli mouth Colony, they heard as it were the running 
of troops of horses. I would not have mentioned this relation, had I 
not received it from serious, faithfull, and Judicious hands, even of 
those who were ear witnesses of these things. 16 



16 Mather, Brief History of the War, Niles, History of the Indian and French 
34. This prodigy is also mentioned by Wars, in Mass. Hist. Coll., xxvi. 255. 



SOLDIERS. 307 

" Now, Reader," adds his wonder-loving son, " prepare for the 
Event of these Prodigies, but count me not struck with a Livian 
Superstition in Reporting Prodigies, for which I have such In- 
contestible Assurance." 17 

At this juncture the military power of the Colony, which had 
not seen service since the Pequot war in 1637, began to receive 
more earnest attention. Privileges were granted to troopers, 
laws were recast or more urgently enforced to accustom 
the arms-bearing citizens to military duty, and regulations 
were made to perfect their organization and increase their 
efficiency. 

In common with the other towns, as required by law, Maiden 
had early attended to its military duties. Edward Johnson in- 
forms us at the time of the incorporation of the town, that " the 
Band of Maiden, being as yet a young Town, who have not 
chosen their Officers, are led by Mr. Joseph Hill!' 18 Mr. Hills 
continued to lead this company until his removal to Newbury in 
1665. It will be remembered that in 1655 the place of muster 
was at Ipswich and Mr. Wigglesworth took advantage of the 
presence of Mr. Hills at that place to settle some of the dis- 
quiet which he felt in relation to his settlement at Maiden. 
Joseph Hills was seldom called Captain, the military title being 
overshadowed by the more honorable affix of Mr. 19 

No mention is made of the inferior officers until October 7, 
165 1, when "John Waite is chosen and allowed ensign by this 
Court for the company at Maldon." 20 The name of the second 
officer at this time has not been found ; but at a County Court, 
April 4, 1654, "John Waite being Chosen by the Jnhabitants of 
Mauldon, the Leiftennant of their Military Company is alowed 
by this Court, and John Sprague in Like man r for their En- 

17 Mather, Magnalia, B. 7,ch.6, sect. 5. Josias Plastow in 1631 is evidence of the 

18 Wonder-working Providence, 192. importance which was attached to it: 

19 The title of Mr. was applied to " It is ordered, that Josias Plastow shall 
clergymen, college graduates, and to (for stealeing 4 basketts of corne from 
those who by their position merited a the Indians) returne them 8 basketts 
special distinction ; and the exactness againe, be ffined v 1 , & hereafter to be 
with which it was used is in strong con- called by the name of Josias, & not M', 
trast with the present use of the much as fortrTly hee vsed to be." Mass. Col- 
abused titles of Honorable and Esquire, ony Records, i. 92. 

The somewhat whimsical punishment of 20 Middlesex Court Records, i. 21. 



3 o8 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

sio-ne." 21 Sergeant Thomas Lynde is mentioned in 1658, and 
William Brackenbury was clerk of the company in 1665. In 
the fall of the latter year, Joseph Hills having removed from the 
town, John Wayte and John Sprague were advanced by election 
to the offices of captain and lieutenant. 22 Ensign Thomas 
Lynde was an officer of the company in 1675 ; and the names 
of Corporal John Green and Sergeant Samuel Haward appear 
in 1678. 

The Middlesex Regiment, consisting of sixteen companies, 
had been under the command of Major Daniel Gookin of Cam- 
bridge, who was commissioned May 5, 1676; but in 1680 it was 
divided, and Maiden with the neighboring towns formed the 
First Regiment under Major Gookin, while the western towns of 
the county were transferred to a new regiment under Major 
Peter Bulkley of Concord. In the latter year we hear of Ser- 
geant Thomas Skinner in the Maiden company, and of Sergeant 
Samuel Sprague in 1684. John Wayte and John Sprague were 
continued in their commissions from their election in 1665, 
through Philip's war and until 1685, when Captain Wayte was 
dismissed by the General Court in answer to the following 
petition. 

To f Honoured General Court now sitting at Boston this 18 th March 
instant. 

The Petition of John J J 'art, senior of Ma/Jin humbly sheweth. 

That whereas J have been putt into y e place of a Captain by Com- 
mission from the honoured General Court for many years past ; but 
being now by the holy providence of y e All-wise God deprived of my 
sight, whereby I am incapacitated for any farther attending that service, 
my humble request to this Honoured Court is that they would be 
pleased to dismiss me therefrom, & your petitioner shall continue to 
pray for y e guidance & blessing of God upon you in all your concerns. 

J° Wayte 

The Deputys Judge meete to graunt this petition. y e hono r ' 1 magists 
hereto consenting. 

William Torrev Cleric 
• March : 19 th 168% 

Consented to by y e magists. 
21 March 8J/5 Edward Rawson Secre y M 

21 Middlesex Court Records, i. 53. 23 Mass. Archives, lxx. 131. 

'-"■ Middlesex Court Files, in loco. 



SOLDIERS. 309 

Captain VVayte had been Speaker of the House of Deputies 
in the preceding year. Soon after Ensign Thomas Lynde, 
another old officer of the Maiden company, presented the fol- 
lowing petition. 

To the Honored generatt Court : now siting in Boston The petision 
of Thomas Lynde of maiden Humbly Showcth : whereas you haue bin 
pleased to Commission your Suplyant to y e ofise of An Ensigne in y e 
foot Comp y : millitary of maiden An through the Jnfirmytyes of age J 
find my Selfe altogether in capasytated to doe you any further Servis in 
Said ofise J beg therefore your dismission from y l servis : and shall 
pray for yo r prosperyty and Remaine you r Humble Serv'. 
May 6 th , 1685 : Thomas Lynde. 24 

At the General Court in June the following order was 
passed : — 

In ans r to the foot company of Mauldens petition, the Court doe 
hereby appoint Leift Jn° Sprague to be captaine, & grants liberty to 
Sarj' Samuel Sprague to officiate as leiften n t, & Joseph Wilson to offi- 
ciat as ensigne vnder him, sajd cap 4 , in order to their establishment & 
being com m issioned. 25 

These officers appear to have been commissioned in that or 
the succeeding year; but their commissions were voided by the 
administration of Sir Edmund Andros. After the revolution of 
1689 the company was reorganized. There appears to have 
been some dissatisfaction with Lieutenant Samuel Sprague. 
With the following paper we may leave, for the present, the 
" Maiden Band," which had now become permanently estab- 
lished. 

To The Hoti " rl Gen r all Court Now assembled at Boston in The Col- 
lonx off the Massachusetts Jn New-England. 

These are to Certifie That at a meeting of the Millitary company Jn 
Maldon on the first Day of y s Jnstant July : Being Legally Warned 
Therevnto. The Company Then, & There agreeing To choose Theire 
Millitary officers. — 

John Sprague Sen r was chosen Cap 1 : 
Joseph Wilson SenF was chosen Leuit nt : 
Phinehas Sprague Sen' was chosen Ensig" : 

24 Mass. Archives, lxx. 132. 25 Mass. Colony Records, v. 483; also 

Mass. Archives, lxx. 136. 



\ 






310 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Whom Wee Humbly p r sent To this Hon r ed Courtt for their Accept- 
ance — 

Attest Benjamin Webb Cleark 

That all officers Comissionated in the town of maldin in may 1686 
stand in Commission except they se cause to laydown, or Just Excep- 
tion be brought in against them. 
Past by the Representatives in the affirmative. 
July 6 : 1689 Attests Ebenezer Prout Clerk 

Consented to by y e Governo r and Councill 

Js A Addington Sec ry . 

Understanding the L' Comissionated in 16S6 : having layd down his 
place the Representatives do allow of the above nomination of L' : & 
ensign : in there Respective offices and Cap' Jn° Sprague 
July: 11 th : 1689 : Attests 

Ebenezer Prout : Clerk. 
Consented to by the Councill 

Js A Addington See' y .' 26 

Not all the available military force of the town was enrolled 
in the foot company; for a portion of the men, probably those 
of the better class, were members of a cavalry company, which 
was in some degree a more aristocratic organization and pre- 
tended to some little elegance in its trappings. This company, 
which was composed of " The Troopers Belonging to the Towns 
of Maiden Redding Rumley marsh and Linn," was known as the 
Three County Troop and preserved its existence for more than 
forty years. It had its origin in the following order of the 
General Court: — 

[May 26, 1658] In ans r to the petition of some of the inhabitants 
of Ljnne & Reading & Rumly Marsh, the Court judgeth it meete to 
graunt them liberty to rajse a troope of horse, & choose theire officers, 
provided they be not fferry free, nor haue fine shillings yeerly allowed 
them from the country, as other troop r s haue. 27 

By a former order of the Court, they were entitled to especial 
privileges "as is exprest in this order": — 

'- ,; Mass. Archives, cvii. 1S7. Ensign his successor. General Court Records, 

Phineas Sprague died Jan. 23, 169%; and April r_j, i(ir>r. 

in April John Greenland was presented - T Mass. Colony Records, iv. (1), 341. 

and confirmed by the General Court as 



SOLDIERS. 3 I r 

First. Exempt" from all traynings in all foote companies & cunstables 
watches ; 2 iy . Freedome from rates for his p r son & horse ; 3 ly . Free 
com"'onage for his horse in any of the towne com m ons where he inhab- 
its, & in any conV'ons where they are exercised during the time of 
theire exercise; ..... 5 ,y . Lib r tie to chose a leiutenant & other 
inferio r officers ; 6 ly . His horse shall not be prest to any other 
service.' 28 

By a later order it was provided that, 

such souldjers listed, amounting to the nomber of thirty, shallbe 
accompted a troope, and have libertje of chojce and nomination of 
cap 1 , lef, and cornet, and quartermaster, who, being allowed by the 
authoritje of the Courte, shall stand by com m ission, and all other inferior 
officers to be chosen by the company, and established by the cheife 
com m ander of the troope, and that all such troopers shall keepe a good 
horse, and well fitted with sadle, bridle, holsters, and pistolls, or a car- 
bjne and sword, and having listed his horse, shall not alter nor put him 
of without licence from the com m ander in cheife, and the sajd troope 
shallbe exercised according to lawe. 29 

Edward Hutchinson was chosen captain of the new troop and 
confirmed by the Court, May 28, 1659. 30 At the session of June 
12, 1663, the troopers of Essex having been divided into two 
bodies, " In ans r to the petition of Cap' Edward Hutchinson, 
cap 1 of the three county troope, the Court judgeth it meete to 
declare, — That the troopers of the Three County Troope resid- 
ing in Ljnne are not taken of from that troope whereof they 
were," and " That Cap 1 Hutchinsons com m ission doeth bind him 
to com m and the troopers residing in Lynne, that are listed 
w th him as formerly." 31 But at the next session it was 
ordered : — 

that henceforth the troopers inhabitting in Lynne shall appertejne 
vnto & joyne w th Salem troope, any former order of this Court other- 
wise disposing of them notwithstanding, excepting only such as shall 
rather choose to continue w th the Three County Troope, & shall certify 
theire desire so to doe vnder theire hands at the next meeting of Salem 
troope. 3 ' 2 

Two years later, " [May 3, 1665.] John Tutle being chosen 
leiften n t, & W m Haisy cornet, to the Three County Troope, the 

28 Mass. Colour Records, iii. 128. 3) Ibid., 369. 3 ' 2 Ibid., 95. 

29 Ibid., iv. (ij, So. 31 Ibid., iv. (2), 82. 



312 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



Court allowes & approoues of their ellection, & ord r s that the 
secretary give them their com m issions." 33 These officers were 
inhabitants of Rumney Marsh ; and Lieutenant Tuttle held his 
position until May 7, 1673, when it is recorded: " Vpon the re- 
quest of Leiftennant John Tutle, left' to the Three County 
Troope, he is dismist from y l service, & M r Eliakim Hutchinson 
is to suply y l place." 34 Hutchinson was " chosen & appointed " 
lieutenant in the following October; but for some reason he laid 
down his office at an early day. May 27, 1674, it is recorded 
that " Cornet W m Hajsy is appointed to be leftennant, & Jona- 
than Poole to be cornet to the Three County Troope, vnder the 
conduct of Edward Hutchinson, their captaine." 35 

Captain Hutchinson 36 having petitioned " that he might lay 
doune his captains place of the Three County Troope," it is 
recorded under the date of October 7, 1674, that "the Court 
grants his request, and doe order & appoint M r Humphry Davy 
to be cap' of the Three County Troope, & that he haue 
com m ission accordingly." At the same session, however, it is 



33 Mass. Colony Records, iv. (2), 149. 
The commissions of these officers had 
been withheld more than two years. At 
a session of the Court, October 8, 1662, 
it was ordered : — 

" In ans r to the petition of Jonathan 
Poole & William Greene, in behalf of 
the Three Countys Troope, present M r 
Jn° Tutle as lef 1 , & W m Haysy as cornet, 
the Court orders, that, on certifficat to 
this Court or the Court of Asistants, 
that iff the sajd persons nominated for 
officers to y e s d troope be circumstanced 
as the lawe provides, that they be al- 
lowed." Mass.Colony Records, iv. (2), 66. 

34 Mass. Colony Records, iv. (2), 558. 
Eliakim Hutchinson was a cousin of 
Captain Edward Hutchinson. He mar- 
ried, in 166S, Sarah, daughter of Henry 
Shrimpton of Noddle's Island. He ap- 
pears to have lived at Noddle's Island 
or Rumney Marsh, and his name is 
found with Rumney Marsh men in ser- 
vice in 1676. 

35 Ibid., v. 6. Jonathan Poole was of 
Reading. He had an earlier connection 
with the troop when the Court, May 31, 
167 1, appointed "Jn°than Poole qu r ter 



m r to y e tripartit trajne." Mass. Colony 
Records, iv. (2), 488. 

36 Edward Hutchinson, eldest son of 
William and the celebrated Antinomian, 
Anne (Marbury) Hutchinson, was an in- 
habitant of Boston. He was experienced 
in military and Indian affairs, and was 
well known among the savages, by whom 
he was trusted. He appears to have 
resigned his command of the Three 
County Troop from business reasons ; 
but circumstances caused him to become 
more deeply engaged in military matters. 
He was early in the field in the follow- 
ing summer; and his extensive acquaint- 
ance in the Nipmuck country caused him 
to be sent there, with Captain Thomas 
Wheeler's troop, for the purpose of en- 
deavoring to disengage that tribe from 
the Narragansett alliance. While seek- 
ing a body of Nipmucks who had failed 
to keep an appointment at a plaia in 
Quabauge, now Krookfield, August 2, 
1675, the troop fell into an ambuscade 
and Captain Hutchinson received a 
mortal wound, while eight men were 
killed upon the field. Mather, Brief 
History of the War, 6. 



SOLDIERS. 313 

found that " M r Humphry Davy hauing declared his non- 
acceptance of the office of cap 1 of the Three County Troope, 
the Court judgeth it meete to respitt any supply for that place 
till the Court of Election." 37 

It does not appear that a captain was presently appointed; 
for Lieutenant Hasey commanded the company, and was in 
active service during Philip's war with the several quotas which 
the troop furnished. At least eight men from Maiden were 
out with him in 1675, with troopers from the adjacent towns ; 
and ten men were ordered to be raised from the company by 
impressment, February 21, 167^, for an expedition towards 
the frontier. 88 A few weeks later the troop was called upon 
for its proportion of " eighty troopers, compleatly armed," who 
were to " repaire to Concord," by the last of May. 39 

It was not until June 1, 1677, that a captain appears to have 
been confirmed by the Court. " Jonathan Wade is appointed 
cap 1 of the Three County Troope, & Corporall \V m Green 
cornet, Isaak Brooks quarter master of that troope." 40 Captain 
Wade continued in command during the remainder of the 
colonial period; and at the advent of Joseph Dudley in 1686, 
the company was annexed to one of the Middlesex regiments 
and so continued during the short administration of Andros. 
After the Revolution the troopers preferred the following 
petition, which was granted by the passage of a general order 
which established the militia upon the former basis: — 

37 Mass. Colony Records, v. 17. youngest daughter of Governor Thomas 

38 Ibid, 73. Dudley, and lived at Mystic, or Med- 
33 Ibid., 85. A list of "Cap 4 Pren- ford, where, with his brother Nathaniel, 

tises 73 Troopers," who were engaged who married Mercy, the youngest daugh- 

in the campaign of 167S/6, enumerates ter of Governor Simon Bradstreet, he 

twenty " Troopers belonging to Cap' occupied a portion of the Cradock farm 

Hutchinson," of whom Eliakim Hut- which his father had bought of Edward 

chinson, Benjamin Muzzey, Samuel Collins. They were men of considerable 

Weeden, and Joseph Weeden were of local importance. Captain, or Major 

Noddle's Island or Rumney Marsh, and Wade, as he was sometimes called, died 

John Guppie, Daniel Greenland, and November z\, 16S9. William Green was 

John Barret of Mystic Side or Maiden, of Maiden, and afterwards became cap- 

Mass. Archives, lxviii. 73. tain of the troop The other appears to 

41 Mass. Colony Records, v. 151. Jona- have been that Isaac Brooks who was 

than Wade was son of Jonathan Wade of Woburn, where he died September 8^ 

of Ipswich. He married Deborah, the 16S6. 



3H 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



To the Honnourable Simon Bradstreet Esq\ Governour of the 
Mathashewsetts Cottony, etc. 

The Humble petition of The Troopers or the major part Belonging 
to the Townes of Maiden, Redding Rumley marsh and Linn. Belong- 
ing to y e Three Countey Troop. Humbly Sheweth 

That in the Charter Gouernment formerly there was a Grant and 
Privilege for a three County Troope, which by the Records will Ap- 
peare which Continued accordingly vntill y e Alteration of the Gouern- 
ment in the time that Esq r Dudly Took and Assumed The Same, and 
then the Said troope was much Jmpaired by its being brought to a 
Second Troop in the Western Redgiment in the countey of middle Sex 
Which After wards was Continued in the Same Posture when S r Edmond 
Andross was Gouernour : and Stands to this present Time, By which wee 
find itt very Jngerouse and Troblesome to vs Conserned, To What our 
former Priviledges was : And much Jmpaireing to the Said Troope. 

The Premisses being Considered by your honnours your Petitions 
Being Willing and Ready to bee at Command for Servise As formerly, 
Since, and for futor, They humbly Crave, that the Said Troope might 
bee as formerly, And the Priviledge of Chooseing there officers and 
Commanders As formerly, and that they might haue the Priviledge to 
y e same belonging as formerly 

And Wee as in Duty bound Shall Euer pray 

Tsaack Hill ) c , ,. Bexjamine Mussey, Sein" ) , 

J V for maiding TT > for 

Jonathan Sprague ) William Hassey J 

William Arnald ) , ^ , ,. Rumley march 

> for Redding , „ J r T . „, 

Joseph Browne ) John Poole — for Linn 41 

Not only was this petition favorably met by a general order, 
but a special order for the reorganization of the troop was 
passed August 22, 1689. 

Ordered that the Troop under the Command of Majf Jon. Wade do 
forthw* Compleat their Commission Officers, that it may be Setled for 
the Service of the Country and to that End Major Wade the present 
Captain do without delay call the Troop together, and Cause them to 
nominate such Officers as are wanting to be presented to this Conven- 
tion, or Council for Confirmation; But if the said Major Wade refuse 
to Call the Troop together as abovesaid, then William Green is hereby 
required to Call the Troop together, and Proceed to nominations as well 
of Captain as of other Commission Officers as are Wanting forthwith to 
be Presented for Confirmation. 42 

41 Mass. Archives, xxxv. 9. 42 General Court Records, in loco. 



SOLDIERS. 3 I 5 

That internal dissensions existed in the troop at this time is 
evident, and the undated paper which follows appears to con- 
tain a relation of the causes which led to its early dissolution. 

Reasons Given To the Honnourable Goueruo'', Counsel/ cV Represen- 
tatives by vs Of The three Countey Troope for Not Complying with 
y c Choise of William Greene Captaine. 

Imp. By an order Issued out by the Honnourable Counsell That a 
Setlement of Malletia Should bee as in y e yeare 1686 Except a vacancy 
by death or persons othervvayes Disinabled which order your petition's 
had Reguard vnto and Alsoe to our Cap' Jonathan Wade Being Still in 
Place & Office — And there being a Sqvadron of Wobern men, the 
major part haueing beene but of Late taken into the Three Countey 
Troope Who Being of Such Principalis and Reguarding Neither yo r 
honnours Order nor Reason, They went and Chose another Captaine 
by Name William Greene, and Drawd vp Sundry Reasons against the 
Said Cap 1 Wade Contrary to our knowledge. Being the Major part of 
the Three Countey Troope aforesaid 

Benjamine Mussey Seirf Jona than Spragg 

Joseph Hassey Joshua Eaton 

Isaack Hill John Poole 

Joseph Browne 
In Behalfe of the Major part of the three Countey Troope. 43 

There appears to have been a petition preceding this paper, 
which is not now in its place in the Massachusetts Archives, to 
which the Court returned a peremptory answer, which appar- 
ently ended the controversy and struck a blow at the prosperity 
of the troop. 

Upon Reading the Petition of Jsaac Hill, Jon a . Sprague Benjamin 
Mussey Sen r . &c. in behalf of themselves, and Others late belonging to 
the Three County Troops, manifesting their Unwillingness to Serve 
Under the Command of Capt Will Green, And upon Hearing of Both 
Parties : Jt is Ordered that the Said Petitioners, and Others, who are 
disatisfied with the Said Captain Return to Serve in the foot Company's 
of the Several Towns, and Places, whereto they do belong. 44 

The process of disintegration now began anew, and the com- 
pany soon lost its Suffolk men, as it had lost those of Essex in 
the time of Captain Hutchinson. The Court passed the follow- 

43 Mass. Archives, xxxv. io. 44 General Court Records, October 8 

16S9. Cf. Mass. Archives, xxxv. 48. 



3 16 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

ing order March 18, i6 8 ^ , and only the men of Middlesex were 
left to the Three County Troop : — 

The train Soldiers inhabiting the Lands belonging to the Town of 
Boston lying to the eastward of Winnisimet Ferry, Together with Nod- 
dles Jsland and Hogg island, are henceforth to be a distinct Foot 
Company, And are hereby Ordered forthwith to Nominate meet Per- 
sons for their Commission Officers, and present them to this Court for 
their Allowance and Confirmation, And the three County Troops is 
hereby dismist. 45 

Once more the troop is mentioned, when, June 10, 1690, 
eighty troopers were ordered to be detached from the several 
regiments to rendezvous at Andover and Concord for the pro- 
tection of the frontier, which was threatened by wandering par- 
ties of French and Indians. Seven men of this detachment were 
to be from Captain Green's command. 46 

Thenceforth the Three County Troop disappears from the 
scene and the records are silent as to its further continuance. 
If it remained longer, it was but for a few years of feeble life, 
and its crimson banner and its men and horses mouldered 
together. 47 Traditions of its existence and of its participation 
in the gloomy strife of Philip's war may have lingered long in 
the homes of the three counties ; but they, as well as more 
material things, have utterly passed away. The few discon- 
nected records which are now brought together are all that 

45 General Court /decora's, in loco. been claimed to be the flag of the Three 

46 Ibid. County Troop; but it bears the legend, 

47 In a Herald-painter's book of the Vince aut morire, and the arm is mail- 
time of Charles II., now in the British clad, which distinguishes it from the 
Museum, is a tricking of a flag " don for elder prototype. It is most likely to 
New England," and an entry giving its have been the standard of a company in 
description and cost. It was on crimson that portion of the Province at a later 
damask with a silver fringe and bore a date and not that of the troopers of 
bare arm and hand issuing from a cloud Maiden and the adjoining towns. Cf. 
and holding a sword. In the tricking Mass. Hist. So. Proc., December. 1885, 
the words "Thre County Trom " are 166; January, 1886, 199; also Brown, 
inscribed upon a ribbon on the face of History of Bedford, 23. In the latter 
the flag. For a drawing of the tricking it is made to appear, by a misquotation, 
and relevant matter, vide N. E. Hist, that there were more than one three 
and Geneal. Register, xxv. 138. county troop in Massachusetts. 

A provincial flag of a similar design The arm and sword of the flag of the 

was carried by the Bedford men on the Three County Troop has been preserved 

day of the Lexington Alarm, and is pre- as the crest of the State of Massachu- 

served in the Bedford Free Public setts. 
Library. ( >n slight grounds, this has 



SOLDIERS. 3 1 7 

remain of the band of stalwart Puritans who rode in the name 
of the Great and General Court, as valiant troopers and as 
worthy Christians, I doubt not, as their elder brethren who 
rode at Edgehill or Marston Moor. 

In the bloody war which preceded the death of Pometacom 
of Pokanoket, he who has passed into history under the grandilo- 
quent title of King Philip, the men of Maiden performed their 
duty, whether as soldiers and troopers in the field or as tax pay- 
ers at home, both in active service and the contribution of their 
substance. The war, for which busy preparation had been made 
on both sides, was opened by a desultory attack on the little 
settlement of Swansea in Plymouth Colony during several days 
in the latter part of June, 1675. When the news reached Mas- 
sachusetts Bay the Council convened and resolved " to rayse 
one hundred foote and 50 horse that shall be speedily upon their 
march towards Swansey," and issued the following order: — 

[June '24, 1675.] To the Militia of the town of Boston, Cha. Camb. 
Watertown, Roxbury, Dorchester, Dedham, Brantrey, Weymouth, Hing- 
ham, Maulden — You are hereby required in his Majesty's name to 
take notice that the Gov r & Council have ordered 100 able souldjers 
forthwith impressed out of the severall Towns according to the propor- 
tions hereunder written for the aid and assistance of our confederate 
Plymouth in the designe afoote ag st the Indians, and accordingly you 
are to warne af 5 proportions to be ready at an hours warning from 
Capt Daniel Henchman who is appointed Captain and Commander of 
the Foote Company that each souldjer shal have his amies compleat and 
Snapsack ready to march and not faile to be at the randevous. 48 

The proportion assigned to the several towns does not appear 
upon the order. Captain Daniel Henchman, of Boston and the 
Ouansigamug plantation, commanded the footmen, as above 
stated, while Captain Thomas Prentice of Cambridge led the 
troopers. Besides the impressed men, about one hundred vol- 
unteers took the field under the old Jamaica privateer, Samuel 
Mosely of Dorchester. Roger Kenicott and John Pemberton of 
Maiden were with Captain Mosely; and, soon after, their towns- 
men, Thomas Mudge, Simon Grover, and John Larrabee were in 
garrison at Wading River in the present town of Norton. 

48 Mass. Archives, Ixvii. 207. 



3l8 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

In August the constable of Maiden was ordered to " Jmpress 
ten able horses well shod w th bridles & sadles well shod fitt for 
the Countreys seruice." The constable's return giving the names 
of the owners of the horses taken is preserved. 

I haue im prest ten horses for the us of the contre a cordin to the 
tener of the warent. 

Edmond Chamberlin 

Captin John wayt Leftinant John Sprag 

Insine Thomas lind 

Samewill Sprag Samevvel lues 

Benjemen vvhitemore 

Joel Jenkins thomas grouer 

Steuen grouer Symon grouer 49 

In September Captain John Wayte was ordered to lead a 
party of recruits, in which were probably some Maiden men, to 
the rendezvous at the frontier. 

The Council do order & Apoint Capt John Wayte to Copduct the 
1 20 men appointed to rendevouse at Marlborough the 28 th day of this 
instant September & to deliuer them vnto the order of maio' John 
pincheon comander in Cheefe in the county of Hampshire & it is 
further ordered y in case Capt Samuell Appleton should bee com away 
from those parts, then the said Capt wait is ordered to take the con- 
duct & charge ot A company of 100 men under maio r John pincheon, 
but in case capt Appleton doe abide there then capt wait is forthwith 
to returne Backe unles maio r Pincheon see cause to detyne him upon 
y e service of the Country. 

24 Sept. 1675. 50 

At the session of July 9 the Court laid three country rates ; 51 
and in consideration of " the great & dayly grouing charge of 
the present warr against the Indians, & the absolute necessity 
that there is of a further supply & recruite of armes & amu n ition 
for the seruice of the country," seven single country rates were 
ordered October 13. 52 Of this levy the proportion of Maiden 

49 Mass. Archives, lxvii. 234. per bushel for wheat, six shillings; rye, 

50 Ibid., 265. four shillings and sixpence; pease, four 

51 Mass. Colony Records, v. 45. shillings; indian corn, three shillings 

52 Ibid., 55. The proportion of Med- and sixpence ; barley, four shillings; and 
ford for a single rate, was £t ) ; and that for oats, two shillings. Mass. Archives, 
of Reading, £\6 9s. ud. If the rates lxviii. 29. 

were paid in kind, values were fixed A country rate was a tax on property 



S OLDIE KS. 319 

was ,£"15. 10. 5. for a single rate; and this was no small burden 
to the farmers of that day, whose currency was mostly the pro- 
ducts of the soil. During the summer and fall of that year sol- 
diers of the town were in active service; several as troopers 
under Lieutenant William Hasey of Rumney Marsh, the com- 
mander of the Three County Troop. Men frequently appear 
as serving under different captains in the same year, a condition 
which was caused by short terms of service and the necessity of 
allowing planters to return to the settlements to secure their 
crops or to attend to the needs of their families, while others 
took their places in the field. Some were scouts and were 
rapidly transferred from command to command as their ser- 
vices were required. 

In November a levy was made for an expedition designed 
to penetrate the Narragansett country, into which Philip had 
retired. Eight men were impressed at Maiden, as follows: — 

The names of y e Souldyers Jmpress d at maldon for the p r sent Expe- 
dition & p vdd According to y e warr 1 are 

Tho. May : Jam 5 Chadvvick 

John Chamberlain: 
Jam 5 Welch John Mudge 

John Winslade John Ross 

John prouender 
Maldo" Jn y e name of y e . . . . 

30. 9. 75 Jo Wayt ca/. 53 

and the profits of mechanics and traders incombes due for wines, licquors, peltry, 

of one penny on a pound ; besides which &c." being found sufficient " to answer 

a poll-tax of one shilling and eightpence the occasions of the country." Mass. 

at first and afterwards of two shillings Colony Records, iv. (2), 135, 534. 
and sixpence, was levied upon all males Besides the ten rates laid in 1675, s ^ x ' 

above sixteen years of age. A single rate teen were imposed in 1676, which was 

produced about two thousand pounds in equal to an assessment on the valuation 

1663, and was usually sufficient for the of over four per cent, in the former, and 

expenses of a year ; although at times nearly seven per cent, in the latter year, 

the tax was increased by the additional A rate of seventy dollars on a thousand 

levy of a fractional rate. In 1664, " It is would make the tax-payers of the city of 

ordered, that halfe a single rate be levyed Maiden unhappy, at least. The propor- 

vpon the inhabitants, as an addition to tion of Maiden for a single rate in 1675 

the rate in course, towards the defraying gives the total valuation of the town as 

the publicke charges, that haue binn ex- ,£2525 for that year, 
traordinary this yeare ; " but in 1672, no 53 Mass. Archives, lxviii. 70. 

rate was laid, the revenue arising " from 



320 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



Edmund Chamberlain took the place of his kinsman, John ; 
and the party reported at the rendezvous at Dedham, with the 
exception of James Welch, against whose name was written, 
" not apeard." They were included in " A list of Cap tn Samuell 
Mosselys Compa n y taken att Dedham the 9 th Day of Xber 
1675 ; " 54 and the little army of seven companies, under Major 
Samuel Appleton of Ipswich, marched for the Narragansett 
country the next day. In the battle known as the Narragansett 
or Swamp Fight, which took place, Sunday, December 19, 1675, 
when nearly seven hundred Indians are said to have perished, 00 
the company of Captain Mosely was the first to enter the fort of 
the enemy ; and two of the nineteen men which it lost in slain 
and wounded were of Maiden, — Edmund Chamberlain among 
the former, and James Chadwick among the latter. At the 
A /"") oJ? O fO / same time Lieutenant 

nc/jtel*^^ JvJZ$<*^ Phineas Upham, of 
J 1/ Captain Isaac John- 

son's company, received a wound from the effects of which he 
died in October, 1676. 56 



54 Mass. Archives, lxvii. 294. 

55 « Two and twenty Indian Captains 
slain all of them and brought down to 
Hell in one Day," says Increase Mather, 
Prevalency of Prayer, 10. The loss of 
the Indians is variously stated. Hub- 
bard, on the authority of Potock, an 
Indian who was put to death at Boston, 
makes the statement mentioned in the 
text, and adds, " Besides three hundred 
that died of their Wounds the most of 
them ; the Number of old Men, Women 
and Children, that perished either by 
Fire, or that were starved with Hunger 
and Cold, None of them could tell." 
Present State of New-England, 54. 

This battle swept away the savage 
power of the Narragansetts, and they 
were broken forever. " Without shelter 
and without food," says Bancroft, " they 
hid themselves in a cedar swamp, with 
no defence against the cold but boughs 
of evergreen trees. They prowled the 
forests and pawed up the snow, to gather 
nuts and acorns ; they dug the earth for 
ground-nuts ; they ate remnants of horse- 



flesh as a luxury ; they sunk down from 
feebleness and want of food. Winter 
and famine, and disease consequent on 
vile diet, were the allies of the English ; 
while the English troops after much 
severe suffering, found their way to fire- 
sides." History of the United States, ii. 
105. 

Original and contemporary narratives 
of the Narragansett Fight may be found 
in Mather, Brief History of the War, 20; 
Hubbard, Present State of New-England, 
50-56 ; Hutchinson, History of Massa- 
chusetts-Bay, i. 299-303; Church, Enter- 
taining Passages relating to Philip's War, 
14-17; Continuation of the State of New- 
England, 5-8 ; and News from A T etv-Eng- 
land, 1-2. The two rare tracts last 
named are reprinted in Drake, Old In- 
dian Chronicle. The best modern sum- 
maries are Palfrey, History of Neio 
England, iii. 175-1S0; Drake, Indians of 
North America ( 1S57), 217-220 ; and Ar- 
nold, History of Rhode Island, i. 403-406 

50 Phineas Upham, son of Deacon 
John and Elizabeth (Slade) Upham, was 



SOLDIERS. 



321 



In the early part of January, i6/5 g, another levy of Massa- 
chusetts men was made and sent into the Narragansett country. 
They suffered severely from the intense cold. A writer of the 
time says : " They lost Eleven of their Men on their March, that 
were frozen to Death and brought many others sick and dis- 
heartened with the extreme Coldness of the Season." 57 In con- 
nection with this expedition, which was known as " the long 
march," the following papers are extant. They show an evident 
reluctance against campaigning in the winter season on the part 
of three of our ancient townsmen. 

To the Constables of maulden 

These require yo" in bis maj tys name forthwith to sumon require & se- 
cure John Linde Jn° Cole & James welsh so as they may personally 



probably born soon after the arrival of 
his parents in New England in 1636, 
and was brought to Maiden from Wey- 
mouth, where they first settled. He 
married Ruth Wood, April 14, 1658, 
and was living here soon after. His 
seven children were probably born here, 
although the birth of but one is recorded. 
He was one of the grantees of Quan- 
sigamug, in 1674, and an actual settler 
there in the following April. The sud- 
den breaking out of the Indian War and 
his presence upon the frontier brought 
him into active military service; and 
some traits of character and habits may 
have insured his promotion. After the 
defeat of Captain Hutchinson at Wicka- 
baug Pond, he was sent, as a lieutenant, 
with a force under Captain John Gor- 
ham, into the Nipmuck country ; but 
finding none of the enemy, he returned 
to Mendoh, where, October 1, 1675, ne 
wrote a report of the expedition, which is 
preserved in Mass. Archives, lxvii. 276. 

Soon after he proceeded towards 
Springfield with a company of recruits, 
with orders to serve under Captain John 
W r ayte. A reorganization of the forces 
-upon the Connecticut having taken place, 
he was assigned to the company of Cap- 
tain Jonathan Poole and was probably at 
Springfield or Hadley at the time of the 
attack upon Hatfield. Returning to the 
eastward after the cessation of hostili- 
ties upon the western frontier, he joined 
the little army which was marching into 



the Narragansett country and was at- 
tached to the company of Captain Isaac 
Johnson of Roxbury. 

Captain Johnson was killed during 
the first assault; and as the attacking 
party fell back, it is not unlikely that 
Lieutenant Upham was wounded before 
the fort was entered, or he may have 
rallied his men and led them in the final 
attack. During the night, in the face of 
a driving snow storm, the army marched 
eighteen miles with its dead and dying. 
Lieutenant Upham was taken to Rhode 
Island and, after a while, removed to 
Boston. His death is recorded upon 
the Maiden records, and it is probable 
that he died here. Drake says he was 
buried here ; but Hubbard says he died 
in Boston. He died before October 12, 
as on that day the General Court passed 
a bill for the relief of his family. As to 
the place of his burial, the graves of his 
wife (169%) and his little daughter Ruth 
(1676) are marked by stones in the Bell 
Rock Cemetery. A search made, June 
17, 1S91, showed that a person of good 
height had been buried by the side of 
the wife, and that a long period had 
elapsed since the interment, as nothing 
was found in the grave but a little chirk 
mould, in which a few pins were imbed- 
ded, and a slight discoloration caused by 
the decay of the wood of the coffin. 

57 Continuation of the State of Niw- 
England, 14, in Drake, Old Indian 
Chronicle, 195. 



322 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Appeare before the Council sitting in Boston on the 11 th Jnstant at one 
of the clock then & there to Answer theire neglect of Duty in not ap- 
pearing at the randevous at Dedham on the 5 th Jnst thereby much dis- 
appointing the service of the Country y ou are also in like manner to 
sumon & require some one or more of the comittee of militia of the 
Toune then & there to Appeare that Jmpressed them to make it out 
that they were duly Jmpressed making your return at or before the 
time hereof not to faile at your perrill Dated in Boston the 7 h of Janu- 
uary 1675 

By order of the Council 

Ed\v d Rawson Secr t v 58 

[Acts of Council.~\ January 11, 1675 

of Woburn John lynd — returned deserted : hyres pemberton in his 

Stead who went. 

John Cole : absconded & order for Attachment to Jsue for 

James : Welch cleard by the Councel 59 

On the return of the expedition to the settlements another 
call for men was made; and a warrant was issued for the draft- 
ing of twenty men from the Middlesex regiment. On this war- 
rant, which is dated February 5, 1676, [167-V6,] is endorsed, 
"there is a failure of almost one halfe in apperance & no 
return from one towne . . . Maiden: no Returne but a man 
Appeared." 60 

In the early part of April, 1676, John Upham, Simon Grover, 
Stephen Grover, John Pratt, and Tryal Newberry of Maiden, with 
others from the neighboring towns, were in the company of 
Captain William Turner, at Hadley, on the Connecticut River; 
and they participated in the unfortunate action at the Falls, May 
19, which resulted in the disastrous flight of the English and 
the death of their gallant captain in the Greenfield meadows. 
Sixty years later, when the General Court granted the township 
of Fall Town, now Bernardston, to the survivors of those who 
had been present and the heirs of those who were dead, Thomas 
Pratt, Simon Grover, and Tryal Newberry received shares in the 
right of their fathers. 

During the summer of 1676 Maiden soldiers served under 

58 Mass. Archives, lxviii. 112. 

59 Ibid., lxviii. 120. ''Woburn" for "Maiden" is a clerical error in the 
original. 60 Ibid., 130. 



SOLDIERS. 323 

various captains; and in a settlement which was made in 
August, the town was credited with twenty-nine assignments. 
The only officer from Maiden who served this year was Lieu- 
tenant John Floyd, 61 who was under Captain Henchman, with 
others of his townsmen. He was then of Maiden ; but he after- 
wards removed to Rumney Marsh and became celebrated as an 
officer and a wary and hardy Indian fighter in the later French 
and Indian wars at the eastward. 

From the original journal and ledger of Captain John Hull, 
treasurer for the war, which are preserved in the library of the 
New England Historic Genealogical Society, and from other 
sources, I have compiled the following list of 

Maiden and Mystic Side Men in Philip's War. 

BACHELER, JOHN, may have been of Reading but is among 
the Maiden men in the list of grantees of Narragansett No. 2, in 
1732, when William Willis was agent for his heirs. 02 

Barrett, James, with Capt. Hutchinson in 1675 ; and with 
Lieut. Hasey of the Three County Troop in 1675. 

Barrett, John, with Maj. Willard in 1675 ; with Capt. 
Prentice in 167^; and with Lieut. Hasey of the Three County 
Troop in 1676. 

BARRON, ELLIS, with Capt. Sill in 1676; had lived at Groton 
or Lancaster before the war, but was credited to Maiden in the 
settlement of August 24, 1676. 

61 John Floyd was of Maiden in 1672, posted at Portsmouth under his corn- 
having been earlier at Lynn or Rumney mand. His active service was at the 
Marsh. In 1674, being at that time eastward. His arrest in 1692, on a 
about thirty-six years of age, he was charge of witchcraft, is elsewhere men- 
presented, with others, to the County tioned. He died at Rumney Marsh 
Court, by John Wayte, constable, to sometime in 1701. His children sold to 
take the oath of fidelity. Before 1682, their brother Daniel, in 1702, the farm 
he removed to Rumney Marsh, where he of ninety acres, near Black Ann's corner, 
is supposed to have built the well-known in Maiden, with a house on the north 
house which stood until recently on the side of the Lynn road, west of the rocks- 
northerly road to the beach in Revere, a Negroes, Dick, Harry, Lydia, and five 
view of which is given in Memorial His- others were divided with his personal 
tory of Boston, i. 450. He was captain property. 

of a troop in May, 1690, when he was 62 Narragansett No. 2, now West- 
ordered to march toward Piscataqua. minster, was one of the seven townships 
Soon after a levy of four hundred men granted to the soldiers of the Narragan- 
was made, a portion of which was to be sett expedition. 



324 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Blanchard, Samuel, of Wilson's Point, with Capt. Cutler 
in 1676. 

Bucknam, John, with Capt. Henchman in 1675; and with 
Capt. Mosely in 1675. 

Bucknam, Joses, with Capt. Wheeler in 1676; and, perhaps, 
with Capt. Henchman in 1676. 

Call, John, with Capt. Cutler in 1676. 

Carter, Robert, with Capt. Cutler in 1676; credited to 
Maiden in settlement of August, 1676. 

Chadwick, James, was with Capt. Mosely and was wounded 
at the Swamp Fight, December 19, 1675. He was the James 
Cheak whose heirs were among the Maiden grantees of Narra- 
gansett No. 2. 

Chadwick, John, with Capt. Sill in 1675. 

Chamberlain, Edmund, with Capt. Mosely, and was killed 
at the Swamp Fight, 1675. 

Chamberlain, John, impressed November 30, 1675, but 
Edmund went in his place; was in garrison at Hadley with 
Capt. Turner in 1676. 

Cole, John, impressed, but did not appear at Dedham, Janu- 
ary 5, 1675/g. 

Dexter, John, with Maj. Willard in 1676. 

Dunnell, Thomas, in garrison at Groton in 1675. 

Faulkner, David, Jr., was in garrison at Dedham in July, 
1676, with his father, David, Sen. They had, probably, gone 
from Boston, but they were credited to Dedham in the settle- 
ment of August, 1676. The younger man afterwards came to 
that part of Maiden or Boston near Black Ann's Corner, and 
was the ancestor of the Faulkner family here. 

FLOYD, John, lieutenant under Capt. Henchman in 1667; 
was credited to Maiden in the settlement of August, 1676. See 
note 61. 

Green, Henry, was with Lieut. Hasey of the Three County 
Troop in 1675; with Capt. Wheeler in 1676; was lieutenant 
later in life. 

Green, John, brother of Henry, was a corporal with Lieut. 
Hasey in 1675, and 1676; was with Maj. Willard in 1676, and 



SOLDIERS. 325 

with Capt. Oakes in the same year. He was captain of a com- 
pany later in life. 

Green, Samuel, youngest brother of the foregoing, was with 
Maj. Willard in 1676. 

Green, William, brother of the foregoing, was a corporal 
with Lieut. Hasey in 1675 and 1676; was, perhaps, with Capt. 
Mosely in 1675 '■> an d was w ' tn Maj. Willard in 1676. Oppo- 
sition to him as captain of the Three County Troop is noted 
elsewhere. 

Greenland, Daniel, was with Lieut. Hasey in 1675 ; with 
Capt. Prentice in i6jS/ 6 ; and with Capt. Henchman in 1676. 

Greenland, John, brother of Daniel, was with Lieut. Hasey 
in 1675 ; with Capt. Henchman in 1676. 

Grover, Simon, was in garrison at Wading River in 1675; 
was with Capt. Turner at Hadley in April, 1676, and was at the 
Falls Fight, May 19, 1676; was with Capt. Henchman in 1676. 

Grover, Stephen, was at Hadley with Capt. Turner in 1676. 

Guppy, John, was with Capt. Prentice in 167^5. 

Hayward {Haivard, Howard), Samuel, was with Capt. 
Cutler in 1676; with Capt. Oakes in 1676. 

Kenicott, Roger, was with Capt. Mosely in 1675. He 
removed from Maiden to Swansea in 1678. 

Lamson, Joseph, of Mystic Side, was with Capt. Turner on 
the Connecticut River in March, 167^, then aged eighteen 
years. 

Laroby (JLarrabee), William, was with Capt. Cutler in 1676. 

LEROBY (Larrabee), JOHN, was in garrison at Wading River 
in 1675. 

Lynde, John, was impressed, January, i6yS/ 6 ; " hyres pem- 
berton in his Stead ; " was with Maj. Willard in 1676. 

Martin, John, with Capt. Cutler in 1676. 

May, THOMAS, with Capt. Mosely in December, 1675. 

MUDGE, JAMES, son of Thomas, was a teamster in the train, 
convoyed by the " Flower of Essex " under Capt. Lathrop, 
marching from Deerfield to Hadley, September 18, 1675, on 
which day he was killed at Bloody Brook. 

MUDGE, JOHN, brother of the foregoing, was with Capt. Sill 



326 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

in 1675 ; with Capt. Mosely in December, 1675 '■> an< ^ was tne 
only Maiden survivor of the Swamp Fight among the grantees 
of Narragansett No. 2 in 1732. 

MUDGE, GEORGE, brother of the foregoing, was impressed in 
1675. His heirs were among the grantees of Narragansett 
No. 2. 

MUDGE, Thomas, brother of the foregoing, was in garrison 
at Wading River in 1675 ; was with Capt. Mosely in 1675 ; and 
with Maj. Willard in 1676. Pie is supposed to have died in the 
service or soon after the war. 

Muzzey, Benjamin, was with Capt. Prentice in 167H; with 
Capt. Henchman in 1676. He lived at Rumney Marsh, near 
Black Ann's Corner. 

Newberry, Tryal, was at Hadley with Capt. Turner in 1676 ; 
was at the Falls Fight, May 19, 1676. 

Newhall, Thomas, was with Maj. Willard in 1676. He was 
a lieutenant later in life. 

Nichols, James, was with Capt. Cutler in 1676. 

Paine, Stephen. One of this name was with Capt. Prentice 
in 1675 ; and the same, or another, was with Capt. Oakes in 
1675 and 1676. The Mystic Side man bore this name in com- 
mon with several then living in New England. 

PEARCH, Bernard. This otherwise unknown man was eve- 
dited to Maiden in the settlement of August 24, 1676. 63 

PEMBERTON, JAMES, was with Capt. Brattle in 1676. 

PEMBERTON, John, was with Capt. Henchman in 1675 ! with 
Capt. Poole in 1675 ; and with Capt. Mosely in 1675 and 1676. 

Pratt, John, was at Hadley ; and was at the Falls Fight, 
May 19, 1676. 

PROVENDER, JOHN, was with Capt. Mosely in December, 
1675. 64 

Ross, John, was with Capt. Mosely in 1675 and 1676 ; with 
Lieut. Sweet in 1676. 

G:i Bernard Peache was a witness at C4 John Provender removed to Fra- 

the trial of the unfortunate Susanna mingham, where he died in or about 
Martin of Amesbury at .Salem in 1692. 17 12, leaving descendants. 
There was a family of the name in the 
county of Essex. 



SOLDIERS. 



327 



SARGEANT, John, was at Ouabauge and with Maj. Savage in 
1676. 

Stanley, John, was impressed in 1676. 

Skinner, Abraham, was with Capt. Prentice in 1675. His 
son Abraham was his representative among the grantees of 
Narragansett No. 2 in 1732. 

Smith, Peletiah, was in garrison at Groton in 1675. 

Sl'RAGUE, JOHN, was with Maj. Willard in 1676. 

SPRAGUE, Jonathan, was in garrison at Groton in 1675 ; was 
with Capt. Mosely in 1675 and 1676; and with Capt. Hench- 
man in 1676. His son John, in his father's right, was one of 
the grantees of Narragansett No. 2. 

Sprague, Phineas, was with Lieut. Hasey of the Three 
County Troop in 1675 and 1676; was with Maj. Willard in 
1676; and with Capt. Wheeler in 1676. 

Tufts, James, son of Peter ; removed from Maiden to Deer- 
field, and is accounted as among the first settlers there ; was in 
Capt. Lathrop's company, and was killed at Bloody Brook, 
September 18, 1675. 

Upham, John, was the "fatherless and friendless" lad from 
Barbadoes, who was brought up by Deacon John Upham. He 
was at Hadley with Capt. Turner in 1676. He died at Charles- 
town, November 27, 1677, aged thirty years, leaving his prop- 
erty to his betrothed wife, Elizabeth Mousal, except a musket 
to Phineas, the eldest son of Lieut. Phineas Upham. 

Upham, Phineas. See his life and services in note 56. 

WAYTE, ALEXANDER, with Lieut. Cutler in 1676. He died 
at Maiden in 1681. 

Wayte, Capt. John, led a party of recruits to Marlborough 
in September, 1675, with orders to take command of a foot 
company under Maj. Pynchon on the Connecticut, in case of 
the absence of Capt. Appleton. 

Wayte, John, son of the foregoing, was with Lieut. Hasey 
of the Three County Troop in 1676. 

Welch, James, was impressed in December, 1675, but did 
not appear. 

Wheeler, Thomas, was with Lieut. Hasey in 1675 and 1676. 



328 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



Wilson, Joseph, was with Capt. Henchman in 1675 > w ^h 
Maj. Willard in 1676. He was a captain later in life. 

WILSON, Paul, elsewhere named as the lover of Priscilla 
Upham, was with Capt. Sill in 1675 and 1676. He had married 
and become an inhabitant of Charlestown. 

WlNSLAD {Winsloiv), Jacob, was in garrison at Groton in 1675. 

WiNSLAD ( Winslow), James, was credited to Maiden in the 
settlement of August 24, \6j6. 

WlNSLAD ( Winslow), John, was with Capt. Mosely in 1675 
and 1676 ; was with Capt. Cutler in 1676. His son John re- 
ceived his right in the grant of Narragansett No. 2. 

This war, which was closed by the death of Philip, at Poka- 
noket, August 12, 1676, was productive of much suffering in all 
parts of New England; but not to such an extent in Maiden 
as in towns nearer the frontiers. 65 There are extant petitions 
which portray cases of individual hardships here; and fourteen 
families, comprising fifty-two persons, received aid in this town 
from the Irish Charity, 66 a contribution sent from Ireland for 



65 Original and recent authorities on 
the subject of Philip's War are those 
named in the note on the Narra- 
gansett Fight. In addition, Drake, 
Origin of Indian Wars, prefixed, as an 
introduction, to his second edition of 
the Old Indian Chronicle, should be 
consulted; and several town histories 
contain matter of a local nature in 
relation to Indian hostilities. 

66 In August, 1676, " the Good ship 
call d the Katherine of Dublin " sailed 
from that port laden with " releife sent 
to the distressed persons in New Eng- 
land." She arrived in the harbor of 
Boston, Sunday, November 26. Her 
cargo, which was known as the Irish 
Charity, was a "Contribution made by 
divers Christians in Ireland for the re- 
leiffe of such as are Impoverished Des- 
tressed and in Nessesitie by the late 
Indian Warr." At the head of the 
subscribers was an elder brother of the 
Rev. Increase Mather of the Second, 
or North, Church in Boston, the Rev. 
Nathaniel Mather, H. C. 1647, who was 
then the pastor of a church in Dublin. 



The Rev. John Eliot wrote, in the Rox- 
bury Church Records : — 

"month 9, day 25. [1676.] the x n b rn 
in Dublin in Ireland sent a gracious gift 
of charity to relive such as suffered in 
o r late warr, the ship arrived y' day at 
night the master was at Boston 0:1 the 
Sabboth. 

"day 27. next morning a dreadfull 
fire broke forth in Boston, w ch consumed 
many dwelling houses & many rich 
shops & warehouses, & the north meet- 
ing house, in 2 hou r s time, by reason of 
a \y feirce wind, the history w r off I 
leave to oth r s to describe, but this is 
observable y' so much p'visions was 
consumed, & so many pore aded to such 
as were made pore by the war, y' (though 
the gift was only dispenced according as 
it was given to such as w r mado pore by 
the warr) yet the seasonablenesse of 
their charity was very much magnifyed, 
and a crowne of beauty was set upon 
the head of their charity thereby." Re- 
port of the [Boston] Record Commission- 
ers, vi. [95. 

In a spirit of true charity, the con- 



SOLDIERS. 



329 



the relief of those who had suffered. The following papers are 
characteristic of the times. 

To the Hon r ed Councill now sitting in Boston, the Humble petition 
of Hannah Stanly in behalf of her Husband Jn" Stanly of Maldon 
Humbly sheweth 

Whereas your poor petitioners husband hath been lately impressed 
for y e service of the country, and by reason of a lameness in his joints 
is utterly incapacitated to do any service for the country or any way to 
endure hardship and also haveing hired a farm none to manage his 
buisness his corn lying on spoil : for want of tending, his four children 
ill & weak his brother haveing been out in the service nineteen weeks 
already at Narraganset and at Hadly and other places and now at 
home not able to carry things . . . end for o r selves and family's 
maintenance, and so o r whole family exposed to want in his absence if 
not ruined with other reasons move yo r petitioner to supplicate yo r hon r s 
for relief by haveing my husband released from the service, and yo r pe- 
tition 1 ' shall as in duty bound ever pray for yo r hon r s prosperity 

Hannah Stanly. 67 



tributors desired " that an equall respect 
bee had to all godly p r sons agreeing in 
fundamentals of faith & order though 
differing about the subject of some or 
dinances, & p r ticularly that godly Anti- 
peodobaptists bee not excluded : w ch wee 
the rather thus perticularly insert be- 
cause sundry reports have come hither 
suggesting that godly p r sons of that 
p r swasion have been severely dealt 
withal] in New England, & also because 
divers of that p r swasion in this Citty 
have freely & very Considerably con- 
curred in advanceing this releife." They 
further add : " If any of y e Indians in 
New England who have adhered to the 
English in the present Warrbee brought 
to distress by their barbarous country 
men we desyre that they may by no means 
bee forgotten, but share, respect being 
had to their condition in this present 
releife : Especially those of them that 
are of y e houshold of faith wee desyre 
may be singularly regarded." 

The value of this "releife" and its 
distribution, exclusive of what may 
have been sent to Connecticut was as 
follows : — 



Amount paid for freight . . . 
To towns in Massachusetts Colony 
" " " Plymouth Colony 



£ 


s. 


d. 


450 








363 


3 





124 


10 






^937 13 ° 



The amount paid to the Maiden fam- 
ilies was £7 1 6s. Cf. N. E. Hist, and 
Geneal. Reg., ii. 245-250. 

The bread thrown upon the waters 
was returned one hundred and seventy- 
one years later, when the U. S. sloop of 
war Jamestown sailed from Boston har- 
bor freighted with provisions for the 
starving people of Ireland. 

1,7 Mass. Archives, lxix. So. John 
Stanley is otherwise unknown to me. 
It appears that he had recently hired 
a farm in Maiden ; and it may be that 
he was one who had come in from the 
frontier with his family for security. 
Onesiphorus Stanley was with Mosely 
in the Narragansett campaign and with 
Captain William Turner on the Con- 
necticut River in April, 1676. Savage 
says he was of Roxbury, and he may 
have been the brother who is mentioned 
in the petition. 



330 HISTORY OF MALDEX. 

To the HorTed council sitting in Boston the Humble Petisho?i of 
Marx Ross of Mai Jon in behalf of her Husband Humbly sheweth 

Whereas your petitioners Husband hath now for a long time bin out 
in the countrys service against the barbarous heathen under the comand 
of captain Samuell Mosely at y e Narraganset, & being antient, sick & 
crasey neer threescore yeares of age, none to manage his buisenese at 
Home, my self and family being in a suffering condition, our land lying 
untild at Home and some other considerashons moveth yo r petitioner 
Humbly to beg that favor of yo r Hon rs that my Husband may be freed 
from the present service, and may return to his family again who are in 
great want through his absence and yo r petitishoner shall dayly pray for 
yo r Hon rs & the countrys prosperity 

Mary Ross m 

About this time Maiden had not only her portion of the 
troubles caused by the war to bear, but a contagious disease, 
the nature of which I cannot discover, pervaded the town. In 
the year 1674 I have the record of thirteen deaths, and in 1676 
of nine deaths, while during the remaining eight years of that 
decade I find but eighteen. Beyond the fact of an excessive 
mortality in the two years mentioned, I find but little to indicate 
the existence of this disease. Mr. Lewis on the authority of a 
leaf of a Bible says, " [1676.] there was a great sickness this 
year; " 69 and the following extract from a letter written by the 
Rev. John Russell to the Rev. Increase Mather, dated at Hadley, 
April 18, 1677, indicates that it was carried to the frontier. 

My poor family hath thro the Lord's goodnesse escaped the con- 
tagion and frequently deadly disease among us ; the same I thinke 
that hath beene some yeers at Maldon, & as I judge brought hither by 
some souldiers of that town, who were first taken ill here, and then it 
went furthest in these & the neighbo ing families ; having beene almost 
wholly in one end of our Town ; the other end almost quite free. 70 

It was not war and disease alone which afflicted the men and 
women of Massachusetts Bay in the closing years of the seven- 
teenth century. In the gloom and terror of the days of 1692, 
when the delusion and insanity which reached its strongest 
development in Salem threatened to spread over New England, 

68 Mass. Archives, lxviii. 205.. The 69 Lewis, History of Ly n //, 265. 

petitioner was wife of John Ross and 70 Mass. Hist. Coll., xxxviii. 79. 

daughter of James Barrett. 



WITCHCRA FT. 3 3 I 

Maiden, in the persons of its inhabitants, did not wholly escape. 
Elizabeth Fosdick of Maiden and Elizabeth Paine of Mystic 
Side were arrested and placed in Salem jail on a charge of 
witchcrafts said to have been practised on the bodies of those 
much-bewitched young reprobates, Mercy Lewis and Mary 
Warren of Salem Village. Peter Tufts of Mystic Side, who 
many times during a long life appears in the court records and 
files, and not always as a desirable neighbor, also complained 
of them. 

Complaint v. Eliz" Fosdick 6° Eliz a Paine. 

Salem May the 30 th 1692. 
Lt Nathaniell putnam and Joseph Whipple both of Salem Village 
made Complaint in behalfe of theire majes ts against Elizabeth ffosdick 
of Maulden the wife of John ffosdick afores d Carpenter & Elizabeth 
paine off Charlstown the wife of Stephen paine of s d place husband- 
man for sundry acts of Witchcraft by them Committed Lately on the 
bodys of Marcy Lewis and Mary Warren of Salem Uiliage or farmes 
to theire great hurt therefore craues Justice. 

Nathanell Putnam. 
Joseph Whipple. 
The abouesayd Complaint was Exhibited before vs Salem May the 
30 th 1692. 

John Hathorne { A . 
onathan Corwin j 

peter Tuft of Charlstown also appeared before vs Salem June 2 d 1692 
and also Complained against both y e aboues d for acts of Witchcraft by 
them Committed on his negro W r oman. 

The mark of 
Peter -(- Tufts 

1 1 'arrant v. Elizabeth Fosdick 6° Elizabeth Paine. 

To the Marshall or Sheriff of the County of Middlesex or dep' 
You are in theire Majest s names hereby required to apprehend and 
bring before vs at Salem forthwith or as soon as may be Elizabeth 
ffosdick the wife of John ffosdick of Maulden Carpenter and Elizabeth 
paine the wife of Stephen paine of Charlestowne husbandman, for 
sundry acts of Witchcraft by them Committed Lately on y e Bodys of 
Marey Lewis Mary Warren & c of Salem Village or farmes to theire 
great hurt and Jnjury accord*-' to Complaint Exhibited before vs 
appears, fail not, Dated Salem June the 2 d 1692: 



John Hathorne ■ ) . . 
onathan corwin ) 



332 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

I doe Appoint Sam 1 Gibson of Cambridge To Serue this warrant To 
Effect. June 2 d 1692. 

Sam ll Gookin Marsh 11 for Mddx. 

June 2 d 1692. J haue Apprehended the aboue named Elizebeth 
paine and delivered her unto the Sheriff of the County of Essex att 
Salem in y e County afores in order to her examination and waite in 
expectation of the above s d Elizabeth Fosdick by mee. 

June 3, 92 J haue all so apprehended the body of Elizabeth ffosdick 
of mauldin and delivered her to the above said Sheriff of Essex, 

Sam ll Gibson y c mar sh dep.~ l 

A warrant was issued at the same time against Captain John 
Floyd, who had removed from Maiden to Rumney Marsh. 
During the examination of Abigail Faulkner of Andover, at 
Salem, August 1 1, 

Phelpses daughter complayned her afflicting her : but she denyed 
that she had any thing to doe with witchcraft : she s d ffalkiV had a cloth 
in her hand, that when she squeezed in her hand y e afflicted fell into 
grevous fits as was observed : y e afflicted sayd Dan" Eames and Capt 
ffloyd was upon that cloth when it was upon y e table. 72 

By such whimsicalities were judges and jurors overwhelmed. 
The cases of Fosdick and Paine brought the question of the 
reality of diabolical possessions to the homes of Maiden ; and 
it was not strange that some one was soon found who was able 
to impose upon the credulity of the public, as the children 
and girls of Salem Village had shown the way. This ready in- 
strument was found in the person of Mary Marshall, whose 
husband, Edward, had recently died. It may have been the 
weakness of age or sickness and grief which put the cruel fan- 
tasies into her head. 

Lydia Dustin, the widow of Josiah Dustin of Reading, a 
woman of eighty years, had been arrested in May for " Witch- 
craft done or Comitted by her upon y e Bodys " of the afflicted 
persons at Salem Village. Mary Marshall had lived in Reading 
and, apparently, had been intimate with Lydia Dustin and the 
others whom she afterwards accused. Her afflictions began 
upon the day when Dustin was taken to Salem and continued 
for several months. It does not appear that she accused all her 

71 Witchcraft Papers in Clerk's Office at Salem, in loco. '- Ibid. 



WITCHCRAFT. 333 

tormentors at once; but the list of her victims, at the end, 
included Lydia Dustin and her daughter, Mary, the widow of 
Adam Colson, a former schoolmaster of Reading, Mary, the wife 
of Seabred Taylor, and Jane, the widow of George Lilley, also a 
former schoolmaster, all of Reading. 73 Colson, Lilley, and 
Taylor were brought before the magistrates at Salem, Septem- 
ber 5, 1692. The minutes of the examination of Mary Colson 
are as follows : — 

Mary Coullson you are here accused for afflicting m rs mary marshall 
by witchcraft m rs marshal with divers fell down at her coming into y e 
court s d Couleson helped m rs marshall up by a touch of her hand : but s d 
Coullson s d she never hurt s d marshall in her life : m rs marshal was asked 
how long coulson had afflicted her : she s d : at times : she had afflicted 
her ever since her mother Dastin had been in prison & that she did it in 
vindication of her mother these 3 : Taylor : Lilly & Coullson came to me 
& s d though m r pearpont sang that Psalm : god will be a husband to 
y e widdow : but he would be none to me they said : they told me also : if J 
had served their god my husband had been alive yett : but s d Coullson was 
bid to look on y e afflicted persons : and some of the afflicted was bid to 
look on her : and Eliz Booth : & George Boothes wife & Allice Booth : with 
others : was struck down with her look & afflicted : & helped up : & 
was well by a touch of Coullsons hand : they were asked when they 
were well agayn who hurt : them & s d it was Coullson it was told 
Coullson : it was evident that she acted witchcraft now before them : 
& it was like to apear that she had a hand in w m Hoopers Death & in 
Ed marshals death : but she s d if she should confes she should be ly her 
selfe : 74 

At the examination of Jane Lilley several of the afflicted per- 
sons were stricken down as she came into the room, as they had 
been in the presence of Colson. 

Mary Warm Allice Booth & Susanna Post & m r5 mary marshall was 
asked who struck them down : they answered y' it was s d Lilly Jt was 
s d to her : Jane Lilly you are accused for afflicting m rs mary Marshall by 
witchcraft : & now you have hurt many others : now you have oppertun- 
ity to tell y e truth : in this matter : but she answered the truth was she 
knew nothing of it nor was she sensible y* she was in y e Devills snare. 75 

Lydia Dustin was indicted and brought before the Superior 
Court of Judicature at Charlestown, January 31, 169^3. The 
record of her indictment and trial is as follows : — 

73 Suffolk Court Files, xxxii. 2710, 2714. 74 Ibid., 2714. " r " Ibid. 



334 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



Lidiah Dastin of Reding in the County of Midlesex widow being 
Indicted by the Iurors ffor our Soveraigne Lord and Lady the King & 
Queen upon their oaths upon one Indictment. That is to say. 

For that shee the said Lydia Dastin of Reding in the County of 
Midlesex widow on or about the second day of May in the year 1692 
and divers other days and times as well before as after Certaine destest- 
able Arts called Witchrafts and sorceries wickedly mallitiousely and 
ffeloneously hath used practised and exercised at and in the Towne of 
Maiden in the County of Midlesex aforesaid upon an against one Mary 
Marshall by which wicked Arts the said Mary Marshall the day and 
year aforesaid & divers other dayes and times as well before as after 
was afflicted Tortured Tormented Consumed pined & Wasted Contrary 
to the peace of Our Sovereigne Lord and Lady the King and Queen 
their Crowne and dignity and the Lawes in that case made and 
provided 

Upon the aforesaid Indictment the said Lidia Dastin was then and 
there before the Iustices of our Lord and Lady the King and Queen 
aforesaid arraigned and upon her Arraigem! did then and there the 
day and year aforesaid Plead Not Guilty and put her selfe upon tryall 
by God and the Country. 

A Iury being called Samuel Green foreman and accordingly sworne no 
exception being made by the prisoner the said Indictment being read, 
together with the Evidences and Examinations and the prisoners 
defence being heard The Iury went out to agree on their verdict, who 
returning did then and there in open Court deliver their verdict. That 
the said Lidia Dastin was Not Guilty of the ffelony by Witchcraft for 
vvich she stood Indicted in and by the s d Jndictm! 

The Court Orderd the said 
Lydia Dastin to be dis- 
charged paying her flees 76 

Phineas Sprague, who died at Maiden, January 23, i6g°A, left 
a widow, Sarah (Hasey), and a daughter, Martha, and other 
children. The widow soon married Moses Tyler, and those of 
her children who were unmarried appear to have removed with 
her to a new home in Andover or Boxford. The daughter, 
Martha, became prominent as an accuser and witness in the 
witchcraft cases and with Rose Foster, Abigail Martin, and 
others formed a band of afflicted ones, whose work was quite as 
busily and persistently performed as that of the Salem circle. 

7e Records of Superior Court of Judi- Court of Oyer and Terminer she would 
cature (Charlestovvn, January 31, 169^.). have been hung. 
i. 35. Had she been tried at the Special 



WITCHCRAFT. 335 

Among their earliest victims were Mary Barker and William 
Barker, both of Andover, who each confessed. The latter was 
a boy of fourteen years and a precious rascal. At his examina- 
tion he said he hated the devil and that there " was such aload 
upon his stomach that he could not speak; " but he told a won- 
derful story and managed to implicate six persons, whose names 
were endorsed upon the back of the examination as accused 
persons by the ready magistrates. One of these was Samuel 
Wardwell, who was hanged at Salem, September 22, 1692 ; and 
another was Mary Parker, who suffered at the same time. Both 
of these persons were indicted for their " detestable arts " against 
Martha Sprague. Of the others who were accused by her, 
Abigail Faulkner and Sarah, the widow of Samuel Wardwell, 
were condemned but not executed; and a number were tried 
and discharged. The examination of Rebecca Johnson, who 
was accused by Sprague, is worthy of attention for a bit of folk- 
lore which it preserves. 

Sept The Examination of Rebecca Johnson, widow, Taken before 
1692 j n0m Hauthorn Esq r 6° other their mafest" Iustices 
She denyed what she was accused of, But she acknowledged the turn- 
ing of the Sieve, in her house by her daughter, whom she desyred to 
try if her brother moses Haggat was alive or dead — and that if the 
Sieve turned he was dead and so the Sieve did turn, And my daughter 
said that m r Bernards maid told her the way. The words used were, 
By Saint Peter & Saint Paul if Haggat be dead Let this Sieve turn 
round ; & so it did — 

Elizabeth the wife of George Booth was struck down by the said 
widow Johnsons looking upon her, and martha Sprague s d she saw the 
s' 1 widow Iohnson afflict her and Rose foster saw the same and further 
that said Johnsons apparition told them she Intended to spoyle George 
Booths wifes child 

The s d widow Johnson upon her examination as was Iudged afflicted 
Sprague & foster into fitts and by her touch recovered them againe 
martha Sprague and Rose foster said they saw s d Rebeck Johnson afflict 
Abigail martin & alice Booth — 

alice Booth said she saw s d Johnson aiflict her sister booth and that she 
saw her at our house partake of the sacram' 

— Rose foster, alice booth & martha Sprague said they saw the devill 
stand before her and also before her daughty" 

77 Suffolk Court Files, xxxii. 2707. 



3 36 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Martha Sprague was sixteen years of age when she began the 
wanton accusations which brought suffering and death to her 
innocent victims. She was afterwards married to Richard 
Friend, a seaman, of Salem, and it may be hoped that her after 
life was more free from sin than her youth had been. 

A Maiden woman is mentioned in the following paper as one 
who consorted with witches ; but how far she was implicated is 
not now known. 

The Examination of Sarah Coles of Lynn e Octolf — J — i6q2 

She saith y l y e same night Capt Osgoods wife was examined — she 
saw Eliz: Colston & Abrah. Coles wife come into her house personally 
to her apprehension and Jno. Wilkinsons wife of maiden & one of her 
sisters &a little Girle she did not know, about 10 years old one of them 
had a piece of board w th nails in it thro the board at the end about 2 
foot long as broad as her hand. That one of her children was sorely 
afflicted at y' time, and s d one of them did strike her in y e head w h s d 
board — They seemed to turn side ways and so were gone, w ch was 
about midnight — The child was afflicted till Abr Coles wife was taken 
up — The beginning of y e affliction in our family was upon a fast day 
about a month ago Abrah Coles wife was at my house she Commended 
my children much for pretty children & they w r both taken sick my boy 
& girle, y e Girle s d she saw A. Coles wife afflict her seuerall times, had 
pins thrust into her was bit & scratched had a blow on her nose w ch 
caused her nose to run down w th blood y e last fit my child had and Com- 
plained of her aunt Cole was when s d A. Coles wife was brought to 
Salem One night being in bed J was sorely afflicted, & saw a ball of fire 
J arose to see w' was the matter before J got a light it went away — the 
last thing J saw was a dog w ch J went to strike w th aspade and was beat 
down my selfe this was about a week ago, The dog went out at a crack 
in y e side of the house. 78 

The witchcraft delusion or imposture was productive of no 
serious results in Maiden, save that the inhabitants must have 
experienced their part of the fear and sorrow which pervaded 
New England. The action of the Superior Court of Judicature 
that superseded the* Special Court of Oyer and Terminer, which 
owed its bloody, though brief, existence to the witchcraft cases, 
and the returning sense of the people, working upward from the 
body of the commonalty and acting upon juries and judges, 
happily put an end to the excitement; and a general jail de- 

78 Suffolk Court Files, xxxii. 2712. 



WITCHCRAFT. 337 

livery released those who survived. This burning flame of sup- 
erstition and deception returned no more to plague the people 
of Massachusetts Bay ; and the futile efforts of Cotton Mather 
and others to revive its dying embers were met with ridicule 
and scorn. But a terrible weight rested on the consciences of 
the accusers and judges and jurors, which caused many a bitter 
cry for mercy and humble plea for forgiveness. 

It is not known what part, if any, Mr. Wigglesworth took in 
the affair of 1692 ; but what he thought of it a few months be- 
fore his death, when, " with a weak body, and trembling hand," 
he wrote his testimony, may be gathered from his letter to the 
Rev. Increase Mather. 

Rev d & Dear S' — I am right well assured that both your self, your 
son & the rest of our Bretheren with you in Boston have a deep sence 
upon your spirits of the awfull symptoms of divine displeasure that we 
lie under at this Day, both in respect, of this long and so oft renewed 
warr, that hath been so chargeable & distructive to us, and also now in 
this sore drought which hath already brought a famine upon our Catle, 
and is like to bring a greater upon our selves, unless God appear 
spedily for us : I doubt not but you are all endeavouring to find out 
and discover to the people the causes of Gods Controversy, and how 
they are to be removed, to help forward this difficult and necessary 
work, give me leave to impart some of my serious & solemn thoughts. 
I fear (amongst our many other provocations) that God hath a Con- 
troversy with us about what was done in the time of the Witchcraft. I 
fear that innocent blood hath been shed ; & that many have had their 
hands defiled therwith. I believe our Godly Judges did act Conscien- 
tiously, according to what they did apprehend then to be sufficient 
Proof: But since that, have not the Devils impostures appeared? & 
that most of the Complainers & Acusers were acted by him in giving 
their testimonies. Be it then that it was done ignorantly. Paul, a 
Pharisee, persecuted the chu[r]ch of God, shed the blood of Gods 
saints, &: yet obtained mercy, because he did it in ignorance ; but how 
doth he bewaill it, and shame him self for it before God and men after- 
wards. 1. Tim : 1 : 13. 16. I think and am verily perswaded God ex- 
pects that we do the like, in order to our obtaining his pardon : I mean 
by a Publick and solemn acknowledgment of it, and humiliation for it, & 
the more particularly & personaly it is done by all that have been actors ; 
the more pleasing it will be to God, and more effectual to turn away his 
Judgments from the Land, and to prevent his Wrath from falling upon 
the persons and families of such as have been most Concerne'l. 



338 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

I know this is a Noli Me tangere, but what shall we do? must we 
pine away in our iniquities, rather than boldly declare the Counsel of 
God, who tells us, Isaia : i : 15, when you make many prayers I will 
not hear you, your hands are full of blood? Therefore God Commands 
you and me & all our fellow Labourers in the Ministry, Cry aloud, spare 
not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet. Isai. 58, 1. 

Moreover, if it be true as I have been often informed, that the fam- 
ilies of such as were Condemned for supposed witchcraft, have been 
ruined by taking away and making havoke of their estates, & Leaving 
them nothing for their releiff, I believe the whole Country lies under a 
Curse to this day, and will do, till some effectual course be taken by 
our honored Governour & Generall Court to make them some amends 
and reparations. If it be objected, our charges are exceding great and 
heavy already, and we cannot add to them. But what if this verry 
thing be none of the least of those evill things that have brought us 
under these sorrowfull circumstances ; and that they cannot be removed 
till we have put away this evill ? If the thing were agreed upon, time 
might be taken for the performance of it Gradualy, as God shall enable 
us : and I am perswaded God would soon make us able, if we were but 
willing. Sir, I desire you would Communicate these my thoughts to the 
Rev d Mr. Willard and the rest of our Bretheren in the ministry, as you 
shall have oportunity, and if they do Concurr in their apprehensions, 
that then it might be humbly spread before his Excellency ; and, if he 
see Cause, before the Generall Assembly at their next sessions. I have, 
with a weak body, and trembling hand, endeavored to leave my testi- 
mony before I leave the world ; and having left it with you (my Rev d 
bretheren) I hope I shall leave this life with more peace, when God 
seeth meet to call me hence. 

I remain your Faithful friend & fellow Watchman in the Lord, 

Michael Wigglesworth. 
Maldon, 5 month, 22 day, iyo4. 79 

79 Mass. Hist. Coll., xxxviii. 645. 



JiSlte 




CHAPTER XL 

TOWN OFFICERS AND COMMON LANDS. 

AS has been stated, the loss of the early records of the town 
deprives the antiquary of much which would illustrate 
the beginning and early growth of Maiden. It is not until after 
the close of Philip's War that the records, as they now exist, 
assist in rehabilitating the dry bones of the past. The first 
entry is that of a regular annual meeting of election, wherein is 
found all the machinery of an early New England town as it 
had developed out of the germ of church organization. There 
are the five townsmen, or chosen men, who came to be called 
selectmen ; the constables ; and last, though not least, perhaps, 
in the body-politic, those whose office it was " to see to swine 
order," — the hog-constables, or hog-reeves of a later day. 

30. 10. 78 Att a generall meeting of y e all y e Jnhabitants : Deacon 
John vppham was chosen moderato r 

voted Allexand r Waite & Willm. Leraby : chosen Const. 
John Wayte. L f . John Sprague \ 

Corpo r ll John Green : Co r n ( . will. Green v sele* men. 
and Ensigne Thomas Lynds. ) 



340 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

John Paull : John Sprague jn r > . 

John Scholly. Jonathan Knoher ) 

James Chadwick & John Sargen' : — veiw rs of fences. 

Joseph Wayte & Tho. Newhall — to see to swine ord r . 

A little more than two months later a change was made in 
the time of holding the annual meeting for the election of town 
officers, which had formerly been on the last Monday in Decem- 
ber, it being voted : — 

[2 d 2 d day i st mo. 1678 9] That y e Generall Towne Meeting for y e 
Choyce of y e Publiq office's in the Towne. viz: Sel'men constabls 
s r veio r s &c. fornVly stated on y e last second day in the 10 th m° : Shall 
Henceforth be on the second second day of y e first month from year 
to year. Any form r order or Custom to y e contrary notwithstanding. 
And all & any p'son concernd therin is to take notice therof without 
any p r ticular warning on penalty: as formerly: namly 18. pence, to 
be paid by euery p r son y l shall neglect to appeare at the affors d time 
to be leuied by y e constabl for the vse of y e towne. 

On the day thus fixed, the second Monday in March, the 
meetings were held for about twenty years, when it was changed 
to the first Monday in March, which remained the annual town 
meeting day until 1857, when by a previous vote of the town it 
was changed to the third Monday of the same month. The 
time-honored date was resumed in 1874, and was followed, in 
1879, by the first Tuesday. The latter day remained during 
the brief continuance of the town government. 

The records are now full of quaint entries that indicate a 
general advance in the prosperity which the sturdy yeomanry 
were shaping out of the wilderness. Roads were laid out 
or made more definite, commons were surveyed and divided, 
provision was made for the support of the ministry, and regula- 
tions for the preservation and advancement of morals and prop- 
erty were considered and fixed. 

Outside of the church troubles, which have been sketched, 
the lives of the Maiden settlers in the latter part of the seven- 
teenth century were as those of their fellow settlers in other 
parts of the Colony. Though the great danger which had 
threatened the life of New England had passed away with the 



TOWN OFFICERS AND COMMON LANDS. 34 1 

death of Philip, and the dispersion of the Narragansetts and the 
tribes of the Nipmuck country, the echoes of savage warfare 
came at times from the more distant frontiers ; and troopers or 
footmen were drafted out of the town to ride or march by weary 
stages to the relief of their more exposed brethren. 

In the gradual encroachments of the jealous and hostile gov- 
ernment of the mother country the people found enough to 
watch and fear; for in the threatened extinction of the Charter 
lay the dissolution of all their hopes ; the end of their close 
religious liberty, if liberty that may be called which recognized 
no rights beyond the narrow limits of a prevailing creed ; the 
abrogation of their political rights; and the loss of lands, which 
were held, as has been seen, in free and common socage for 
fealty only, and whose ownership depended upon the Charter 
for its warrant, and might die with it. 

It has been related how the foremost man of Maiden, Cap- 
tain John Wayte, stood among those who upheld the Charter 
against its enemies, and how he incurred the wrath of Randolph 
and gained the honor of being denounced in the "Articles of 
High Misdemeanour." After a prolonged struggle, the Charter 
fell, and the Court of England triumphed over the Puritans of 
Massachusetts Bay. Yet the immediate triumph was not pro- 
longed ; for after the brief Presidency of Joseph Dudley and an 
administration of little more than two years, the king's gov- 
ernor, Andros, and his council were in prison, and the streets of 
Boston were alive with the throngs which poured in from the 
surrounding country to the threatened conflict. 

We may not doubt that the men of Maiden and Mystic Side 
were represented in the uprising which overthrew the authority 
of the Stuarts in New England. The old soldiers of Philip's 
War, and the troopers of Lieutenant Hasey were there ; and 
returning, they met in town meeting, and called upon the 
Charter officers, who had been displaced in 1686, to resume 
their powers. 

May 6* 1689 At a Town meeting of y e Jnhabitants of Maldon 
Voted, agreed, and declared by the Freeholders cSz: Jnhabitants of the 
Town of Maldon, that Wee do desire & expect that our Hono etl Gov- 



342 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

erno r , Deputy Governo r and Assistants, elected, & sworn by the Free- 
men of this Colony in May 1686 together with y e Deputies then sent 
down by the Respective Towns to the Court then holden, & which was 
never legally dissolved, Shall convene, resume and exercise the Gov- 
ernment as General Court according to our Charter, on y e ninth day of 
this Jnstant May ; and in so doing we do hereby Promise and engage 
to aid and assist them to the utmost of our Power with our Persons 
and estates 

Ensigne Jos. Wilson & Henry Green are chosen by y e Town to carry 
this writing to y e Council 

As attest John Sprague 

John Green. 1 

But the days of the Charter were never to return; and the 
provisional government, which acted by its authority and the 
will of the people, soon gave place to a governor appointed by 
the King and a provincial establishment, that remained until 
the revolution which severed the dependence of the colonies 
upon the mother country. The days of Puritanism were past, 
though their traditions lingered, as they still linger in church 
and state. Many old errors passed away with them giving 
place to newer errors, which in their turn have disappeared. 
It may not be denied that a weaker generation had succeeded 
the strong men of the colonial days. The treacherous Dudleys, 
the easy and simple Sewalls, and the intriguing Mathers were 
sorry representatives of the just Winthrops. the austere Endi- 
cotts, and the pious Cottons of the early time. It was an age 
of transition, moreover, — a time when men in their weakness 
reached forward, gropingly, for better things than they had 
known, and with many a let and hindrance grasped them with 
imperfect knowledge at the end. And so the weary years 
rolled on, while out of their doubts came, slowly, earnest con- 
viction, and out of their weaknesses came tardy strength ; and 
from those twin elements was born the independence of a new 
nation. 

1 Mass. Archives, cvii. 17. This docu- 27, 1776. "The utmost of our Power 

ment is not to he found in the town rec- with our Persons and estates " becomes 

onls. A leaf is missing or the clerk in the latter " the last Drop of their 

neglected to do his duty. There is a Blood & the last farthing of their 

striking resemblance in spirit between Treasure." 
this vote and the Instructions of May 



TOWN OFFICERS AND COMMON LANDS. 343 

All this is a part of the general history of Massachusetts Bay 
— of New England, in the making of which the farmers of 
Maiden played their parts ; and although no great leader or 
hero may have come out of them, they were as the rest of the 
commonalty — men of nerve and muscle, in spite of their many 
imperfections, ready to fight and die, if need be, in the common 
cause. Out of the records which they left may be spun threads 
for a fabric in which may be discerned some outlines of their 
quaint and circumscribed lives — some glimpses, perhaps, of a 
striving for, and an advancement towards, the better things of 
the future, which they could not forecast. There may be little 
of continuity or unity in the story; the colors may be faded 
and the fabric rudely patched ; idle curiosity may find little to 
interest or excite : but the loving patience of one who feels a 
sympathy with the endeavors and struggles of mankind may 
not be unrewarded. 

As a political body, the town was, as has been seen, under 
the immediate oversight of five townsmen, or selectmen, godly 
Christians and upright men, chosen at first, and for many years, 
by the freemen of the town, who were also members of good 
standing in the church. They were overseers of the poor and 
assessors by virtue of their office at a time when overseers of the 
poor and assessors were otherwise unknown. They met some- 
times at the house of one of their number, oftener at the ordinary, 
or public house, where they partook of some little refreshment 
at the expense of the town, 2 reckoned with the constables, who 
were the tax-gatherers, and passed such minor orders .as were 
urgently needed or were not of sufficient importance to bring 
before the body of the freemen, who usually met, when warned, 
at the meeting house. One of the earliest meetings of the 
selectmen of which we have knowledge was held at the house 
of Lieutenant John Sprague and had reference to the duties of 
an office of much importance. The record is as follows: — 



2 The " Expences at Isak Hills," another meeting was four shillings and 

February 18, 169^2, amounted to the sum twopence; and eleven days later still 

of three shillings and sixpence. Eight a debt of two shillings and fourpence 

days later the bill for the expense of was incurred. 



344 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

[ii. 3™ 80. J Att a meeting of y e Select men. at L.' Spr. 

Appointed to y e seuerall Tithing men the p r ticular familyes they are 
to take the care & Charge of 

Allso gaue them the Summs belonging to each p!son in their precincts 
of there p'ticular rate to y e minstry namly of y e whole year due from m r 
Blakmans ending to m r cheurs begining : And if any pay all their said 
rate in mony, then to be abated one third part therof : else one qter 
part in mony & y e rest in corne 

And allso each p r sons part in mony to this p r snt years rate, begin s last 
febr. which rate is all mony desyring s d Tithingm to Jnforme each p r son 
in their precincts of their p r porcons & to sturr y em vpp to their duties & 
to take their accounts. & what remains vnpaid to order them forthwith 
to pay in to Deacon [John] Sprague. 

These officers had been chosen by the town at the annuaL 
meeting in the preceding month and were seven in number: — 
Ensign Thomas Lynde, Corp 1 John Green, 

Joel Jenkins, James Green, 

Serg 1 . Thomas Skinner, James Nichols, 

John Sargeant. 
The tithingmen, so called from being originally set over divi- 
sions of ten families, in addition to their primitive duty of 
watching over the moral welfare of their special charges, pre- 
served order in the meeting house and enforced the general 
observance of the Lord's Day. 3 A regulation made by the 
selectmen in 1684 would seem to have interfered somewhat 
with the duties of the regularly constituted tithingmen. 

27.8. 84. At a meeting of the select men for the regulating of Dis- 
order in the meeting house one the Lords Day by boys and youth play- 
ing it is agreed and ordered by the Selectmen that all house holders or 
masters of familyes in this Towne shall take there turns sucsessiuely 
euery Lords day both below and in y e galires ensine [Thomas] Lind to 
begin below and Sargent Samuell Sprague in the gallire 

in reference to the law little Children and youths it is agreed and 
ordered by the Select men that ensine [Thomas] Lind and henery 
green on the north side of the riuer and deacon John Sprague and 
deacon John Green on the south side of the riuer. 4 

3 The office and duties of the tith- 4 An old colonial law, which was 

ingmen are discussed by Herbert B. several times reaffirmed, required the 

Adams in Jo/ins Hopkins University selectmen to see " that all children & 

Studies, first series, iv. youth, vnder family government, be 



TOWN OFFICERS AND COMMON LANDS. 



345 



At the annual meeting, March 8, \6g 6 / 1 , the selectmen were 
authorized to appoint the tithingmen ; and they accordingly 
met at the house of John Greenland and chose, 

Samuel Green, Sr., Edward Sprague, 

Jonathan Sprague, Simon Grover, 

Obadiah Jenkins, Joseph Lamson, 

Samuel Wayte, Nathaniel Nichols. 

This would indicate that about eighty families were then 
living in the town, if the original significance of the office were 
still observed ; but the next year only four were chosen, and in 
1699 John Lynde and Jacob Winslad 5 divided the duties and 
honors which were 

formerly shared by ^^ J^OO-^ ^^L^^^^cl^ 1 ^, 
eight. The number 

was limited to two for more than a century, until 1806, when three 
were chosen. In 18 10 several refused to serve and none were 



taught to reade perfectly the English 
tongue, haue knouledge in the capitall 
lawes, & be taught some othodoxe 
chattechisme, & that they be brought 
v]) to some honest imployment, promt- 
able to themselues & the Com m on- 
wealth." Mass. Colony Records, iv. (2), 

395- 

5 This uncommon name appears in 
the records under the various forms of 
Winslad, Winslead, and Winslow, and 
has suffered some strange perversions 
at the hands of modern copyists. Al- 
though the only gravestone bearing the 
name at Sandy Bank makes it Winslead, 
the standard seems to have been the 
spelling of the text, if a standard there 
may be for a name which is both Win- 
slad and Winslow in a single paper. 
To illustrate the curious changes which 
have occurred in some family names this 
case is valuable. 

John Winslow married Sarah Moul- 
ton, daughter of Thomas and Jane Moul- 
ton of Maiden or Mystic Side, May 5, 
1652 ; and their children when born 
were recorded under the names of Win- 
slade and Winsled. Their son John 
died January 10, 168^, aged twenty-eight 
years, and his gravestone is that of 
John Winslead ; but Jacob Winslow 



was soon after granted letters of admin- 
istration upon the estate of his brother 
John Winslow "of Mauldon deceased." 
In the following April guardians were 
appointed for Jonathan and Thomas 
Winslead, and Jacob Winslead is men- 
tioned as administrator of the estate 
of John Winslead " late of Maldon." 
Midd. Court Records, iv. 93, 100. 

Over the date of April 13, 1690^ 
Thomas Winslow, in consideration of 
" being bound out against the ffrench, 
and not knowing how it may fall out, 
and whether I shall return again or no," 
made a deed of gift to his brother, 
Jacob Winslow, mentioning also his 
sister, Sarah Knower, his brother Joseph,, 
and his mother, to each of whom he 
gave a cow. Midd. Co Deeds, xi. 23; 
also the original in Midd. Probate Files,. 
in loco. He died within a year and his 
estate was appraised, April 6, 1691, as 
that of Thomas Winslade of Maiden, 
deceased. Administration was granted 
to Jacob Winslow, who gave a bond 
which he signed as Jacob Winslad, 
although both he and his deceased 
brother bore the name of Winslow in 
the body of the paper. Nine years 
later Jacob Winslad of Maiden, black- 
smith, gave a bond as administrator of 



346 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

elected for that year; but the next year Captain Unite Cox and 
John Townsend accepted the office and thereafter, until 1837, 
from two to six tithingmen were chosen annually. From the 
latter date the office ceased to be continuous; and in 1843 
Henry H. Hyde, Thomas J. Whittridge, and Isaac Cowdrey 
bore the honors if they did not perform the duties of the last 
tithingmen in Maiden. They had gradually lost their early im- 
portance ; and in time they filled the measure of their existence 
by pulling the ears of uneasy boys or rapping the heads of un- 
wary sleepers, when the weather was close or the preacher dull. 
Latterly, they served to answer the unrepealed statute, which 
required their election, rather than any definite purpose. 

The first constable of the town was Richard Adams, who has 
been mentioned as holding that office in 1651. Those who were 
chosen at the first recorded meeting, in 1678, refused to serve; 
and at the next meeting the town chose " Sarg 1 Tho. Skin r .," and 
it was voted : — 

y' y e selec 1 men agree with him & to be paid by y e whole Towne 
voted. — y' the select men levie y e fines According to law of Allexand r 
waite & willm Leraby that were chosen Constab' 5 & refused to serue : 
vnless they clear themselues by law. 6 

An unwillingness to accept this office was not uncommon. 
Thomas Waite was chosen, March 2, ijo)'?, but hired Samuel 
.Bucknam to take his place ; and it was recorded at the next 
meeting that " this town has exepted of y e s d Sam" bucknam." 
At the meeting of March 1, 171^, 

Samuel Green ju : at y e farms js chose constable. Petar Tufts js chose 
constable : and y c said Tufts has hired Thomas burdit jun r To sarue jn 

the estate of his brother, Jonathan Win- This change of the name may be 

slad of Maiden. Midd. Probate Files, in attributed to the peculiar pronunciation 

loco. A deed was executed, July 1, 1701, of the original word, Winslad, in which 

purporting to be by Jacob Winslad, the final letter became silent and a sound 

blacksmith, of Maiden, and his wife was given to a as in far. 

Elizabeth, to Thomas Mitchell, of land (1 Thomas Skinner was again chosen 

on the west side of Moulton's Island; the next year and his compensation 

but although the husband had signed fixed. 

his name as Winslad in the preceding " [March 8, 16^0] voted S r g. Skim 

December and the writer of the deed Constable for this yeare ensueing And 

had used the same form, the grantors the Towne to pay him three Pounds." 
signed as Jacob and Elizabeth Winslow. 



TOWN OFFICERS AND COMMON LANDS. 347 

his stead — And y c said Thomas burdit js excepted as a constable by a 
vote jn y e Roorae and stead of y e s d peetar Tufts for y e yeer ensuing : ' 

Sometimes a fine was incurred and paid in lieu of service, as in 
March, i73°/i, when " Samuell Tufts being chosen constable at 
this meeting paid five pounds & so answered y e Law in that 
affair, and y e Town voted again and chose Isacc Green con- 
stable." Ensign Joseph Lynde paid a like fine a year or two 
later. 8 

During the colonial period, one constable appears to have 
answered the requirements of the town ; and although two were 
chosen in 1678, Thomas Skinner served alone in 1679 and 1680. 
At the annual meeting in 1685^, it was voted to choose two, one 
from each side of Pemberton's Brook; and Joses Bucknam was 
chosen from the south, and Henry Green, from the north side. 
This vote was reaffirmed, March 1, 1707^, when it was 

voted that Jt shall be A standing order for the furtur that ther shall be 
Two Constables Yeerly chose jn this Town, one constable on y e north 
side of y e Riuer : and one constable on y e south side of y e Riuer. 

The constable was potential. He could " speede away all 
hues & crys, effect & signe them, where no magistrate is neere 
at hand, ag l theeves, robbers, murderers, manslajers, peace- 
breakers, & other capitoll offendors." He could " appiiend 
w th out warrant such as be overtaken w th drincke, swearing, 
Saboath breaking, lying, vagrant persons, [and] night walkers." 
He was obliged "to take notice of com m on coasters, vnprofitable 
fowlers, & other idle p r sons, & tobacco takers ; " to secure " any 
inhabitant or strainger after tenne of the clocke at night, behav- 
ing themselves deboist, or that giveth not a reasonable ground 
to y e connstable or watchman, or shallbe in drincke; " to give 
warning " vnto any inhabitants of theire toune, w th er men or 

7 Each end of the town was well 8 The twenty-fourth article of " The 

served in this instance; for both Tufts office & power of a counstable [May 

and Burditt were inhabitants of the 19, 1658,]" is: — 

south-eastern portion, near the Boston " Not to refuse the office of a conn- 
line, while Green lived " at y e farms " at stable, being orderly chosen thereto, on 
the northern extremity. The more cen- pcenalty of five pounds, & if in Boston, 
tral parts of the town may have been tenn pounds pcenalty." Mass. Colony 
very orderly or have taken care of Records, iv. (1), 326. 
themselves. 



343 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

weomen, that live from theire husbands or wives, to appeare at 
the next Court of y l county to ans r for theire so doing." 9 That 
he might be known, the Colony law provided " y l ev r y cunstable 
shall have a staffe, w lh some remarkable distinction, p r vided by 
y e towne, w ch may be as a signe or badge of his office, & this 
staffe to take along w th him, when he shall go fourth to discharge 
any p r t of his office, w ch staffe shalbe black, & about five foote, 
or five & a halfe foote long, tiped at y e upper end, about five 
or sixe inches, with brasse." If any person " wilfully, obstinately, 
or contemptuously" refused assistance to any constable "in 
y e execution of his office," he was liable to a fine of " fortye 
shillings to y e use of y e country, upon y e iust complaint of 
y e cunstable." 10 

Besides his duties in taking a general cognizance of offences 
and offenders, the constable was the executioner of the law. 
The whipping post and the stocks were under his charge ; and 
he was " to whip or punish any to bee punished where there is 
not another officer appointed to do it w th in his owne towne, un- 
lesse hee can get another to do it." 11 He was also a server of 
writs, collector of taxes, and coroner; and his time was well 
taken if he were faithful in fulfilling all the duties prescribed in 
the twenty-six articles which the General Court caused to be 
printed for his guidance. 12 

A town clerk and a treasurer are not mentioned in the record 
of the meeting held in 1678; nor was a clerk chosen by the 

9 Mass. Colony Records, iv. (i), 324- the First Parish meeting house; but, be- 
327. ing removed about 1S57, they have now 

10 Ibid., ii. 151. disappeared. 

11 Ibid., i. 339. The whipping post 12 The office &> poruer of a connstable, 
and stocks had their places under collected out of the seueral laives of this 
an ancient Balm of Gilead tree which collony. " [May 19, 165S,] Itt is ordered 
stood before Hill's Tavern. Those by this Court & y e authority thereof, 
thrifty trees which now stand south that the office & power of a connstable, 
of the City Hall are seedlings of the expressed in these twenty sixe articles, be 
same stock. Mary Degresha, other- forthwith printed, that so each connsta- 
wise Moll Grush, is said to have been ble may vnderstand his di'ty." Mass. 
the last sufferer by the lash. The soft- Colony Records, iv. (1), 324-327. An essay 
hearted officer who inflicted the punish- on the genesis and growth of the office of 
ment is reported to have said : — " Hold Constables by Herbert B. Adams is in 
still, Molly, and I won't hurt you." N. E. Hist, and Geneal. Register, xxxvi. 
The stocks, of heavy oak, after a long 174-187, 255-276, and in Johns Hopkins 
service, were preserved in the attic of University Studies, fr.'st series, viii. 



TOWN OFFICERS AND COMMON LANDS. 349 

voters until the annual meeting, March 9, i684/ 5 , when Samuel 
Sprague 13 appears as " clark of the writs." This must be con- 
sidered as a nomination rather than as an election ; for the 
County Court held the power of appointment, and at its session, 
October 6, 1685, " Samuel Sprague of Maldon is allowed Clarke 
of the writts for that Towne." 14 

The office of Clerk of the Writs was an old one, dating from 
1641, when the General Court ordered " that in every towne one 
shalbee appointed to grant summons & attachments in all civill 

actions These are chosen for a yeare, & till new be 

chosen in their roames." 15 The appointments were made, at 
first, by the General Court, afterwards, by the County Courts, 
acting upon the nomination of the towns, as in the instance just 
cited. The duties of the office were gradually abridged, and 
finally merged in those of the town clerk, a change which began 
to be apparent in 1686, when the Court appointed Lieutenant 
Samuel Sprague of Maiden among other " Clerks in the several 
Townes of this County to take account of all Births and Deaths 
in their respective Towns and to act in said office according to 
the order of the President & Council." 16 Samuel Sprague ap- 
parently held the office several years, although no other appoint- 
ment is mentioned. His name appears several times in the 
records, even after he had been superseded, as " Clark Samuel 
Sprague " to distinguish him from others of the same name. 

At length, for the first time, the town proceeded to the elec- 
tion of a town clerk ; and at the annual meeting, March 6, 
169^3, J°hn Greenland was chosen " Clark of the Town." As 
has been stated, 

John\Vayte,be- 4 ^/ &tin/a^ £&<+>» C&^/" 

ing a selectman, •/ "* «./ 

was the first in Maiden to perform the common duties of the 
town clerk and he appears to have continued in office by the 
choice of his associates nearly thirty-five years, until he was in- 
capacitated by blindness in 1684. 

13 John Sprague in the town records, u Midd. Court Records, iv. 189. 

which may be an error; or, perhaps, 15 Mass. Colony Records, i. 345, 346. 

John was chosen by the town but not 16 Midd. Court Records. — General 

confirmed by the Court. Sessions, Anno. 16S6. 



35° HISTORY OF MALDEN, 

Even after the clerk began to be elected by the town 
meetings, he was chosen from the selectmen until 1699, when 
the selectmen, of whom the clerk, John Greenland, was one, for 
some unrecorded reason, refused to serve and another board 
and another clerk, John Sprague, who was not a selectman, 
were chosen. At the same time, the new town clerk was chosen 
" scool-master." His fitness for the former office it is to be 
hoped was superior to that for the latter, which was not of a 
high order, if we may judge from the records which he has left. 
However, he appears to have been more appreciated in the latter 
office, for he taught several years later, while the old town clerk 
was restored at the next election. 

The duties of a treasurer appear to have been performed by 
the selectmen in common, although one among them may have 
been, by consent of the others, the special custodian of the funds. 
No record appears in relation to the office until March 9, i6g5/6, 
when Edward Sprague was chosen town treasurer. His services 
were considered in a grant of common land in 1697; but at the 
next annual meeting he was chosen constable and Phineas 
Upham, treasurer. A commissioner of assessments, Benjamin 
Webb, was chosen in March, i6g 2 i, who was succeeded by 
Samuel Green, Sen., in March, 169^, and by John Greenland, in 
June, 1695. 17 Edward Sprague was chosen to the same place by 
the meeting which made him treasurer. Nothing more is heard 
of the former office ; and circumstances indicate that the two 
were practically one and that the former commissioners of 
assessments performed the functions of treasurer. If the re- 
sponsibilities of the treasurer in those days of small things were 
comparatively light, his emoluments were not excessive. 
Phineas Upham received ten shillings, by a vote of the town, for 
his services in 1700. At first, the selectmen made settlements 
with the treasurer, as they had with the constables in former 
years, but later, a committee — the financial committee of more 
recent times, was annually chosen by the town for that purpose. 

17 "[August, 1687] Left Samuell commissioner in 16SS. After this I have 

Sprague was chosen commissioner to seen no notice of a similar office until 

joyne with the Townes men to make that mentioned in the text, 
the country rate." Joseph Wilson was 



TOWN OFFICERS AND COMMON LANDS. 35 1 

It has been noticed that the selectmen at first performed the 
duties of assessors; but, July 20, 1694, John Sargeant, Sen., 
Phineas Upham, and Jonathan Sprague, who were not select- 
men, were chosen at a general town meeting. At the annual 
meeting in March, 169^7, three assessors were chosen, of whom 
one was not a selectman. No assessors were chosen in 1700; 
but at a meeting of the selectmen in April the whole board of 
five members was sworn to perform that duty. In 1707^ the 
selectmen were assessors with a joint daily compensation of six 
shillings and " John Greenland [was] Chose Commissioner To 
Join with y e Assessers." 18 The next year the selectmen were 
again designated as assessors and so continued until March, 
I7°9/io, 19 when Phineas Upham, Thomas Newhall, Sen., and 
Samuel Sprague, who were not of that board, were chosen. At 
the next annual meeting the selectmen were again made asses- 
sors, "And to haue wages but for three men; " but a change 
was made the next year, when John Greenland and Phineas 
Upham, Jr. were chosen in company with the selectman, 
Samuel Sprague. In 1 7 1 3 the selectmen again performed the 
duties; and at the meeting in March, 171^4, "The Selectmen 
are chosen to be assessors and To sarue for Three mens wages." 
This system continued, subject, perhaps, to some changes in the 
rate of compensation, until March 14, 1780, when five assessors 
were chosen and special instructions given them by a committee. 
This change, which was apparently made for the purpose of cor- 
recting some real or fancied abuses in the valuation, was not of 
long duration. A return was made to the old order in 1784, and 
the selectmen continued to be the assessors for many years. 

Among the minor officers chosen at the town meetings were 
several whose duties referred to the care of cattle and other 
domestic animals, as the hog-constables, who were chosen in 
the earlier years and whose duties were afterwards performed by 

18 He was already a selectman and John Greenland Commissinor and John 
town clerk. Green and Let Henry Green and Sam- 

19 During some of these years three uell Sprague iun Chosen Trustees to 
of the board were specially designated take and make a ualuation of all the 
to the office. A valuation of the town Ratabell Estates of this town Both Real 
was ordered and a special committee and personal acording to the acte of 
was chosen for that purpose, January the Generall Cort." 

26, 170^, when it was, " uoted deacon 



352 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

the common drivers and the field drivers or haywards. The 
hog-constables were elected in 1678 and during a few years 
later. In 169^ Joseph Lamson and John Pemberton were 
chosen " To looke after the yoaking and ringing of swine." In 
169^ Joseph Floyd and Jonathan Sprague were chosen com- 
mon drivers and Nathaniel Upham and Obadiah Jenkins, " field 
drivers or howards ; " and the next year the common drivers 
disappeared, but Lazarus Grover and James Nichols were 
"howards." March 4, 17CP9, " willium Teele [was] chosen to 
se to the swine that thay [be] yoked and Ringed that thay 
may not do damige in the medowes." At the annual meeting 
in March, 171^4, William Teele, John Lynde, and Ebenezer 
Sargeant were appointed " to se y l y e swine be yoked and Ring d 
according to law; " and the next year Benjamin Hill and John 
Sprague were chosen " To se to y e due obsaruation of y e laws 
Relating to swine." The swine officers were called " hawerds " 
in 1 71 7. Swine were permitted to go at large, at certain sea- 
sons, properly yoked and ringed, according to law, by the 
annual vote of the town until April 5, 1802, when it was voted 
"Not to liberate the Swine." At the same meeting it was 
voted " Not to let the Cattle Go at large." The latter had been 
allowed to feed on the highways and were prevented from 
straying, in the early part of the last century, by frequent gates 
across the roads. Young cattle and sheep were, earlier, turned 
into the town commons, sometimes in charge of a common 
shepherd. It was voted, May 8, 1704, " y 1 there shall [be] a 
Shepard chose to keep y e town Hock of sheep for this yeer; " 
and Richard Sprague, a youth of eighteen, having been chosen, 
his father, Jonathan Sprague, engaged that the duty should be 
" cearfully and faithfuly don." Orders relating to rams are fre- 
quent upon the records. In the case of estrays, it was ordered. 
March 8, 170^: " y e finder shall forthwith set up a papar on 
capt Wilsons Shop: and also a papar on Jacob winsleds Shop 
both fairly written." 20 Cattle were known by owners'-marks, 

20 Joseph Wilson's blacksmith shop, notices. Jacob Winslad, also a black- 

whirh stood near his house at the smith, had his shop in the south-eastern 

present corner of Main and Salem part of the town. 
Streets, was a favorite place for posting 



TOWN OFFICERS AND COMMON LANDS. 353 

which were often recorded upon the town-book.* An entry made 
March 12, 1 704/5, is as follows: — " Nath 1 Waite y e markes of 
his creatures. The top of y e neere eare cut of. A slit jn y e top 
of y e far ear. And a half peney cut out of y e underside of 
y e same." Upon the same page are entered the marks of John 
Sargeant, Phineas Upham, Samuel Sweetser, Samuel Sprague, 
Jr., Samuel Sprague, 3rd, and John Lynde, and others are 
recorded elsewhere. As cattle and other domestic animals 
became confined to the premises of their owners and ceased to 
go at large the importance of the haywards, or hog-reeves, 
decreased, and their duties descended to the field drivers, an 
office which still exists and to which it was formerly, for many 
years, the facetious custom to elect newly-married men. 

John Sargeant, Sen., was elected " Clark of y e market " at 
the annual meeting in 169^ and several years after. In 170^ 
John Sargeant, his son, was chosen " sealer of waits & clerk of 
y e market," and he appears to have been annually re-elected 
until 1 7 1 73 , when he was succeeded by his son, Jonathan Sar- 
geant. This officer apparently took cognizance of the prices 
of produce and other commodities, which were frequently sub- 
ject to fixed rates, and considered and settled questions arising 
from their exchange. No election was recorded in 171 }{, nor 
until March, 173^4, when Jonathan Sargeant was again chosen. 
Three years later Moses Hill was chosen " sealer of waits and 
measures," an office which still exists, and no more is heard of 
the " dark of markets." The office probably fell into desuetude 
with the cessation of the necessity of making payments of taxes 
and other debts in kind and the more general use of money in 
business transactions. 

At a meeting held, December 31, 1739, it was 

vot. that James Green and Giles Goddard are chose to see that the 
violators of a late act made for the better preservation of dear within 
the province be presecuted and punished : sworn. 

At the annual meeting in the ensuing March, Samuel Green, 
3rd, and John Sprague, Jr. were chosen for the same purpose; 
and in i/4°i James Green and Timothy Upham were appointed 

-3 



354 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

" to put the new law in execution refering to the better preser- 
vation of the dear within this province." Others were chosen 
yearly until March 5, 174^, when the office assumed a name 
and Ensign John Dexter and Nathaniel Jenkins were chosen 
"Dear reves." No other elections are recorded until 174/6, 
when Isaac Hill was chosen. He was succeeded the next year 
by Israel Cook, and the office became a permanent one for 
nearly fifty years. The deer-reeve was called " Informer of 
Deer" in 1778, but received his original name in 1782; and so 
continued until 1792, when the office ceased. The last deer- 
reeve was Samuel Green ; but the last deer had disappeared 
from the Maiden woods nineteen years before. 

There was another office that the freemen of Maiden filled at 
the annual town meeting which has long ceased to be elective, 
or even a town matter. It was that of bellman, sexton, and 
grave-digger. The latter function of this triple office concerns 
more nearly the burying place at Sandy Bank. They had no 
need of bellman or sexton who came under the official hands of 
the grave-digger. The others concerned the living men of the 
town and were of importance to them. 

Who rang out the call from the little frame on Bell Rock 
under the summer sun and in the cold storms of winter for more 
than forty years, I know not. No record has preserved the 
early bellman's name; and Thomas Dunnell has the honor of 
being the first recorded choice of the town for that office. 

[1690.] Thomas Dunnell is made choyse of by the Towne to ring 
the bell and sweep the Meeting house the 1 of March 90 for which he 
is to have one pound fifteen shillings in pay by the yeare. 

A few days later the selectmen settled with Philip Atwood 
for the like service, which had probably been performed in the 
preceding year; and for some reason they made an agreement 
with Samuel Lewis, in the following August, for the same com- 
pensation that had been voted to Dunnell. However, Dunnell 
distanced his competitors, if competitions there were; for in 
March, 169%, it was agreed to transfer the bell from the rock, 
to the meeting house and it was 



TOWN OFFICERS AND COMMON LANDS. 355 

voted Thomas dunnell Is chose to Ring y e bell and sweep and look 
after y e meting hous for this year : and the Town doth agree to give 
him Thirty five shillings by a Reate : y e said dunnell Is also to dig the 
graues. 

Thereafter, for twenty-seven years, he was as regularly elected 
as the selectmen or the constables, with varying fortune as to 
the amount of his compensation, which increased from thirty 
shillings in 1696 to three pounds in 1 7 17. In 1710 a love of 
office, or its emoluments, appears to have taken possession of 
him ; for while he was chosen " Belman " with the provision that 
" he js also to sweep y e meting hous," it is added to the record 
that " he also desiers to dig y e graues." It is to be hoped that 
the privilege was accorded to him that year as it was in 1 713, 
when to the record of his election is added " he is to dig y e 
graues." His duties were again specified in 17 14, when it is 
recorded : — 

[March 1, 171, 3 /.] Thomas dunell js chose To Ring y e bell and to 
clens and look aftar y e meting hous for y e yeer ensuing and js to haue 
for his saruic 02-10-00 for y e yeer ensuing. 

Thomas Dunnell was re-elected, March 7, 17^ 20, and appears 
no more. 21 I suspect that he performed his duties until the next 
winter, and that Sandy Bank took to itself all that it could claim 
of the bellman and grave-digger; for Ambrose Hines was 
chosen, December 2, 1720, bellman until March. At the next 
annual meeting, he was chosen for the year and allowed three 
pounds for his services. His term was not a long one. At the 
meeting in March, 172^, the selectmen were instructed to find 
a bellman ; and a year later, Jeremiah Howard, who had, per- 
haps, been employed by the selectmen was chosen by the town. 
There is no record of an election for several years after 1724, 
until March 2, 1 729/30, when Thomas Degresha was chosen and 
the compensation raised to four pounds. The next year occurs 
the first mention of a sexton under that name, it being " Voted 
— that y? selectmen provide a sexton for y e year Ensueing." 

- 1 Thomas Dunnell lived north of in the land now occupied by the Wyom- 
Forest Street on the old road to Read- ing Cemetery in Melrose until filled by 
ing. The cellar of his house remained Charles Pratt many years ago. 



35« HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Thomas Degresha was still the sexton in 1733; but Thomas 
Manser was elected by the town in March, 173H, and continued 
until March 5, 1 73 s 9 , when Degresha again appeared and the 
following vote was recorded : — 

vot That Thomas Degresha Shall be belman to ring the bel foi 
town meetings and that the s d bellman shall have eight shillings for dig- 
ing a grave for any person above ten years old in the winter season and 
six in the sumer and six shillings a grave att any time of the year for 
those persons that are under ten years of age. 

By a later vote he was allowed forty shillings for ringing the 
bell for town meetings. Manser may have continued to 
" clens " the meeting house, which was now under the charge of 
the parish, although the town continued to choose sextons for 
more than seventy years. Every voter of the town, whether of 
the north or of the south, had a voice in the election of the 
town sexton ; and their choice was usually adopted by the 
voters of the North Parish or by their committee. Meanwhile, 
the voters of the South Precinct, in their separate capacity, had 
chosen Joseph Burditt and were paying him forty shillings " for 
Sweeping and taking Care " of their meeting house on Sar- 
geant's Hill. 22 Thomas Manser was again chosen by the town 
in March, 1739 40 ; and, although he was numbered among the 
paupers in 1763, a bellman and sexton he continued to be until 
1775. His compensation varied from year to year as it was paid 
in debased currency or lawful money. In 1755 he received 
twenty-five shillings from the town and twelve pounds, old 
tenor, from the parish ; but the latter was made thirty-two shil- 
lings, lawful money, the next year. At the annual meeting, 
March 5, 1770, it was voted " To give three Pistarenes per grave 
for grown Persons, & two for children the Year round." Man- 
ser was re-chosen by the town and parish in March, 1775, re- 
ceiving from the latter the sum of thirty-two shillings; and his 
name appears no more. He probably soon went the way of 
his predecessor, Thomas Dunnell. Whatever was the cause of 
his retirement from his long term of service, it was not long 
after his re-election; for as early as June 21 of that year it was 

-'- South Precinct Records, Dec. 19, 1738; March 7, 173%. 



^fazicvtL- 



TOWN OFFICERS AND COMMON LANDS. 357 

Voted, That Ml Martin be forbidden, for the present to ring the bell 
on any account what ever, except that it may be rung for an alarm, and 
tolled for funerals.- 3 

At the next annual meeting it was " Voted That [the] Select- 
men be Impowered to agree with a Saxton for the Insuing year 
on such terms as they shall think Proper; " and a vote giving 
their committee the same authority was passed by the North 
Parish soon after. John Martin, an Englishman and an old sol- 
dier of the French wars, * /I 

appears to have been the (J^h/jfi OlI/iSllL 

person selected; and he yf r ^ r*UM<flJrC^ 

was chosen by the town in £S ^J* 

1778 and 1780, and by the 
parish in 1779 and 1780. 
The parish voted him five hundred dollars in the currency of 
the day for his services in those two years. He continued to 
be the town and parish sexton, receiving for his labors in 1786 
the sum of thirty-six shillings from the town. The purchase of 
a pair of shoes for his use by the town in 1788 marks him as a 
pauper; and he died, May 28, 1793, being recorded as " states- 
poor." No other sexton was mentioned meanwhile except 
Jacob Pratt, who was chosen by the town in March, 1792. The 
life of the new sexton is very well summarized in the following 
extract : — 

Jacob, second son of Thomas [and Sarah'] Pratt {born February 
J 5, I 754>) never had any trade. He worked some on his small place 
& went out to work some by the day. He was sexton for many years, 
until the new meeting house was built, viz. the brick meeting house 
which is the Universalist's meeting house. It was built in 1802, at 
which time Charles Hill became sexton. . . . The latter part of his 
days he followed fishing with John Jenkins, much of the time. The 
landing from which they started is about a quarter of a mile from 
Black Ann's Corner. 24 

28 This was four days after the less given on Sunday, August 6, 1775, 

Battle of Bunker Hill, when the country when a party of the British landed at 

was in a state of intense excitement ; Penny Ferry and sent the provincials 

and the vote was passed not only to flying up the road. 

prevent an unnecessary alarm, but to 2 + MS. of the late John Pratt. The 

emphasize one when it should become town record says Jacob Pratt was born 

necessary. Such an alarm was doubt- February 19, 1754. He lived in a house 



353 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 














• ■ , 



'>. 



With him the old succession of bellmen and sextons came to 
an end. They were an humble race, generally with a tendency 
to indigence. Neither Lewis nor Dunnell was a freeholder, 
and Degresha, Manser, and Martin became paupers. 



near Reedy Pond, which, changed in 
appearance, and removed a little from 
its former position, is still standing, in 
1898, on the northerly side of Forest 
Street, and is owned by O. W. Ennis. 
It was probably built during the first 
quarter of the eighteenth century, and 
was sold to John Pratt in 1777 by Anna 
Howard, " Seemster." This house, a 
view of which is given, in its original 



condition was an interesting example 
of arrested development. It was a com- 
mon practice to build a portion of the 
house, the chimney and front door being 
at one end. As the family increased, 
other rooms would be built around the 
chimney and the house would be ex- 
tended to twice, or more, of its original 
capacity- This house, as will be seen in 
the sketch, never passed the first period. 



TOWN OFFICERS AND COMMON LANDS. 359 

With the completion of the new meeting house a young man 
was inducted into the office of sexton, who for the greater pait 
of a lifetime enjoyed as well as fulfilled its duties. Charles Hill 
was a son of Charles Hill, the landlord of Hill's Tavern, and 
was a man of much natural shrewdness and wit. He became 
prominent in the parish, being its clerk, as well as sexton, for 
many years. He was active as well in town affairs, holding 
several offices, and serving on important committees. Above 
all, he was the well-known constable of Maiden, and as such he 
was a terror to the evil-doers of two generations. His voice, 
no less than his cane, was potential in the quelling of disorder. 
He was the last sexton chosen by the town or by its authority ; 
and his term of service exceeded even that of his veteran pre- 
decessor, Thomas Manser. As sexton of the First Parish he 
was active and careful, not ceasing from the performance of his 
duties until about 1844; and for many years he enjoyed the 
monopoly of grave digging and burying in the town. His son, 
Charles Hill, Jr., succeeded him, and continued the office in the 
name for twelve years longer. 

The old-time sextons have passed away, nor have they left 
a legitimate successor; for the janitors and undertakers of to- 
day have neither the importance nor the individuality which 
formerly attached to the office. They have passed into liter- 
ature as a gossiping, easy race of men, who were not unphilo- 
sophical nor unwise in their degree. Nor does the reputation 
which they have acquired appear to have been undeserved. 
All the passing events of the town came under their ken ; and 
they knew its people as they knew its traditions, from the first to 
the last. They were as familiar with the parson and the doctor 
as with their equals. If their emoluments were light, their 
position had many advantages, which were not to be measured 
by the standards of lawful money or old tenor ; and by the 
force of their surroundings they assumed a dignity which was 
far above that which was warranted by their station or the 
humble duties of their office. 

John Lynde and Joseph Wayte, " Overseers of the ministers 
wood," were among the town officers chosen in 1686; and jury- 



360 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



men were frequently chosen by the town at the early annual 
meetings. A " Sealar of lethar " was chosen in March, I7°9/ I0 , 
and afterwards. The first to hold that office was James Moul- 
ton, who was followed by his neighbors, Joseph Lamson and 
James Upham. These were inhabitants of the southeastern 
part of the town, where the business of tanning hides appears 
to have been begun at an early day and continued until near, if 
not after, the period of the Revolution. 25 

Highway surveyors and viewers of fences were among the 
early and later officers of the town. Surveyors of hemp and 
flax, and measurers of " Timber, boards Clabords & Shingles," 
and other special officers were chosen at times, and committees 



25 A tan-yard was established at the 
South Spring and was in active opera- 
tion until about 1S15. The ancient 
house, still standing west of the Everett 
Spring house, was for the most of the 
time the property and the residence of 
the proprietors. It has been seen that 
the easterly five acres of lot eleven were 
sold by Thomas Moulton to Richard 
Dexter in 1646. Here Dexter built 
a house which, by equal proportions of 
gift and sale, he transferred to James 
Mellens, who had married his daughter, 
Elizabeth. At the same time he con- 
veyed one acre " on the South Side the 
high way over ag r the said house." 
Midd. Co. Deeds, iii. 2S5. John Brint- 
nall, who married Deborah, a grand- 
daughter of James Mellens, became by 
inheritance and purchase the owner of 
this part of the " Millinses " land, hav- 
ing previously established a tan-yard 
on the southerly one acre on which he 
was seated in 1713. Here he had a tan 
house, a bark mill, and the necessary 
tan and water pits. Thomas Campbell 
of Marblehead, a cordwainer, purchased 
the property of Brintnall in 1721 and 
sold the tan-yard to Benjamin Blaney of 
Lynn in 1724. Blaney, although a cord- 
wainer, began the business of a tanner, 
and soon after bought the house and 
land on the other side of the road. He 
became captain of the Maiden company 
and a justice, and was a prominent and 
useful citizen. His violent death in 
175°/! will be noticed elsewhere. His 



son, Benjamin, the Revolutionary cap- 
tain, continued the business of his father 
until late in life, when in 181 5 he sold 
both the house and tan-yard to Jabez 
Sargent of Boston, who, the next year, 
transferred his purchase to Nathan 
Nichols. Nichols in his turn sold it in 
1817 to Miss Joanna Tileston Oliver, a 
niece of Mrs. Sarah (Sigourney) Waters, 
the wife of Captain Daniel Waters, who 
lived on the adjoining land. Here 
" Aunt Joey," as she was familiarly 
called by the townspeople, lived until 
her death, October 19, 1865. 

The old house, with its two noble 
horse-chestnut trees, which were brought 
from the garden of Gardiner Greene in 
Boston, probably in 1835 when Pember- 
ton's Hill was taken down, is one of the 
landmarks of Everett. Although in its 
present form it is apparently of the first 
quarter of the eighteenth century, it pro- 
bably contains in its construction the 
earlier house of Richard Dexter. 

" Planer's tan-yard," a triangular piece 
of ground on the south side of Chelsea 
Street, could easily be recognized until 
1894, when the building of a large tene- 
ment house caused all the evidences of 
the old-time industry to disappear. It 
was sometimes known as " Joey Oliver's 
Close," a rare survival of an old English 
term. Blaney added to this part of his 
original purchase a parcel of common 
land on its easterly side, which included 
the Spring Gutter within its bounds. 



TOWN OFFICERS AND COMMON LANDS. 



361 



were often appointed for various purposes. School committees 
and overseers of the poor, as independent officers, did not exist 
in the colonial and provincial periods. They were of a later 
day and will be noticed in their places. 

The country rates have been mentioned in a former chapter, 
and there were those which at various times, with some irregu- 
larity, were laid for highways, for schools, and for the poor. 
Besides these and the ministerial tax, there was another for town 
charges, which the voters sometimes allowed with promptness, 
and at others refused to authorize. With these various claims 




«*& 






*/r' ,X ^-A. "^ . . — - ^ r» -J" 




•3£cJvis.</ HoiA.si. 



upon them, the men of the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- 
turies bore a burden of taxation which was no light load in 
those days of small things ; and the public rooms of Hill's and 
Newhall's taverns echoed on town meeting days, no doubt, with 
many an honest growl from discontented and impecunious tax- 
payers. Sometimes the load was lightened, as in 1686, when it 
was "Voted at a publick Town meeting that the mony that was 
given towards the redemption of M r Gold he being dead in 
captivity showld return vnto the Towne for the Townes Vse and 
not vnto his Widdow." The next year the " Towns Meadow at 
Woster [was] let to M r Dauson of Boston for this year 87-20 
shill silver." 

At a meeting, May 18, 1694, a rate of twenty-five pounds was 
ordered for town charges. The town rates committed to the 
constables for collection in July of the same year amounted to 



362 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

^34 7s. 8d. which included other items besides that of town 
charges. Of this amount John Mudge was to collect ^20 14s. 4d. 
and Samuel Green, ^13 13s. 4d. May 8, 1696, thirty-four or 
thirty-five pounds were voted for " nesesary " charges, and ten 
pounds to pay an amount due Charlestown. The next year 
about twenty-four pounds were considered sufficient to meet 
the town charges ; and a few days later the selectmen met at 
Isaac Hill's tavern, and made a town and country rate amount- 
ing to £2J 3s. 9d. This was probably only a portion of the 
amount to be raised, as it was the custom to make two or 
more rates each year — a wise provision where much was 
paid in kind and but little in money. The three shillings 
and ninepence may have been swallowed up by a " bill for 
charges at Isak Hills," an item which is by no means in- 
frequent in the records. This refreshment of the inner man 
must not be confounded with the modern junketing ; for to 
a man who had ridden from the north end or Scadan through 
the woods on a cold day much might be forgiven in that 
early time, when little harm was thought to be in " some- 
thing warm." 

It was somewhat easier to lay rates than to collect them. In 
a settlement with the treasurer, Phineas Upham, in March, 
yff jj, it appeared that four shillings and tenpence were still due, 
which, adds the record, " js jn y e wido Marshall and wido greens 
hands and Cant be had." A "Town Reate " was made April 9, 
1700, which, covering other items besides town charges, 
amounted to £$2 3s. 1 id., and was committed to constables John 
Green and Jacob Winslad, to be returned by the last day of 
JuK'. In October of the same year it was " noted y l ther shall 
be between eleuen and twelue pounds Raised to defray Town 
charges;" and a second rate of ^"20 us. was laid soon after. 
Twenty-two pounds were raised, May 16, 1701, of which three 
pounds were " for ammonition for y c towns stock." By a vote 
of the town, May 19, 1712, "Collectors [were] to haue 20 shil- 
lings for their Saruis for y e Town." 

The amounts raised for town charges varied from year to 
year, being twenty pounds in 1706, and forty pounds in 1716. 



TOWN OFFICERS AND COMMON LANDS. 363 

Some allowance must be made for the difference in values, 
which resulted from the issue of paper currency. 26 

In the spring of 1729, perhaps by the influence of those of 
Mystic Side who had recently been annexed from Charlestown 
and were not in good humor over the meeting house question, 
the town twice refused to raise money for general expenses. 
Perhaps it was those of the northern section who at the same 
time refused to pay Jonathan Sargeant, a south end man, for 
his services as representative in 1728. However, a more accom- 
modating spirit pervaded the meeting in August of the same 
year, when seventy pounds, money, were raised for expenses, 
and a temporary compromise was made in relation to the 
location of the new meeting house. An addition to the town 
charges was made for more " ammonition " in March, 173^, 
when a committee was instructed to buy forty-three and a quar- 
ter pounds of powder at a cost of twelve pounds, money. The 
value of money had so decreased that one hundred and fifty 
pounds were raised for town charges in October, 1736, and the 
same sum in 1 741 . School and other charges appear now to 
have been included in the amounts raised for general expenses. 

The following table shows the sums raised for town charges 
at intervals of five years until the Revolution. Appropriations 
for special purposes were also made from time to time. 27 

26 Bills of credit were worth, in 17 10, choked enterprise and impeded, if it did 

at the rate of eight shillings for an not destroy, every branch of legitimate 

ounce of silver; in 1716, ten shillings; trade. Nor were the loss and depriva- 

and in 1725 they had fallen to seventeen tion borne by widows and orphans and 

shillings. In 1749 the evil had reached salaried men exceeded by the troubles 

its highest point and the currency had of mercantile business. The resump- 

fallen to sixty shillings. tion of specie payments by the Province 

The blessings of a paper currency in 1750 was the beginning of a period 
were experienced by the people of Massa- of prosperity which continued until the 
chusetts to the utmost. The reign of opening of the Revolution. Cf. Felt, 
paper extended over a period of sixty Historical Account of Massachusetts Cnr- 
years. From the first issue in 16901111- rency ; and Derby, History of Paper 
til the close of this fateful period, emis- Money in the Province of Massachusetts. 
sion after emission was put forth until 27 March 25, 1742, the selectmen 
the outstanding bills of the Province ex- made a rate " of forty pounds old tenor 
ceeded two million pounds; and every to answer the payments that may be de- 
fresh expedient worked additional loss manded upon the town for Black birds 
and financial suffering. The people were Crows Squirrels and wharf rats together 
entangled in a mesh of " Old Tenor, with other charges of the town." 
Middle Tenor, and New Tenor," which 



364 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

July 26, 1742, ^150 00 00, old tenor. 

May 14, 1747, 200 00 00, „ 

May 13, 1752, 66 13 4, lawful money. 

May 16, 1757, 800000, „ 

May 17, 1762, 150 00 00, ,, 

May 18, 1767, 120 00 00, ,, 

May 18, 1772 150 00 00, ,, 

May 19, 1777 130 00 00, 

When the several allotments of land were made on Mystic 
Side the large tract covered by the hills, which stretch easterly 
from Wayte's Mount to the old Boston line, and the larger part 
of the present town of Melrose remained common land covered 
with wood ; and in a large part of its extent, being extremely 
rugged and rocky, it was of little worth save for the timber which 
it bore or as affording a scanty pasturage, for which purpose the 
better portions appear to have been used. Within the limits of 
this territory were a few natural fields and some remote mead- 
ows, which had been taken either by unrecorded allotments or 
otherwise, and two or three houses had been built thereon. 
Thomas Dickerman had settled towards the Boston line, where 
Dickerman's Hill in the easterly portion of Salem Street still 
preserves his memory; and the town confirmed his heirs in the 
possession of the house which he built with land around it. The 
Greens had cleared their farm and built in the northerly portion 
upon the westerly side of the road to Reading ; and the town 
voted, 

[May 18, 1694] that Samuel Green shall Imoy his hous and y e land 
Jt stands on and so much land about It as y e commite shall se cause to 
lay to Jt : and jt js Jntend for him and his asigns foreuer. 

The commons were the occasion of many votes and orders 
relating to the felling of trees and pasturage; and the encroach- 
ments of the Charlestown neighbors were frequent. In 168 1 
Stephen Barrett, Joseph Lamson, and Thomas Barlow, of whom 
the former and latter, at least, were Mystic Side men, were 
warned against taking wood from "our common; " and a vote 
was passed in March, 168^: — 



TOWN OFFICERS AND COMMON LANDS. 365 

That no fyrvvood shall be feld or cutt vppon the common this yeare 
ensueing but what is or shalbe lying on the ground on penalty of hue 
shillings p r tree. Excepting on the south syde of the rocks from Joseph 
Wayts house to Lem" Jenkins & from thence on the South r ly side the 
swamp to the Town lyne.' 28 

Similar votes were passed from time to time; and in 1684, 
was entered 

Thomas newhalls complaint to the Townes men against Jose Buck- 
nam for selling seventeen green trees for fire wood vpon the common 
oute of the bounds set contrary to the towne order : 

Such offences were common. It was 

[March 9, i686/ 7 ] voted at a publike Towne meeting that nathaniell 
potter [Parker?] for earning and cutting timber of the common con- 
trary to a Towne order paid three pound and ten shillings in siluer J 
say receued by mee John Sprague senior in the behalfe and for the vse 
of the towne 8. 1. 86. 

In November, 1689, it was voted that no young trees under a 
foot over should be felled for firewood under a penalty of five 
shillings for each tree. This order was to remain in force until 
March 22 ; and it was farther voted " That Charlsetowne men 
one this side of the riuer shall be forwarned for cutting and 
carting any wood of the Common that belongs to Maulden." 

The Mystic Side men continued their offences and frequent 
orders and warnings were issued in consequence, until, in 1691, 

the inhabitance of maldon voted at a publik Towne meeting that the 
in habitance of charlsTown one mistak side are not to cut nor carry 
of any wood or timber of maulden commen after warning giuen to 
them to forbeare : 

Allso voted at the same time as followeth John green Jn r Joses Buck- 
nam Se r Thomas newhall Jsak Hill Jacob parker thay were chosen as 
a committy to prosecute in a course of law any that shall offend by 
cutting and earring wood of maiden common. 

Previous to the passing of this vote, the " townsmen " had 
been empowered to sue Richard Stowers, the innkeeper of 
Mystic Side, for his offences ; and this energetic action seems 

28 This exception covered that por- the Scadan hills, between the present 
tion of the common which lay below Lebanon Street and the Boston line. 



$66 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

to have stopped the encroachments. The rights of commonage 
began to be abused ; and a vote was passed, 

[March 14, 169)2] that no maiden man shall take any sheep 
out of any other tovvne to keepe upon maiden common directly or 
indirectly he shall forfeit : 1 : shilling in siluer for euery sheepe so 
taken and kept upon the common to the use of the Towne. 

At the next annual meeting, it was 

[March 6, 169^3] voted. That all y c inhabitenc one y e south sid of 
y e River that puts ther sheep one y e common they shall be put under 
the care of one shepard. 

A committee was chosen, July 12, 1693, to run the line be- 
tween the lands of the proprietors and the common, and its 
action is recorded as follows: — 29 

nouember deken Green Henery 

y*6: 1693. Green Joses Bucknam 

Jsaac Hill and John Greenland being y e maigor part of y e comite 
chosen to Run y e line betvven the common and proprietors land : Run 
y e line between Joseph floyds land and y e common neer y e spring and 
marsh a white oke tree with leter C a litle within Joseph floyds wall 
neer y e marsh : 

The same day Run y e bounds Round Joseph floyds hous and barn 
one y e east cornr : of his garding bounded by a stake, from thence 
upon a line to a stake set a litell below y e dore of his hous. from thenc 
upon a straight line y e foreside of his barn to a hape of stons by a Rock 
one y e South cornr. y e backside bounded by Seuerall Rocks or great 
stons y! Rang upon, a line one y e side of y e hill 

The same day John floyd was warned to Remove his fenc from of the 
cuntrey Rhod And all y e land aboue the Rhod Is Juged to be common 
y f Js against John floyds land : Lemuell Jinkens warned to Remove y e 
hous y' was dikermans from of y e common : and Ezekell Jinkens warned 
to Remove his fenc from of y e common. 30 The same day In y e pres- 

29 The lands whose bounds were and west by the common, and east 
questioned, November 6-March 7, were " upon vacant Land commonly called 
in Scadan and near Black Ann's Corner, the Rockes." This location may still 
The farm of Joseph Floyd, which had be identified. The town soon after 
formerly been that of John Doolittle, voted, "That Capt John floyd hath 
with a new house in 1667, was bounded Liberty granted him to erect an end to- 
by the Boston line and was apparently his dweling hous one y" common." 
upon the southerly side of the Salem 30 The town had confirmed the 
Road. That of Captain John Floyd was Dickerman land, as before stated, 
mostly south of the road ; but the house John Dickerman sold Lemuel Jenkins, 
stood upon one acre of land on the November 21, 1690, a piece of meadow 
northerly side, which was bounded north land and upland, with a dwelling house, 



TOWN OFFICERS AND COMMON LANDS. 367 

ents of Seuerall witnesses — Jonathan Sprague Sam 1 Sprague Joseph 
floyd and James Chadwick Henery Green : John Green Isaac Hill, 
nouember "phines Upham and John Greenland as a comitte chose by 
y-- 20: 1693. ye Town puld up a peece of fenc y l stood one y e common 
neere dickermans hous : and also Run y e line between y e common and 
Jonathan Spragues land and did drive a stake at y e corner betwen y e lot 
formerly caled Mathew Smiths lot : and Jonathan Spragues land : and 
y e common. 31 And marked y e stake next y e common with letter C. 
and likewise did driue a stake neer Hawards barn between John Sar- 
gants Jun r his land and y e common : and marked y e stake next y e com- 
mon and next the highway with leter C. 

The same day y e select-men warned Samuel Green Junf To Remoue 
his fenc of y e common y : stands neer His hous : and all y e laud 
aboue y e Rhod y l is against y e said Greens land Js lookt at to be 
comon land. 
December The same Committe : Run y e line between y e common and 
y e 5 : l6 93 Lemuell Jinkins land It was agreed between both parties 
y' y e land Without y e said Jinkens fenc before his hous Js and doth 
Remain common : and we markt a maple tree That stands neere 
y e said Jinkens hous by y e fenc with letter C. 

ffrom thenc westwardly to three small buttenwood trees y* does Raing 
one a line all markt next y e common with letter C : from thenc to a 
heap of stons at y e corner, so that ther Js a convenent passag way for 
cattell between Jinkenses land and y e Rocks. 

on y e sam day y e line was Run Round y e land y' was Sargant hawards 
and erected seuerall heaps of stons upon y e line and markt seuerall 
trees with letter C next y e common. 

[March 7, 169^.] deken Green Henery Green Iohn Green Isaac 
Hill Phines upham And John Greenland : who are y e maigor part of 
y e commite formarly Chosen To Run y e Line between propriotary Land 
and y e common Run y e Line from a heape of stons erected for a mark 
at y e head of Lemuell Jinkens land next y e common : ouer a thurt by 
y e head of Leutanant Samuel Spragues land upone a straight line about 
Twelve foot below a greate singl Rock to a heap of stons erected one 
y e other sid of y e said Spragues land next y e common from thenc as 
y e fenc now stands to y e said Spragues hous and markt a walnut tree 
In y e fenc next y e common with Leter C. 

in Maiden — 4}^ acres, e., James Chad- Thomas Dickerman deceased during 

wick; w., Ezekiel Jenkins and John the Term of her life." Midd. Co. Deeds, 

Hunker; N., the town commons; s., xxxviii. 47. 

John Dickerman ; " oneiy excepting and 31 The lot of Matthew Smith was the 

reserving the Dwelling House aforesaid most westerly lot in the fifth range of 

for the free use and Improvement of the allotment of 1638, and was num- 

anna Dickerman widow and Relict of bered ninety-two. 



368 



HISTORY OF MA LB EN. 



[March 26, 1694.] The former Comitie met and Run y e bounds 
Round Reedy pond y e bounds Are first a great buttenvvood tree before 
Joseph Lines dore. 32 and so bounded Round with seuerall trees 
marked with letter C next common. 
And erected seuerall heapes of stons 

The same day Run y e line about Joseph waits plain : and markt seu- 
erell trees with letter C next y e common. 

y e same day Run y e line Round Swains pond meddow and marked 
seuerall trees with letter C next y e common : 

y e same day y e bounds was Run about wilkesons land and marked 
seuerall trees next y e common with letter C. 33 

The same day y e bounds was Run about Squiers meddo and marked 
seuerall trees next y e common with letter C : 

This action was preliminary to a final division of the commons, 
which at first was intended to be " only y e deuiding of y e wood 
And timber;" but came at last to include both "bottom and 
top y l is land And wood." This allotment was the occasion of 
many town meetings and meetings of committees, as will be seen 
by the extracts which follow. 

[April 23, 1694.] voted: by y e maigor part of y e proprioters present 
That the Town common shall be deuided That all those Jnhabitants 



32 The house of Joseph Lynde was 
that which was built by his father, 
Thomas Lynde, above Mount Prospect 
or Wayte's Mount. It passed from 
the Lynde family to the Pratts, and is 
described as being bounded on the 
" Townway that leads from Reading 
Road to Dexter's Rocks." It was 
demolished, about 1828, by John Pratt, 
who built in its place the house now 
standing at the entrance of Forest Dale 
Cemetery. 

Reedy Pond was near the Lynde 
house, on the southerly side of the 
road, and until 1S94 its place was 
marked by a hollow and a small brook 
that drained a swamp or meadow on 
the easterly side of Mount Vernon 
Street. It was "sometimes in the oc- 
cupation of Thomas Green," before his 
death, February 13, 167^. Joseph 
Hills, father of Widow Rebecca Green 
who had died a few months before, 
deeded it in 1674 to Thomas Newhall, 
who had married his granddaughter, 



Rebecca, daughter of Trumpeter 
Thomas Green. It was then described 
as two acres of meadow called Reedy 
Pond, bounded by the rocks and the 
land of Thomas Lynde. Midd. Co. 
Deeds, viii. 543. The land around, ex- 
cept upon the north, was common 
land, a portion of which was allotted 
to Thomas Newhall in the general 
division. As Reedy Pond Pasture it 
remained in the possession of his de- 
scendants about a hundred years. A 
view in this chapter shows the farm 
buildings of John Pratt, as they re- 
mained in 1883. 

33 Isaac Wilkinson's land was towards 
Long Pond, near the Boston line. 
Squire's Meadow, which was a portion 
of the estate of William Boardman in 
1705 [Suffolk Co. De?ds, xxiv. 142], was 
still farther north in the vicinity of the 
Boardman house, which is still standing, 
an interesting relic of the seventeenth 
century, in Saugus, near the Melrose 
line. See the view in this chapter. 



TOWN OFFICERS AND COMMON LANDS. 



369 



that haue a hous and Land of freehold Jn this Town shall haue theire 

due proportion In y e common 

voted : That Joseph Hasey hes common priveledges granted him to 

the house and land that was william bucknams M 

voted: That consarning y e deuiding of y e common: It Is ment only 

y e deuiding of y e wood And timber 














[November 20, 1694.] Voted That y e town doe leue It To a com- 
mite of 3 men that are Resedent jn sum other town or towns for To 
prescribe a Rule how to deuide y e town common 

voted : That y e common shall be deuided : bottom and top y* is land 
And wood 

voted : That maigor Johnson Cap' John Smith Cap' John brown are 
Chosen to be y e men abouesaid 

voted : That no Green wood nor Timbar shall be feld one y e com- 
mon eney time between this and next tuesday night after y e date heerof 
vpon penelty of five shillings fine for each tree 

[November 26, 1694.] Wharas we Subscribers are Requested or 
Impovved : by y e jnhabitants of maldon To prescribe a way for 
y e deuiding of their common both Land and wood : — we considering 
the seuerall methods and way of Their Raising of Town Charges for 
time past : 

34 William Bucknam, son of William and sisters. The widow married Lieu- 

Bucknam, who married Hannah, daugh- tenant Joseph Hasey of Rumney Marsh, 

ter of Captain John Wayte, died Septem- who soon after purchased the right of 

bar 17, 1693, leaving land described as the Bucknams to the reversion. Midd. 

"lands which my father left me," to his Co. Deeds, x. 294 
widow with reversion to his brothers 

24 



37° HISTORY OF MALDEX. 

first we doe adjug their be a commite chose of Jndeferant men To set 

out so much land for perpatuall common as they shall see meete 

2 ly - that there be a true Invoice taken of every true propriotors estate 

And twenty pounds aded for the heads of euery freeholder acording To 

town vote whather male or fafale 

3 ly : then for y e Rest of y e common draw lots for equall proportions 

Acording to the Inuoice beginning your lots at y e uper end of your 

common next Reding : at y e southwest corner and so Run dowards in 

two deuisions or more if you see cause 

Maj or William Johnson 
Capt John Smith 
Capt John brown. 35 

A committee was appointed, December 17, to prepare a list 
of the inhabitants; and at a meeting held by adjournment, 
December 25, Deacon John Green, John Greenland, Tryal New- 
berry, Phineas Upham, Thomas Newhall, Lieutenant Joseph 
Wilson, 36 and Henry Green were chosen to proceed in dividing 
the common " according to the direction of y e formar committe 
namly those gentillmen That ware chosen out of this town : jn 
order to y e drawing of lots to proportion Two thousand accres." 

At a meeting of y e commitie at Thomas newhals y e 3 1 of desembar 
1694 Then and Their agreead how and whare to begin to deuide y e 
common To begin first : at The Southwest corner of nathaniell 
eueneses land next to Charlestown Line : And Run lots Eighty pool in 
length next To Charlestown line : and so take y e breadth of y e common : 

And when lots but : and fall short jn leangth : against propriotors 
land or ponds y e said lots shall be meade up jn breadth. 

And where lots doe bound by properioters lands and not hauing a 
nuf to make up Their mesure : jf y e owner of said lot be their present 
he shall haue his liberty whether to haue y e Remaining part of his lot 
made up jn y e next Rainge butting against his own or to Remoue to y e 
other side of The said properiotters land and haue jt Theire. 

And euery properioter haue one lot jn one Thousand accres acording 
to his proportion And Then euery properioter haue one lot more jn 
anothar Thousand accres begining whare The leaue of Rainging The 
same way as aforesaid 

85 Major Johnson was of Woburn. 86 Lieutenant Wilson is called Cap- 
Captain Smith was an innholder in tain in the record of this appointment 
Reading, and Captain Brown was of and in several other places in the town 
the same place. The latter married, records. This is sufficiently proved ta 
June 24, 1697, Rebecca (Crawford), be an error, 
widow of Samuel Sprague of Maiden. 



TOWN OFFICERS AND COMMON LANDS. 371 

Also agreead upon by y e commitie y' for y e deuiding of y e common 
euery properioters name shall be writ distintly : and y l y e lots be well 
shufled together : And one man chose by y c town : To draw y m out of 
a bag : and y e first man y* js drawen shall haue y e first lot jn y e common 
begining as aforsaid And so sucksesiuely as y u are all drawen To the 
proportion of 1000 accres and then to proseed jn y e same way and 
method for anothar 1000 accres 

Jt js also agreead upon by y e commitie That there shall be 2 pols jn 
breadth between euery Raing of lots for high wais : 87 and that euery 
mans lot shall Run Eighty two pool jn leangth for y' end 

At a town meeting, held a few days later, it was voted that 
" this comitee lies pouer to jmproue An artis to lay out y e lots : " 
and at a later meeting provision was made for the payment of 
the " artis " and his assistants. 

Janeuary y° 2S : 1694/5 A generall town meting Leutanant Sprague 
moderator : noted Henery Green js chosen to carry one end of y e chain 
jn order to laying out of y e lots jn y e common for 2000 accres 

Jonathan Sprague Jsaac Hill Thomas newhall Thomas Okes doe jn- 
gage To assist y e suruayer jn carrying y e chaine jn order to finish y e 
deuiding of The first Thousand accres 

John Greenland Clark Samuell Sprague John dexter Samuell Green 
jun r : Lazrus Grouer and John upham doe jngage to carry y e chaine jn 
order to deuid y e second thousand accres 

noted That euery man that carrieth y e chaine shall haue alowed him 
Two and twenty penc p r day untill 2000 accres js layd out : 

noted That m r fisk y e suruayer shall haue fiue shilings p r day for euery 
day he worketh jn deuiding the common. 

At the annual meeting, March 11, it was voted "That Long 
pond medow lye to the minestry ;" and at an adjourned meeting, 
a few days later, it was agreed " That the commone lying A 
Boue the uper Range of Lotes shall be for the use of the min- 
estry." 38 This meeting was still farther adjourned, until March 

37 Some of these range-ways still line. In 1704 liberty was given to flow 
remain, having developed into town it, probably for mill purposes, for the 
highways, as will be noticed hereafter, term of three years. 

Others may remain as rights of way The land at the head of the town was 

which are still enjoyed, although their in the present village of Greenwood and 

origin has been forgotten ; while others was, with other lands, set off to Reading 

have lapsed altogether and become a in 1729. Being "minestry land," it 

part of the adjoining lands. came into the possession of the First 

38 Long Pond Meadow lies near the Parish. A portion was sold in 17S4; 
pond of that name, near the old Boston but the remainder was retained by the 



372 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

20, when arrangements were made for the division of the re- 
mainder of the common ; and it would appear that John Sar- 
geant, Jr., who had been chosen at a previous meeting for that 
purpose, proceeded "To draw y m out of a bag" in accordance 
with the recommendation of the committee. The record is as 
follows : — 

noted — That all the woode land on both sides the Riuer be loted in 
two diuisons 

noted — That thay will drawe for lots At this time 

noted — That all the Common that wase intended for shepe paster 
one the Este side the Riuer shall bee all loted. 

At a meeting, April 8, 1695, a highway was ordered to be 
laid out on the west side of the Three Mile Brook Meadows and 
others in the commons above Scadan and beyond Wayte's 
Mount. A committee was chosen, consisting of Lieutenant 
Joseph Wilson, Isaac Hill, Lemuel Jenkins, and Nathaniel 
Upham, which made an early report. 

[May 8, 1695. J Wee subscribers have done acording to the town 
vote at our understanding in staking of highwayes in the sheep paster 
and the three hundred accres namly two poles wide with stakes blazed 
one the inside and pillers of stones at the bottom of them 

1. as one the neck side from the Spragues Land up through the 
neck unto John Greenlands lote in Charlestown bounds 

2ly. A Roade from Joseph Linds house through the sheep paster to 
dexters Rockes then through the lots to the second diuision and from 
the foote of Dexters Rokes northeste up Squiers hill through to the 
seckend diuision 

3ly. A Roade from Joseph floyds through the sheepe paster and three 
hundred accres to Swaines ponde into the seckend diuision. 

4ly. A Roade from Ezekell Jankens a longe in the sheep paster and 
crosing the Roade that comes up from Joseph fioydes . and pasing on 



parish many years. A portion of the Betwext Reden and our common and 

expense of a tower built upon the meet- the propreriators of our Town and S d 

ing house, in 1S24, was met by money common;" and Thomas Upham and 

" "lii. lined from the sales of Wood taken Thomas Green were chosen at the 

from the Parish lot." same meeting " to Se that no Boody 

Lieutenant Henry Green and Lieu- cuts aney wood of The Towns Land 

tenant Thomas Newhall were appointed, next Reding." 
March 4, I70 8 £, "To Rune the Lines 



TOWN OFFICERS AND COMMON LANDS. 



373 



towerds the O then winding to the left through lots in to the seckend 
diuision 39 

5ly. A Roade from Leftent Spragues land up through to the Road 
that comes from Joseph floyds. 

61y. A Roade from haywards land and branching out to dexters 
Rockes likewise branching up to Swaines pond brooke and through the 
lots to the Roade that comes from Joseph floyds : 

Joseph Willson lamuell jankens 
nathanell upham isacc hlll 40 

The allotment was finally completed ; and the record begins 
as follows : — 

Recorded May f 80 : 1695 : An a Greement of the Town of maiden 
Jn deuiding of The common The first deuision begining at the upar 
end next to nathaniell eueness land by Charlstown line : Jn mannar As 
followeth : y e lots Runing 82 pool jn length. 

This division, which contained nine hundred and thirty-one 
acres and fifty-one poles, was laid out in seven ranges and 
seventy-four lots. It comprised the northern portion of the 
town between the bounds of Boston and Charlestown. The 
Evans farm of sixty acres, on the westerly side of the road, 41 



39 The Round World is probably in- 
dicated here. Vide note 66, chap. iii. 
If the clerk did not make an error, the 
turning of the road to the left is puz- 
zling. 

40 The course of these ancient roads 
may be recognized with more or less 
distinctness. The first mentioned is that 
portion of the later Stoneham Road, 
now Washington Street, which lies 
north of the bridge over the Boston 
and Maine Railroad. The second is 
not less certain. The site of the house 
of Joseph Lynde, near Reedy Pond, has 
been shown. This report was a confir- 
mation of the old way running eastward 
to the " Roade from haywards land." 
Dexter's Rocks were the great ledges 
which lie in the woods southwest of 
Swain's Pond, the ancient road to which 
may be found north of Lebanon Street, 
near its junction with Forest Street in 
Melrose. 

The sixth road may also be recog- 
nized with some certainty as that por- 
tion of Lebanon Street which is south 



of the Melrose line. Hayward's Tand 
was in the Round World, which is now 
traversed by Cherry Street. Now, as 
then, the way branches " out to dexters 
Rockes " and " up to Swaines pond 
brooke," the latter branch being a por- 
tion of the present Swain's Pond Road. 

Several old ways may be found in 
the Scadan woods, among which we may 
look for the other roads of 1695. One 
running easterly from the Swain's Pond 
Road, a short distance above Lebanon 
Street, after being nearly lost in the 
undergrowth, leads into the old Salem 
Road in the vicinity of the land formerly 
owned by Ezekiel Jenkins. Three of 
these old ways diverge from the easterly 
end of Swain's Pond. Two of them, 
which are still used to some extent, 
although not recognized as town ways, 
lead towards the old road which formerly 
ran from the Salem Road to the iron 
works at Hammersmith on the Abousett, 
or Saugus, River. 

41 Joseph Hills sold Henry Evans of 
Maiden, January 8, 166^, a sixty-acre 



3/4 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

and the woodland, which had been reserved for the ministry, 
on the easterly side, alone parted it from the Reading line at 
Smith's Pond. This tract of common was broken by the Green 
farm, by a piece of land north of Ell Pond which belonged to 
the estate of Thomas Coytmore as early as 1653, 42 by ten acres 
of meadow " aboue the old cow pen in Mauldon " which Joseph 
Hills had sold to Henry Evans in 1660, and, perhaps, by smaller 
lots of appropriated land. 

The second division of the two thousand acres, containing 
nine hundred and forty-two acres and twenty-eight poles, was 
laid out in six ranges and seventy-five lots. Beginning " by elle 
ponde," it stretched over the highlands towards the Boston line, 
covering the country east of the Reading Road and north of 
Swain's Pond. Some of the ways reserved for passage between 
the ranges in this division became highways in time and still 
exist. It will be noticed that there were seventy-five lots in this 
division. The odd and last lot, containing seven acres, had been 
previously granted by a vote of the town to Sergeant Thomas 
Skinner, then an old man, who having, according to an old custom, 
made a deed of gift of his estate for future maintenance to his 
sort Abraham, had no part in the general allotment. 43 These 

lot in Maiden bounded as follows : N , ern limit of Reading. This line was 

"a great pond parting Mauldon and confirmed in 174-/5 and with perhaps 

Redding bounds ; " e., the highway a slight change west of Main Street, 

leading through the Maiden common still remains. 

to Reading; S., Maiden common; W., a Mass. Colony Records, iv. (i), 176. 

the dividing line between Charlestown 43 " [March 15, 169-* 5,] noted That 

and Maiden common. In this deed were Sargent Skiner shall haue seuen akers 

also conveyed a house frame, which was of land in the common for his life time 

lying on the ground, and the ten-acre lot next to Joseph Aids lote after the 2000 

of meadow, mentioned in the text, which ackes is lade out and after his death to 

was bounded on all sides by the common. Return to the towne " 
Midd. Co. Deeds, ii. 131. This land, "[March: 28: 1695,] uoted TYa\ Sar- 

which is in the present village of Green- gent Skiners seuen accars of common 

wood in Wakefield, remained in the pos- wood land formerly granted him for his 

session of the Evans family until within life time is now giuen to him and his 

the present century; and the cellars of wife and then to Return to his children." 
their respective habitations may still be The house and land which Thomas 

traced, or have recently disappeared. Skinner and his wife Lydia gave their 

Cf. Eaton, History of Reading, 69 et seq. son Abraham in February 169^, Midd. 

When the northern part of Maiden Co. Deeds, x. 534, had been the estate 

was annexed to Reading, in 1727, the of her former husband, Thomas Call. 

line between the fourth and fifth ranges The house stood near the southeasterly 

of the first division was made the south- corner of Cross and Walnut Streets. 



TOWN OFFICERS AND COMMON LANDS. 375 

two divisions comprised the territory known as the two thousand 
acres and contained, together, eighteen hundred and seventy- 
three acres and seventy-nine poles, as measured by Mr. Fisk 
the " artis." 

The third division is described as "The third diuision for the 
Remander of the wood Land one the este sid the mill brook 
called the three hundred ackrs Begining at sargent Skiners 
Lote and are to rune 40 poles in length." Its seventy-four lots 
embraced three hundred and eleven acres and fifty-eight poles 
of the woodland between Swain's Pond and Scadan. 

"The fourth deuision of lots: which js The first deuision one 
y e west side of The mill brook begining one that peece of 
common next to y e old dam : Runing forty pools Jn length," 
and the fifth division, which is described as " The second deui- 
sion one y e west side," comprised the woodlands around and 
above Tyot and the south-easterly portion of the Middlesex 
Fells. 44 Each division was laid out in seventy-four lots and, 
together, they contained four hundred and twenty-six acres and 
nine poles. 

The sixth division — the " Lotes in the laste diuision which 
was called the sheep paster," contained five hundred and eighty- 
one acres and fifty-four poles of rugged land lying among the 
hills east of Wayte's Mount and in Scadan, and apparently on 
the western and southern borders of the three hundred acres. 
It came as far west as Sprague's Ledge or the present Mount 
Vernon Street, and perhaps included the former. Reedy Pond, 
lying " before Joseph Lines dore " on Forest Street near the 
northerly end of Mount Vernon Street, was certainly within its 
limits. The following vote, preceding the division, throws some 
light upon its western borders. 

Vide chap. xii. note n. Abraham lived until December 17, 1723, when she 

Skinner died soon after, leaving a died at the age of about eighty-seven 

widow, Hannah, to whom his father years. 

deeded the lot numbered seventy-five w Tyot was a local name which was 

in the second division, in considera- formerly applied to the territory between 

tion of maintenance " with meat drink Oak Grove and the cascades near the 

and clothes for my life." May 27, 1698. Fells Station. It was in use as late as 

Midd. Co. Deeds, xii. 749. Thomas Skin- 1850, and may still be used by some old 

ner died March 2, 170K, and his widow residents. 



3/6 HISTORY OF MALDEX. 

[March 20 : 1694/5]. Jn ansewar to the Request of thomas Newhall 

noted — That Thomas Newhall shall haue his preportion of that 

part of the Common that was intended for a Shipe paster : next io his 

one land ; he bindeing himselfe his Eares and Exetuers to finde the 

town with a suficent traineing place both for horse and fote. 45 

Under this vote it appears that Thomas Newhall, who then 
owned the land north of the Salem Road from the present 
westerly line of Sprague Street to the hills at Faulkner, received 
lot sixteen in the division of " the sheep paster," to which he 
added by subsequent purchase of the adjoining lands. From 
these acquisitions his son, Lieutenant Samuel Newhall, came 
into possession of the easterly side of "the Captains Mount," 
and the hill since called Sprague's Ledge, including the land on 
its north-easterly side, then known as the Reedy Pond pasture. 

The seven proprietors who failed to receive their shares in the 
sixty-seven lots of the great sheep pasture, found their propor- 
tions in the seventy-six acres and sixty-eight poles of a tract 
called "The sheep: parstor one The west side of y e mill 
brook." 

The lands thus allotted amounted to thirty-two hundred and 
sixty-eight acres and one hundred and eight poles, according to 
the footings of the several divisions. If the usual overrun of 
old surveys and the allowance for waste land be considered, 
it will be found that a territory of more than thirty-five hun- 
dred acres, or nearly one-half of the town, as it was then con- 
stituted, became for the first time proprietary land. 

The seventy-four proprietors and freeholders who shared in 
the allotment were as follows : — 

Atwood, Philip Fosdick, John 

Bucknam, Judith, widow of Joses Green, Henry 

Bunker, John Capt. John 

Burditt [Burden], Thomas John 

Calley, Robert Samuel, Jr. 

Chadwick, James Samuel, Sen. 

Dexter, John, and the estate of John Thomas, estate of, deceased 

Dexter, deceased Capt. William 

Evans, Nathaniel Greenland, John 

Floyd, Capt. John Grover, Lazarus 

Joseph Simon 

•Jo Newhall's training place was on the plain which Mountain Avenue now 
crosses, east of Main Street. 



TOWN OFFICERS AND COMMON LANDS. 



377 



Hasey, Joseph 
Hill, Abraham 

Isaac 
Hills, Ebenezer 
Gershom 
Howard [Harvard], Jonathan 

Samuel, estate of, deceased 
Jenkins, Ezekiel 
Lemuel 
Obadiah 
Knower, Jonathan 
Lamson, Joseph 
Lane, Job 
Lynde, Elizabeth 
John 
Joseph 
Marshall, Widow, and the estate of Ed- 
ward Marshall, deceased 4e 
Mudge, John 
Newberry, Tryal 
Newhall, Thomas 

Nichols, James, Jr., and the estate of 
James Nichols, deceased 
Nathaniel 
Oakes, Thomas 
Paige, Col. Nicholas 47 
Parker, Jacob, estate of, deceased 
Pemberton, John, house of, -deceased 



Pratt, Richard, estate of, deceased 
Sargeant, John, Jr. 

John, Sen. 
Sayes, Dorcas 48 
Shute, Richard 

Skinner, Abraham, estate of, deceased 
Sprague, Edward 

John 

Jonathan 

Phineas, estate of, deceased 

Phineas 

Samuel 

" Clark " Samuel 

Lieut. Samuel 
Swillaway, Henry 
Tufts, Peter 
Upham, John 

Nathaniel 
Phineas 
Wayte, Joseph, estate of, deceased 

Capt. John, estate of, deceased 
Whittemore, Benjamin 
Wigglesworth, Rev. Michael 
Wilkinson, Isaac 
John 
Wilson, Lieut. Joseph 
Winslad \Winslow\, Jacob 



43 Edward Marshall of Reading mar- 
ried Mary Swain in 1665. He removed 
to Maiden and was admitted as a free- 
man in 1690. He died before the summer 
of 1692, when his widow committed 
those freaks in connection with the 
witchcraft cases which are elsewhere 
related. 

47 Colonel Paige, as has been related, 
was a resident of Rumney Marsh and not 
of Maiden ; but he possessed real estate 
in the town to an amount which gave 
him a freehold and entitled him to a 
share in the allotments. 

4 - Dorcas Sayes was, perhaps, the 
sister of Christopher Sayes, who, having 
a wife, Hannah, was possessed of twenty- 
eight acres of land in Charlestown, near 
the Dexter and Mellens lands on Mystic 
Side, which he mortgaged to Elias Row 
of Charlestown, in 1678, and never re- 
deemed. Midd. Co. Deeds, vi. 424; 
Midd. Court Files, April, 16S0. In 16S4 
he lived in the house which belonged to 
the estate of James Mellens. Midd. 
Court Records, iv. 93. His widow, Han- 
nah, in 1704, was the owner of a house 



and six acres of land on the west side of 
the road from Black Ann's Corner to 
Sagamore Hill. This piece of land, 
which was a triangle, appears to have 
been that six acres of woodland which 
was the property of Francis Norton in 
1638. How it was conveyed or trans- 
mitted does not appear. Widow Sayes 
was living in 17 10, being then in the list 
of those who did not pay " publique 
charges Jn maiden ; " and she died soon 
after. 

Dorcas Sayes, spinster, sold to Jona- 
than Barrett, January, 15, 171%, her lot 
in the fifth range of the first division, 
which was bounded east by Boston line, 
and was that which was allotted to her in 
1695, Midd. Co. Deeds, xx. 653. July 5, 
1715, calling herself a single woman, she 
deeded to James Millinor the house and 
land which had been the property of 
Hannah, "in Consideration of the Love 
good will and affection which she hath 
and beareth unto the said James Milli- 
nor as also for his Love and Kindness to 
her in providing and supporting of her 
in a lone time of Lameness and also in 



3/8 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Besides that which was specially granted to Thomas Skinner, 
six lots of six acres each were " laid out on y e land at y e end of 
y e 300 accres — The first lot begining next Obadiah Jenkins? 
lott: " which was the last lot in the third division. The grantees 
were John Chamberlin, Thomas Grover, Samuel Lewis, Thomas 
Dunnell, Benjamin Webb, and William Teele. 49 Soon after 
[June 3, 1695] it was " noted That John dexter shall haue the 
hill that lieth betwene his land and the Spragues land in satis- 
faction for the want he had in his formor lotes." 50 

Charlestown still claimed the right to timber and wood from 
the woodlands above the Spragues' land on the west side of the 
Three Mile Brook, which had been reserved for the Charlestown 
men on Mystic Side in the agreement of 1649. The title to the 
lot of five acres at Sandy Bank, which Maiden had conveyed to 
Henry Swillaway in 1674 and which Charlestown claimed as a 
portion of her common landing place there, was also in question. 
At a meeting held September 23, 1695, Henry Green, Joseph 
Hasey, Joseph Lamson, Phineas Upham, and Jonathan Sprague 
were chosen to attend the town's interest "'consarning the wood 
one the weste side of the mill Brook: and Swillaways land at 
Sandybanke : against Charlstown men thare laying claime to 

her sickness." This land was bounded : made under peculiar circumstances. The 

e., the country road ; s., Thomas grantees were not among the proprietors 

Waite ; w., Simon Grover; N., it runs and freeholders and were not entitled to 

to a point. Midd. Co. Deeds, xxxv. 198. a share in the division. If they were not 

The land of Thomas Waite is now paupers, they were apparently such as 

owned by the proprietors of Woodlawn needed assistance. Dunnell was the 

Cemetery. town sexton and Lewis had acted in the 

There is no record of the death of same capacity. Three of the six, at 

Dorcas Sayes. Hannah, the wife of least, Grover, Dunnell, and Teele, were 

James Millinor, who may have been her not taxpayers in 17 10, although living in 

niece and the daughter of Christopher the town. Teele sold his six acres 111 

and Hannah Sayes, died in February 1706 to Philip Atwood of Bradford. 

I 7 3 '/-)o- James Millinor removed soon Midd. Co. Deeds, xiv. 147. 
after to Mansfield, where he was a resi- 50 This was, apparently, that rocky 

dent in 1744, when he married Ruth hill on which now stands the house of 

fierce of Maiden. Previous to his re- the Kernwood Club on Alpine Street, 

moval he sold the Sayes house and land The land of John Dexter is described in 

to Hugh Floyd. Midd. Co. Deeds, xliii. chap. iii. note 33. That of the Spragues, 

708. Eighty years ago, the house, which extending from the rocks at Tyot (Oak 

is still standing near the Revere line a Grove) to the Maiden River, comprised 

short distance northeast of Woodlawn nearly one-half of the territory now cov- 

Cemetery, was occupied by a negro ered by Ward IV and that portion of 

known as old Samson. Ward III which is east of Cedar Street. 
49 This grant appears to have been 



TOWN OFFICERS AND COMMON LANDS. 



379 



it." At a later meeting they were given full power to settle or 
to protect the town in law. The Charlestown people pushed 
their claims and the matter was finally settled by arbitration. 
In a deed, dated December 30, 1695, John Cutler, acting as 
agent for Charlestown, conveyed to the committee all the rights 
of that town in the Swillaway land and " to all the wood and 








^te£g ''',"4' l^"« l "'«W d^o u S £/ — •WKf^ 



timber standing or being on y e Lands in maldon to the West- 
ward of Spot pond Brooke." 51 Although this deed was dated 
in December, 1695, it was not recorded until May 20, 1699. 
Some delay apparently occurred in its delivery after its pro- 
visions were settled. The following entries are found in the 
town records : — 

[January 6, 1695^.] noted That Chap' John Green and Deaken John 
Greenland are Chosen and in poured to treeat and demand of charls- 
town men what land is due : to us from them. 

March 9, 169^.] noted That Cap' John Green and Lett Joseph 
willson and Thomas newhall are fully impoured to agree with Charls- 
town men in all diferances Betwene Charlestown and molden. 

The rights which had been reserved in the common landing 
place at Sandy Bank continued to be enjoyed by the inhabitants 
of Charlestown on Mystic Side, although it appears that the 
Maiden people were inclined, at times, to encroach upon the 
privileges of their " Charlestown neighbors." An order which 
was made by the selectmen of Charlestown in 17 10 was intended 



51 Midd. Co. Deeds, xii. 329. 



38o HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

to correct that evil; but I find no evidence that it was recog- 
nized by Maiden, or that it was ever enforced. 

At A Meeting of the Selectmen of Charlstowne June the 26 s .' 1710. 
Wheras Complaint is made to us by Severall, of the Inhabitants of our 
town that thos parts of the upper and Lower Sandy banks which be- 
longeth to Charlstowne is generally so Cumbred with Wood &c. Laid 
thereon by the Inhabitants of Maldon and others not Inhabitants of 
Charlstowne that our Inhabitants Can not find room to Lay any Wood, 
Timber &c. for transportation for Remiding of which and that the 
Town may [have] some benifit of their parts of the said banks or 
Landing places. The Selectmen have orders and impowred M r Henry 
Green and M' Th? Gary both Inhabitants of Charlstowne. To demand 
and Receive of Every person that Shall Lay any Cord on either part 
of Said bank that belongeth to Charlstowne Excepting the Inhabitants 
of Charlstowne the sum of three pence pf Cord for every Cord shall be 
Laid on our parts of the bank as aforesaid and if it Lye above one 
month three pence p! month and the persons appointed to put this 
order into Execution are ordered to acquaint the Selectmen of Maldon 
of this order that they (if they se Cause) may acquaint their Inhabi- 
tants herof. 

p r . orcU of the Selectmen Nath l . l Dows Town Clerk. 62 

Landing and loading at Sandy Bank continued to be prac- 
tised by the Mystic Side men as they brought timber and wood 
from their distant commons in the Middlesex Fells, west of the 
Maiden line; and it was productive of strife until the union 
of " Charls: Town on the North Side of Mistick River " with 
Maiden, in 1726, merged the conflicting rights and transferred 
contention to a wider field. 

Some parcels of common land remained after the division, 
but nothing of considerable extent. It was 

uotted\},\zy 27, 1697,] That Edward Sprague shall haue : that peece 
of common y' lieth nere wilkensons to him and his haires foreuer : and 
y e town doth giue jt him jn consideration of what does fall short of his 
proportion jn one of his lots latly layd out to him one y e west side of 
y e mill Riuer : And for that saruic : he hes don for y e town jn y e yeer 
1696 : and jn y e yeer 1697 : as a town tresurar : y e abouesaid peece of 
common containeth by estemation three accres more or les bounded 
one y e southestardly cornnar by a spring of watar : northwestardly by 
long pond meddo so caled northestardly by wilkensons land southardly 
by m r lains lot : 

52 Charlestown Records, vi. 7S. 



TOWN OFFICERS AND COMMON LANDS. 38 1 

Corporal John Green, Phineas Upham, and Joseph Floyd 
were chosen, April 17, 1699, to run " y e bounds and renew 
y e marks between proprioters land : and y e small peece of com- 
mon land: adjoining to L pond: which was left for convenience 
for wattering." 

Seven or eight acres were reserved in the small plain on the 
southerly side of Wayte's Mount and Sprague's Ledge, in refer- 
ence to which the following entry appears in the records : — 

[iune : 3: 1695.] tioted The propositions propounded to Edward 
Sprague Consarninge A peece of Land for A training felde he hath 
untell wensday night next after the date heareof to Consider of and 
then to give an ansear 

The Remaining part of the Common one the weste side next to John 
prats lote allso the peece of Common that is be hinde Thomas new- 
halles land shall be deuided betwten sixe men namely Joseph Sargent 
John uinton Thomas upham Joseph Balldin Jsacc Green and James 
Huffy jf the Said Sprague Exepts then the said Green and Houey is 
to haue that peece by the said newhals land if not then Green and 
houey must agree or draw which shall go : ouer to Charlestown side for 
his Equall parte with them thare and fore accres one the beste side of 
this last mencined land to be at the townes disposing 

noted That Thomas newhall and Ebenezer Hills are Chosen to make 
choise of foure accres out of the peece of common be hinde Thomas 
newhales land for the use of the towne jf there be ocasion 

The propositions to Edward Sprague were evidently not 
accepted; and the "sixe men," who do not appear among the 
proprietors and freeholders, being young men or new comers, 
may have received lots " one the weste side," but the training 
field lot was not divided. Ten years later James Hovey's case 
was considered and it was voted, 

March y e 12 : 170% That peece of land behind Tho newhals land 
That lieth between y e towns 4 accres And John waits part of y e mount : 
Js Giuen to James Houey Jt beeing by estamation between 3 and 
4 accres. 

The remaining four acres probably continued to be used as 
a " traineing place both for horse and fote," for which purpose 
it was admirably adapted. It was still common land in May, 
1720, when a committee was appointed to renew its bounds; 



3 82 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



and it was voted to sell it soon after. It became a part of the 
adjoining Nevvhall land. 

Otiier parcels remained, and in time were absorbed by the 
highways, sold, or quietly taken in by the neighboring proprie- 
tors. Such were the landing place at Sandy Bank, a strip of 
land by the highway near Hill's tavern, the way to the North 
Spring, and other rights of way. The annexation of Mystic Side 
brought others — the landing places at Wormwood Point and 
Moulton's Island, the watering place at the South Spring, and 
other small lots which have disappeared as common lands. 
Land on the northerly side of the First Parish meeting house 
was mentioned as common land within the present century; and 
other land on its southerly side was given for public uses or 
acquired in some unrecorded manner in the early half of the 
last century. It was in reference to the latter lot that the follow- 
ing vote was passed : — 

[March i, 174^.] vot. that the town will build a new pound and 
that it shall stand at the southwest corner of the towns land that is 
adgoyning to the land wher on the meeting hous now standeth. 53 



53 The original location of the pound 
was on the west side of the present 
Main Street and apparently south of the 
bridge by which the Medford Road 
crossed Three Mile Brook. Its site may 
be very nearly represented by that of the 
present engine house, opposite Irving 
Street. It is incidentally mentioned in 
March, i70 4 / 5 , as being near the house 
of Isaac Hill, which stood on the site 
of the City Hall. The first mention of 
a pound in the town records is under the 
date of September 2, 1701, when it was 

" uoted That y e select men shall se y' 
y e pound be Repaired speedily. Isaac 
Hill js uoted pound keepar." 

The old pound had become dilapidated 
in 1740 and it was voted not to rebuild 
but to repair it; but at the annual meet- 
ing, March 1, 174^, the vote recorded 
in the text was passed. At an adjourned 
meeting the new pound was voted to be 
thirty feet square and " built with sels 
and cap peces and that it shall be six 
foot and a half high." The work ap- 
pears to have been performed with the 
tardiness which was common with our 



fathers in such matters ; and at the 
meeting in March, 174%, it was " vot 
that the old pound shall be improved 
to repair the personage fence." The 
new pound was placed on the southerly 
side of the meeting house, as indicated 
by the vote ; and near it a school house 
was built about twenty years later. 

In 177 1 it was voted to raise fourteen 
pounds in lawful money " to build a 
Stone Pound," which appears to have 
been placed in the same location. 
That the school house was contiguous 
is ascertained by a vote, which was 
passed in 1778 at a meeting that had 
been adjourned to the tavern of Charles 
Hill near by. 

" voted that the Serveyors put the 
Stones by the pound in a wall Between 
the said pound and the School house." 

The rebuilding of the meeting house 
in 1S02 necessitated the removal of the 
pound; and it was voted to use the 
stones of which it was composed about 
the new house. The record adds, " this 
Voted was protested against by Missrs 
Tho s . Hills & John \Vaitt." The next 



TOWN OFFICERS AND COMMON LANDS. 






Some common rights of pasturage in the sheep pasture and 
the Scadan hills may have survived the division; for it was 
voted, May 28, 1703, 

That Joseph floyd hath Liberty to hang two Gates upon y e town high- 
way between y e Country Rhoad : and y e Rocks : on y e east side of his 
House : And y e Gats to stand : so Long as y e town-cattle may haue 
free passag from aboue y e Rocks down to y e s d country Rhode : be- 
tween y e s d Jo floyds hous and his brothar daniels hous. 



year it was voted " To Build a wooden 
pound," which was to be " as near the 
old spott [as] may be convenient ; " and 
it was placed near the northerly corner 
of the Reading and Medford Roads on a 
spot now covered by Central Square. 
It was so placed that the brook flowed 
in upon its westerly side, making a con- 
venient watering place for impounded 
cattle. It was removed in 1833, when 
the town for thirty dollars bought of 
William Barrett a piece of land, two 
rods square, lying west of the brick 
school house on the hill. Midd. Co. 
Deeds, cccxxiii. 366. Here it remained, 
a " wooden pound," which the boys of 
"the old brick" will well remember, 



until the burning of the school house in 
1848. The four square rods of the old 
pound became a part of the adjoining 
lands and the site is now covered by the 
easterly portion of the Cox block. A 
new pound, which has now disappeared, 
was built on the north side of Salem 
Street on land which is now the west- 
erly corner of Bowers Avenue, which 
was bought of John B. Faulkner, in 
1S49, for fifty dollars. 

Charles Hill was chosen pound keeper 
in March, 1804, succeeding his father, 
Charles, the innholder, who died the 
next month. He held the office for 
many years in connection with those of 
constable and sexton. 



CHAPTER XII. 

POVERTY AND SLAVERY. 

THE people of Maiden, while struggling with their poverty 
of worldly goods, were forced to recognize a lower depth 
to which some, more unfortunate than others, descended, to 
give assistance to whom became no less a matter of charity 
than of Christian duty. Truth compels me to admit that charity 
and Christian duty were sometimes overcast by considerations 
of a worldly economy or a calculating expediency, which shows 
that our foregoers were possessors of a portion, at least, of the 
ordinary weaknesses of humanity. 

I am not aware that the record of the poor and unfortunate 
has received much attention from the local historian, who is 
usually more at home in eulogizing the men of the past and their 
deeds or magnifying the little greatness of some man of the 
present, whose success in the minor things of life has given him 
a local reputation, which the perspective of time will soon re- 
duce to its proper proportions. If we pause for a while to 
consider the poor of the past, we may violate some fancied rule 
of historical propriety; but if we are wise, we may take to our- 
selves a lesson of humility, which may not be amiss. Lazarus 
at the gate is not always a pleasing object; but he is very ob- 
trusive in the life around us, and his condition is a sharp and, 
perhaps, needful contrast to the many follies which we cherish. 

Doubtless poverty came to Mystic Side with the earliest, or 
sickness and adverse circumstances may have soon invited its 
presence. Pity or importunity may have induced neighborly 
hands to lighten its woes ; but neighborly hands were tied by 
their own necessities, for the conditions of life were hard, and 
the poor soon became a public charge. 

The first pauper case, which can with certainty be connected 
with Maiden, is that of Richard Smith, a brother-in-law of 



POVERTY AND SLAVERY. 385 

Thomas Dickerman, who as the apparent cause of his misfor- 
tune "did hyre " a house of one John Ripton, a Scotchman — 
" Ripton y- liues at the house where y e Scotchmen once were in 
Boston Bounds" — beyond the Written Trees or Black Ann's 
Corner, 1 and entered into a " bargaine " with Benjamin Muzzey, 
who was then, or soon after, a tenant on the Keayne farm at 
Rumney Marsh. In this case the General Court passed the 
following order. 

[1658, 19 October.] In ansr to the petition of Richard Smith 
humbly desiring this Courts favo r so to order it that he may not be ex- 
posed to misery, w th his wife, being denjed to haue his bargaine w th 
Benja. Muzzey, & by that meanes is harborlesse, &c, the Court judgeth 
it meete to referre the petitioners for releife to next Court in Midlesex. 2 

The County Court, hearing the matter, did " order that the 
select men of mauldon take care for the disposall & P r vission for 
Richard Smith & his wife, vntill the next Court of this Coun; " 
and at the session in April, " not finding just reason to impose 
him as an Jnhabitant, on any towne w tb in this County," referred 
the case back to the General Court, " for further settlem' 
... as also for the sattisfact 1 . 1 of Mauldon for w^ they already 
have expended for his p'sent supply." 3 The General Court 
finally disposed of the matter by the following order: — 

[1659, 28 May. J The Court on hearing the case comend to this 
Court by the County Court of Cambridge for the setlement of Richard 
Smith & his wife, on a full hearing of the case, order, that Maulden 
beare the chardg of Richard Smith & his wife for the tjme past, and 
that the sajd Smith and his wife belong to Boston. 4 

George Felt, or Felch, who was destined after some prosper- 
ity and many trials to trouble the people of Maiden not a little, 

1 Midd. Court Files, viii. 2. John bar in 1650 and sent to New England. 

Ripton and the Scotchmen, whoever they Ripton was living in 1665. " The Scotch 

may have been, have escaped the notice house" is mentioned in 1671, and by a 

of local historians and I am unable to correction in the line was found to be 

give aught concerning them. They may about four rods within the bounds of 

have been workmen at the neighboring Lynn. It is noticed again in 167S. 

iron works with their countrymen, Archi- Boston Town Records, ii. 92, 114. 
bald Anderson and MacCallum More 2 Mass. Colony Records, iv. (1), 355. 

Downing, who lived near by; or they 3 Midd. Court Records, i. 168, 178. 

may have been some of the Scotch 4 Mass. Colony Records, iv. (1 ), 375. 

prisoners whom Cromwell took at Dun- 



386 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

appears as an inhabitant of Charlestown in 1633. ^ n tne fi rst 
division of lands at Mystic Side he received the five-acre lot 
numbered seventeen ; and in the later great allotment he had 
his proportion of land in five acres in Scadan, on the northern 
edge of the Great Swamp, and twenty acres " above y e Ponds." 
These lands appear in the Book of Possessions in 1638, with 
other lands which he had purchased from the allotments at 
Mystic Side and elsewhere within the bounds of Charlestown. 

At this time he lived in his house on the Charlestown side ; 
but he soon crossed the river and built upon land which 
he had acquired near the South Spring, where, as has been 
seen, his house is mentioned in 1640. He brought with him 
his wife Elizabeth, a daughter of Widow Prudence Wilkinson, 
who also became a settler upon her five-acre allotment not far 
away. With them came their children, George, Elizabeth, and 
Mary. The wife had been admitted to the Charlestown church, 
January 19, i63? 4 ' 0) and these children were baptized in her right 
a week later, as was also her younger child, Moses, December 
10, 1641. 5 The husband was therefore not a church member 
at that time ; and as he does not appear to have ever attained 
the condition of a freeman, it is not probable that he ever joined 
the Maiden church, whose records for that early period are not 
extant. 

About this time Felt became a landholder at Wescustogo, 
or Broad Cove, now North Yarmouth, in Casco Bay, purchasing 
of the Welshman, John Phillips, three hundred acres within the 
Gorges patent. Phillips had probably squatted upon the land 
or gained an Indian title, which Felt strengthened in 1643 by a 
repurchase of Richard Vines, the agent of Sir Ferdinando Gorges. 
He or Phillips, before him, had built a stone trading-house or 
garrison thereon. 6 Although his arrival there is said to have 
marked " the birth day of North Yarmouth," 7 I see no reason 
for assuming that he became an immediate settler. I rather 
suppose that he was a trader along the eastern coast, as were 
Thomas Mitchell, the Moultons, and perhaps other Mystic Side 

6 Charlestown Church Records, in loco. " Old Times in North Yarmouth, 

6 A r . E. Hist, and Geneal. Register, 442. 
xix. 128. 



POVERTY AND SLAVERY. 387 

and Maiden men then and in later years. His storehouse, in a 
convenient location, was the headquarters of himself and his 
men during the season of traffic, and a safe place of deposit for 
his goods. From it he extended his enterprises along the 
coast and, perhaps, into the country for short distances ; and 
around it the savages gathered, trading their skins and fish for 
his powder, his beads, his blankets, and strong waters. I re- 
ceive this opinion of Felt rather than that which makes of him 
a quiet settler in those stormy days. 

While he was engaged at the eastward, his wife and young 
family remained at Mystic Side. In 1648 he is styled " Georg 
Felch, Inhabitant in Charltown, on mistike syde ; " 8 and after 
the incorporation of the new town he continued an inhabitant of 
Mystic Side, but not of Maiden, his house lot " butting on the 
High way leading from the said house towards the Spring and 
on the line which runeth between charlstowne and Maulden." 9 
This was that land which was afterwards the home of the Revo- 
lutionary captain, Daniel Waters, and is now occupied by the 
Everett Crystal Spring Water Company, at the westerly corner 
of Ferry and Chelsea Streets in Everett. 

Elizabeth Felt does not appear among the women who peti- 
tioned, in 165 1, in favor of Mr. Matthews; but she was pre- 
sented for not attending public worship, in 1653, 10 which may 

8 Charlestown Archives, xxxiv. 121. it passed to Joseph Stower, in 1668, and 

9 Midd. Co. Deeds, iii. 154. The was occupied by Samuel Stower in 172 1. 
easterly five acres of lot number eleven In i77i,with an approach to its original 
were assigned to Ezekiel Richardson in extent, it was sold as six acres, with the 
the first allotment and were acquired house and barn, to Daniel Waters, by 
by Felt in some unrecorded way. It Nathan Sargeant, acting as adminis- 
was upon this lot that he had built in trator of the estate of Mary, his late 
1640, as is elsewhere stated. He had wife. The house, which appears to have 
sold his original five-acre lot to Gaudy been the early structure of Felt, enlarged 
James, perhaps as early as 1638, the and improved by later owners, was de- 
record of 1649 m Charlestown Archives, molished about the year 1S50. 

xxxiv. 121, being, apparently, a confir- 10 At the same Court, Flora Lahorne 
mation of an earlier transaction. The was presented for Sabbath breaking, 
lot, with the house that he had built, " Maulden Rowland Layhernes wyfe 
was a part of his possessions in Charles- of Charlstowne [Mystic Side] for making 
town and Maiden, which he sold to John Disturbance in the tyme of the publick 
Phillips in 1664; but I cannot explain ordinances on the Lords Daye att Maul- 
how its five acres had grown to nine den Meeting howse witnes Thomas hett 
while its bounds and abutters evidently Edw d Carington Charletowne Rowland 
ran upon the old lines. From Phillips Lahernes wyfe for washing or reusing 



388 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

indicate that her interest in spiritual matters was not intense. 
It has been said that Felt removed to Casco about 1660, but as 
his house at Mystic Side was " claborded " by William Buck- 
nam in 1662 and in the same year he was accused of defaming 
the character of Bridget, the wife of his neighbor Richard 
Dexter, " saying she was a lyar," n the inference that he re- 
mained at Mystic Side is not strained. He certainly appears as 
one of the inhabitants of Charlestown in November, 1664, 
although he had signed a declaration as an inhabitant at Casco 
in the previous year. 12 In a deed made to John Phillips of 
Boston, November 1, 1664, conveying his lands "in the bounds 
of the Townships of Charlestown and Maldon," to the amount 
of ninety-four acres, he is called " of Casco in N. E. mason." 13 
Two years later he was at Casco Bay serving upon a jury in a 
murder case. There he remained, adding to his possessions a 
further purchase of two thousand acres of John Phillips, and 
continuing, perhaps, the trading enterprises which had first 
taken him to Broad Cove, until the Indian war of 1675-6, when, 
with other settlers of the main land, he took refuge upon some 
of the neighboring islands. 

During the troubles which followed, the eastern coast was 
swept of its inhabitants and the improvements which the thrifty 
settlers had made were destroyed. In September, 1676, George 
Felt, the eldest son of our subject, was slain with others at 
Peak's Island. He was the head of a family and a man of 
enterprise and courage, and his death was greatly lamented. 14 

After the Indian troubles had closed in 1678, Felt is supposed 
to have returned to his possessions at Broad Cove, where he re- 
mained but a short time, parting with a portion of his land to 
Walter Gendall in 1680, and losing the Phillips purchase of two 
thousand acres, which appears to have possessed only an Indian 

cloathes vppon the Sabb Daye witnes 12 Cf. Charlestown Records, iii. Nov. 5, 

John Gobe william Ayers." 1664; N. E. Hist, and Geneal. Register, 

Upon trial " shee freely acknowledged v. 264. There is a possibility that it was 

and confessed her sin and fault in the the son, and not the father, who signed 

Court, and her husband Rowland Lay- the declaration. 

home consented to alow the 4 witnesses I8 Midd. Co. Deeds, iii. 154. 

4 s p r diem." Midd. Court Files, iii.; 14 Hubbard, Indian Wars, ii. 45; 

Midd. Court Records, i. 51. Williamson, History of Maine, i. 540. 

11 Midd. Court Files, xi. 10. 



POVERTY AND SLAVERY. 389 

title that was set aside by the courts at a later period. The 
little right which he retained under the Gorges title at Casco 
Bay he finally conveyed to his son and grandson, Moses and 
George, in 1684. 

Although in his settlement in Massachusetts Bay he had never 
been of Maiden he came here, where his son-in-law, James 
Nichols, who had married Mary Felt, was an inhabitant. If he 
received any compensation from Gendall, it soon disappeared; 
for an entry in the Maiden records, which may have been made 
in 1681, or a few years later, shows that the town paid "To 
Goodm. Cully [Scollay] for Howsroome for George ffelt & his 
wife o. 10. o." A little later the town 

paide to Robert Calle [Calley] by constable Jacob parker ten shil- 
lings for ould felts dwelling in his house for the yeare 85. 

In 1686 the case was of more moment, and the town appears 
to have refused to support the Felts, perhaps, because they had 
been inhabitants of Charlestown and had not come to Maiden 
until they were in a condition to become public charges. 
Under this condition, the matter, in some way now unknown, 
was brought to the attention of the County Court; and at a 
town meeting, October 1, 1686, it was 

voted, that the Selectmen are to take care of ould felt till the 
county courte 

voted that the select men are impoured to mannag the case at the 
county courte next at cambridg conserning ould felt in the behalfe of 
the Tovvne and the towne to Beare the charges : 

Soon after, the Council of the Colony 

[November 9, 1686.] Ordered: That George Felt and his Wife 
(poor persons at Maiden in the County of Middlesex) be maintained 
by an assessment to be made in the said County of Middlesex next 
County Court 15 

The records of the County Court and the Court files for the 
period to which the order was referred are not extant. Felt 
and his wife remained in Maiden ; and the next notice of them 
is found in 1688, when it is recorded in the town book that 

15 Council Records, in loco. 



3yO HISTORY OF MALDEX. 

The Select men haue receved of reading constable foure pound ten 
shillings and three pence for the vse of gorge felt and his wife the 
seventh of aprill : 1688: 

About the same time a petition was made, which presents the 
condition of the petitioner as one of great extremity, but noth- 
ing came from the application. Indeed, I am forced to believe 
that while his case was one to excite sympathy, it was not one 
which was entitled to a legal consideration. The purchase of 
an invalid title was a misfortune for which the law then, as now, 
afforded no remedy. 

To His Excellency S r Edmund Andros Kn l . &"c. 

The Humble Petition of George Felt Serf, of Maulden 

Sheweth: That it is my grief that I am compelled to trouble yo r Ex- 
cellency at this time But having about eighteen yeares since purchased 
of one In Phillips of Boston Gen 1 late Deceased a farme or Plaintation 
at a place called the Great Cove (in Caskoe Bay) containing about two 
thousand acres of upland and marsh as by a firm Deed under s d Phillips 
hand and seale &c. for which I then paid him Sixty pounds money, and 
improved s d Farme or Plaintation severall year's before I bought it so 
that the whole time of my occupying of it was about one and twenty 
years But some time after the late Indian warr it was withheld from 
me by some of the inhabitants of s d Town of Caskoe Bay and being by 
s warr much impoverished I could not recover it out of their hands. 
I also am now forced to suffer for want of convenient care taken of me 
in my present distresse being about Eighty Seaven year's old and 
very crasy and weak 

Therefore yo r Petitio r recomendeth his case to yo r Excellencies 
prudent consideration humbly beceaching and earnestly begging that 
if it seem meet and convenient yo r Excellency would be pleased to 
favo r yo r petition that he may have a confirmation of his s d land und r 
such moderate quit rent &c. as well as an ord r to y e Townsmen of 
Maulden aboves d for something at present to releave yo! petition! in 
this his extreem poverty &c. The which shall farther oblige yo r peti- 
tion as in duty bound daily to pray for y r Excellency &c. 1G 

After the failure of this petition, James Nichols, the son-in- 
law, apparently had the burden of the maintenance of the Felts 
thrown upon him; and in 1691 he asked the General Court for 
relief in a petition which is not now in its place in the archives. 
Its answer is, however, preserved. 

16 Mass. Archives, exxviii. 2S2. This petition is undated and unsigned. 



POVERTY AND SLAVERY. 39 1 

[May 29, 1 69 1.] Upon Hearing the Petition of James Nichols 
Sen r : of Maiden Ordered that George Felt, and his Wife be Accounted 
Inhabitants of the Town of Maiden, and Accordingly the Select Men 
of the Town to take the care of them. 17 

This order, which settled the Felts upon Maiden and made 
them " town's poor," was promptly obeyed. 

maldon June 8"' 1691, voted at a publik Towne meeting that there be 
raised 4 or 5 pounds for the present supply of gorge felt and his wife 
to be paide in provision in or as mony : 

The next provision made for the unfortunate Felts by the 
town combined an admirable forethought with the performance 
of present and, probably, pressing duties. 

[March 14 169^4] voted at a publick towne meeting that the towne 
doe alow goodman nicols aleuen pound in or of mony for this present 
yeare ensuing for the maintanance of his father and mother felt if ether 
of them dy with in the year after funirall charges what is left to return 
to the select men or there order 

I think that " ould felt" outlived the year and that no part 
of the "aleuen pound" returned to the selectmen. It is prob- 
able that he died sometime in May, 1693, being then about 
ninety-two years of age. It is very certain that his name does 
not again appear and the following agreement from the town 
records shows that he was no longer a burden upon the town. 

An agreement made the 26 of June 1693 between the selectmen of 
This town and James nickels sen r for y e keeping of old goodwif felt : 
his motherinlaw : y e said nickels doth Jngage himself to keep her one 
yeere : begining the second : second : day of may last past for hue and 
forty shilings : to be paid him by y e selectmen within y e said yeer : 
also he is to haue her cow : and likewise the forty shilings y e Justises 
ordered that her granchildren should pay for her use : 

Goodwife Felt did not long survive to enjoy the "keeping" 
which this contract secured to her, although the time of her 
death is not known. It is to be hoped that the cow remained 
as a heritage and a consolation to her son-in-law. 

The names of other " town's poor" of the later colonial time, 
if any there were, have not come down to the present day; and 
one Mary Floyd is distinguished as having been, after the Felts, 

17 General Court Records, vi. 190. 



392 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

the first who is known to have become a town charge in the 
provincial period. 

[March 16, 169*2,] Recned with Joseph Lamson conserning his 
charges with mary floud : The town indepted to Joseph lamson two 
pound in or as mony. 

A contribution for the relief of the poor, which probably was 
not altogether cheerfully paid, was made by the town in 1693, 
when the selectmen, being presented at the County Court 

to answer for theire neglect of the payment of forty-three shillings 
and four pence to y e County Treasurer being theire arrears of y e County 
Rate in y e year 1688 : Are ordered to pay the Same toward y e releife of 
y e poor in Maldon. 18 

The next to claim the protection of the town was Hannah 
Howard, whose case is intimately connected with that of the 
watch house. 

[October 9, 1694.] The Select men of maldon appearing in Court 
to answer to theire p'sentment by y Grand jury of Jnquest for said 
County, for not Releiving Hannah Haward and for want of a Watch 
house, and Informing the Court that they have a watch house partly 
built and that they haue not been Jnformed of any such want that y e 
said Howard is in : And y l there is an Estate left by her husband in 
her hands, The Court order that they proceed to Erect their watch 
house, and that They Releive y e woman according as the Law directs. 

[December 11, 1694. J The Return of Maldon Select men as to 
theire being prouided w th a wach house and as to theire provision of 
Sufficient apparrell for Hannah Howard for w cb they stand p r sented is 
accepted and allowed and is on file. 19 

John Bucknam was the only son of William Bucknam, the 
progenitor of that family in New England, by his first wife, who 
was a daughter of Prudence Wilkinson, " widdow & inhabitant 
on mistick Side." After his mother's early death, his father mar- 
ried Sara h Kno wer and there was apparently no room in the 
growing family for the " firstborne," who was taken by his 
grandmother Wilkinson. By the will of the latter, he received 
five acres of land "without the fence on Mistick Side." 20 A 

18 Midd. Court Records— General Ses- 20 Midd. Probate Files. This will was 

sions, Oct. 6, 1693. dated, II, 9, 1647, and proved in July, 

111 Ibid , in loco. 1655. 



POVERTY AND SLAVERY. 393 

portion of the will of his father, which was written in 1667, pre- 
sents a quaint bit of family history and appears like a some- 
what labored attempt to stifle parental conscience. 

Least J shold be supposed by Any, to be vnnatural or iniurious vnto 
my Son John as being my firstborne ; J hereby declare the true grounds 
and iust Reasons of the Seueral gifts and Legacies, disposed vnto my 
wife and Children as hereafter Stated, And why no more, is Setled, or 
otherwise Stated, on my Son John though my firstborne. First because 
the Estate, whereby J purchased All my lands (And for that Allso by 
the improuement therof through the blessing of God on my Labours, J 
haue built my housing and brought vp my Children hithervnto, And 
haue in my measure been helpfull in Church, Town And Cuntry Af- 
fayres) Came vnto mee by my wife Sara, that now is, And from her 
Kinred, who in a Special Manner, intended it, for the benefit of her 
Children. 2 'ly. by means of much weaknes of his mother my first 
wife, And Expences for him in his infancie, J was much run in debt, 
to sundry persons : the which were Allso payed out of this woomans 
portion. 3 d ly this my Son John was After by his Grandmother taken 
from mee before he came to Abilitie, to doe Any thing for mee, And 
on her desire bound As Apprentice to her till he shold be 21 years 
old, So that J had no Seruice or help of his ; to the raysing of my 
Estate. 4 th ly he Allso with my Consent, Enioyeth A portion, from his 
Grandmother, in stead of the portion due to mee, in the right of his 
Mother, to About twentie pounds value. 21 

Prudence Wilkinson's five-acre lot of " About twentie pounds 
value " was a poor substitute for his birthright in the possessions 
of his father ; but the lands of William Bucknam descended by 
will to the widow Sarah and her children, and John Bucknam was 
left with that alone. He was out with Henchman and Mosely 
in Philip's War. Soon after he lost the use of speech and ap- 
parently became of unsound mind. About this time he prob- 
ably became dependent upon the town or the bounty of his 
brothers and sisters. In 1694 he was unable to join in a deed 
of the estate of his deceased brother William, " by reason of 
present distraction." 22 Two years later his faculties were won- 
derfully restored. Sewall says of him at this time : — 

Oct r 30. [1696.] Mr. Wigglesworth tells me that one John Buck- 
nam of Maiden, above 50 years old, has been perfectly dumb near 18 

21 Midd. Probate Files. 22 Midd. Co. Deeds, x. 294. 



394 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

years, and now within about 3 weeks has his understanding and speech 
restored. He is much affected with the Goodness of God to him 
herein. 23 

It was probably to recover any right which he may have had 
in the estate of his brother that the following vote was passed. 

[July 29, 1698] Ebenezar Hils and Joseph floyd are uoted and 
chosen to be y e men to agree with Samuell Bucknam or aney other 
consarning John bucknam : 

Likewise y e said Ebenezar hils and Joseph floyd are fully jmpoured 
to sue for and Recouer aney Estate : jn behalf of y e town y l may be 
suposed to be y e said John bucknams : and y e town will be at y e charges 
ther of : 

A suit was brought; and in September, 1699, Jonathan 
Sprague, Joseph Lamson, and Edward Sprague were chosen 

-to stand sute or sutes jn law with John Linde and jude his wife jn 
y e case now jn hand : depending between the selectmen and y e said 
john Linde and his wife : or to make a finall agreement in all con- 
treuarcies in refranc to john bucknam for time past. 24 

It appears, however, that " a finall agreement in all contreuar- 
cies " was not made ; for at the next annual meeting, Jonathan 
Sprague, Joseph Floyd, and Joseph Lamson were appointed 
" to prosecuty e apeall : jn y e case depending betwen Sam 11 buck- 
nam and y e town, and y e town will defray y e charg:" Two 
months later the selectmen made the following agreement: — 

At a meeting of y e selectmen at J G : sumtime jn y e month of may 
jn y e yeer 1 700 : Then agreead with Samuell bucknam Jn behalf of 
y e town : for y e said Samuel bucknam to keep entertain and maintain 
his unckle john bucknam from y e first of march last past : To y e last 
of march next aftar this date : and for his so doing the select men of 
this town shall alow him out of y e town-Tresuary : 2-15-0 jn money. 

Samuel Bucknam's care was not of long continuance. At a 
meeting of the town, May 28, 1703, it was 

voted That y e select men are apointed to agree with Cap' william 
Green Consarning y e trouble he was at Consarning John bucknams 
beeing sick at his hous last winter : 

23 Mass. Hist. Coll., xlv. 436. (Worth) Bucknam, widow of Joses Buck- 

24 John Lynde married, between nam who died Aug. 24, 1694, and became 
February and September, 1699, Judith a party to the suit in behalf of his wife. 



POVERTY AND SLAVERY. 395 

In the meantime Samuel Bucknam had got into trouble 
through the misdeeds of his "negro peeter " and Sarah 
Howard, 25 who became a town charge ; and Joseph Floyd and 
Nathaniel Upham were chosen to attend to the town's interest 
in the matter at the Cambridge Court. The case was continued 
to the Charlestown Court and finally the town recovered two 
pounds and twelve shillings of Samuel Bucknam. Nearly one- 
half of this amount disappeared in expenses ; but twenty-six 
shillings and sixpence remained, which the selectmen very 
properly expended in purchasing clothing for the unfortunate 
John Bucknam. He died June 14, 1705. 

There may have been other poor besides those which have 
been mentioned. Whether they were few or many in compari- 
son, their condition appealed to the sympathy of their fellows 
and was not unrecognized. On the town record is the following 
entry : — 

£ s d 

On a Thanks-giuing day : was 4-3-8 money Gathared by a free 
contrebution And Committed jnto y e hands of y e Town Tresurer 
Edward Sprague or his Sucksesor : and to be disposed of by order from 
y e select men for y e use of The poore of This town : date y e 1 2 of 
feburary 1696/7. 

At a town meeting held January 6, 169^/9, the following vote 
was passed : — 

If Bethiah Wilkenson doe com or be sent from Salam to this town 
The select men of this town atend y e law jn sending her back again. 

This vote was annulled. April 17, 1699, and the wants of its 
subject were probably supplied by her brother, in reference to 
whom the following entry was made many years after : — 



2r> The character of Sarah Howard Howard when she had y e foull deseas : 

was not good. The following paper re- maiden date y e 10: of feb 17-/^1, by order 

lating to her contains the first notice of of y e Selectmen 

a house provided in Maiden for a small- John Greenland Tozvn dark 

pox patient. to william Sprague constabl you ar 

" To Jacob Wilson Town Tresurer desired to pay the contents of this to 

you are desired to pay unto Joseph Green iosep green and in so much you will 

Two shillings and sixpenc money out of oblidg your frend : 

y e Town Stock jn your hand for his Jacob Willson town tresurer." 

presing a hous for to entertain Sarah Green Family Papers. 



396 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

[June 2, 1727] A vote was called for to see if y e Town would con- 
sider m r Isac wilkenson anything for his keeping his sister bethiah, 
and it past in y e negetive.* 

Six years later the selectmen were obliged to minister to her 
necessities ; and the following quaint entry appears : — 

An acount of sundery nesecaries provided for Bethiah wilkison by 
The select men of maiden aprill The 9th day 1733 

to one pair of tow sheats £1 - 10 s -o to one pair of Shoos ^00- 
i2 s -o to one Apron and handarcheif ,£00 -9 s 6 To a Pettycoat and 
makeing ,£00 - 15 s - 00 To two caps and makeing ^00 -6-0 To two 
cotten and lining shifts £1 - 10-3 The aforesaid cloathing purchesed 
by the five pounds money which insign Joseph lynds paid for the yous 
of the town of maiden when chosen constable excepting 2 shilings and 
9 penc worth of said things entered by order of the select men. 

The long procession of the poor had now begun. The next 
to claim the care of the town was Hannah Fensum, a daughter 
of Thomas Dickerman of Scadan. The town, while the com- 
mons were being divided, had refused to acknowledge her hus- 
band as an inhabitant, by the following vote : — 

[March 20, 1694/5.] voted whether the town would receve Isack 
fensum as inhabitant of this town and the vote passed in the negitife. 

She had lived before her marriage in the family of Thomas 
Shepard at Wilson's Point, within the limits of Charlestown ; 
and in a suit between Maiden and Reading she had been settled 
by the Court upon the latter town. 26 The next year Maiden was 
willing to take her and passed the following vote : — 

[April 14, 1702.] voted That y e select-men are apointed to Treet 
with y e select-men of Reding And make an exchaing Abigaill Lille for 
hannah fensum jf y e can. 

As nothing more is heard of Abigail Lillie in Maiden, it is 
probable that the exchange was effected. Hannah Fensum was 
drowned in Mystic River, July 18, 1706. 

William Teele was in Maiden as early as 1685. In the divi- 
sion of commons, among those who apparently had no claim to 

26 Midd. Court Records — General Ses- a warrant was issued for her forcible 

tions, March 18, 170°^. Eaton, History removal. Her husband appears to have 

of Reading, 41, calling her Hannah Fer- survived her, and married Sarah Saun- 

son, says she was warned out of that ders of Reading, October 14, 1713. 
town in 1700; and, she refusing to go, 



POVERTY AND SLAVERY. 397 

recognition, save for charity or some kindred reason, he received 
six acres in the " Lots laid out on y e land at y e end of y 2 300 
accres," which he sold to Philip Atvvood of Bradford in 1706. 27 
He seems to have been one who needed occasional assistance 
rather than absolute support, although he may have finally suc- 
cumbed and become entirely dependent upon the town. At a 
meeting, April I, 1702, it was " vot y l y e money y f william Teel 
was to pay to y e minestar jn y e yeer 1699 shall be forgiuen him : 
and the town must loos jt: " In August, 171 3, a small piece of 
the town's land " on y e northwardly side neer y e end of John 
wilsons land aboue y e clay-pits " — at the southerly corner of 
the Burying Ground Lane and the Great Road — was granted to 
him and his wife for their use during their lives. Here, being 
himself a carpenter, he built a small house, where he lived until 
his death, enjoying the privilege of closing the road and pastur- 
ing between the gates. Other favors were granted him. At the 
annual meeting in March, 171^, his rate of ten shillings was 
" forgiuen him ; " and it was voted : — 

Also y e s d Teel has libarty to fenc jn a litle cornar of land joining 
part to m r parsons land and part by Samuel Greens land neer to Sandy 
bank : so much land as shall be set out to him by : [p/ank.~\ 

William Teele died before May 21, 17 19; and his widow was 
continued in his privileges of gates and pasturage. 28 She was 
living as late as January 16, 1 73%, when it was 

voted that the town will do somthing towards the repairing the widow 
teals hous : and that the select men shall repare said hous as they shall 
see necessary. 

At last she, too, went down the grassy length of the Sandy 
Bank highway to the grave yard, and others enjoyed the bene- 
fits of the house which William Teele had built. It was voted, 
March 3, 174-^6: — 

27 Midd. Co. Deeds, xiv. 147. gives him a second wife and seven more 

28 William Teele and Mary, his wife, children, and continues him in life until 
had five children, the last of whom, after 1723. The second William, who 
Rachel, was born August 1, 1703. Al- really enjoyed these blessings, was prob- 
though he remained in Maiden and died ably the son, and William Teele, the 
as stated in the text, the careful Wyman, ferryman, mentioned by Wyman, the 
Genealogies and Estates of Charlestown, grandson of the indigent carpenter of 
934-935, removes him to Charlestown, Maiden. 



398 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

That Edward Hollowell shall have liberty to live in the house that 
was the teels and pasture a cow at the burying place and that for one 
year. 

The Hallowells appear to have been poor from the first. 
" Goodwife Holloway" is mentioned, in 1710, as one apparently 
with a family but contributing nothing to the treasury of the 
town. Edward Hallowell, who may have been her son, was 
here, December 25, 1730, when he married Huldah Farringtoti 
of Lynn ; and the town was anxious before many years to be 
rid of him. In the record of a meeting, held December 7, 1738, 
the following entry appears : — 

vot. that the town doth alow to Edward Hollwell 10 pounds money 
out of the towns stock provided he removes with his family from this 
town to the town of Killinsly to support them in there removal. 

If he went to Connecticut, he returned in season to enter upon 
the occupancy of the Teele house, the possession of which he 
retained during the remainder of his life, enjoying the privileges 
which his predecessors had received. 29 After he had lived in 
the house a year, it was confirmed to him at the annual meet- 
ing, when the following entries were made : — 

[March 2, 1746/7.] vot that the town dos quit their right to the house 
that Edward Hollowell now lives in on the towns land at the corner of 
John Willsons pasture to said Hollowell and his Wife and that said 
Hollowell And his Wife shall have liberty to improve said house on said 
land duering their natural life and that then the town shall have liberty 
to purchas the house of the heirs of the said Hollowell if standing on 
said land but if the town refuse to by said house then said heirs shall 
have liberty to remove said house from of said land. 

vot That Thomas Manser and Edward Hollowel Shall have liberty to 
keep a cow a pece upon the towns land at Sandy bank this year and 
that they shall have liberty to hang a gate a cross the road near said 
Hollowells house. 

Thomas Manser occupied the important position of sexton 
and grave-digger and was a neighbor of the Hallowells. It will 
be seen, by and by, that he, also, became one of the " town's 
poor." Edward Hollowell was a soldier at Fort Edward 

29 Mary Hollomon, perhaps the sister of Edward Hallowell, was warned out of 
town in May, 1749. 



P O VER TV A ND SLA VER Y. 



399 



in 1756, and died soon after, perhaps in service; for his wife, 
" Huldeth," was a widow in the following May. She was liv- 
ing, July 6, 1786, when the death of Hannah Bodge, daughter 
of the "widow Hollowell," is recorded; and she died before 
September 2, 1795, when the selectmen, for twelve pounds, law- 
ful money, sold to Samuel Wheeler one-eighth of an acre of 
land which is described as 

a certain Lot of Land lying in Maiden aforesaid lately occupied by 
the widow Hollowell late a pauper of Maiden deceased bounded as fol- 
lows (viz) Eastwardly on the great road Southerly on land of James 
Kettell dec a & northerly on a lane leading to the poor house. 30 



i] Midd. Co. Deeds, cxxvi. 174. This 
piece of land, the history of which has 
been followed from its grant by the 
town to William Teele to its sale and 
transfer by the same grantor to Samuel 
Wheeler, now forms the southerly corner 
of Main and Madison Streets. It was 
a part of the lands of John Lewis, and 
was, perhaps, left in its peculiar shape 
and condition by the undefined line of 
the way from Lewis's Bridge to the 
meeting house, which appears to have 
gradually grown into use across the in- 
tervening land. In 1661 Ralph Shep- 
ard, who had come into possession of 
that portion of the Lewis land since 
known as the Bell Rock pasture, entered 
a claim to its ownership, in which it was 
described as a triangle containing about 
sixty rods, " bounded easterly by a 
Highway leading to y e meeting house, 
nor westerly by a Highway leading to 
Sandy bank, & southerly by some lands 
of Thomas Lindes of mauldon afore- 
said, Sometime y e lands of Jn° Lewis 
deceased, & [he] desires his claime may 
be Recorded according to y e law for 
possession pag. 65." Midd. Co. Deeds, 
ii. 384. 

This claim does not appear to have 
been recognized, as the adjoining land 
was described in 1696, when it was con- 
veyed by John and Joseph Lynde, sons 
of Thomas Lynde, to Lieutenant Joseph 
Wilson, as bounded north and west "by 
the highway leading to Sandy Bank and 
a high way from Lewis bridge leading 
... to the meeting house going through 
the said Land." Ibid., xii. 569. Nor did 



Shepard mention his claim in 1666, 
when he sold his house and land in the 
Bell Rock pasture to the Rev. Benjamin 
Bunker. Ibid., iii. 235. Until its appro- 
priation to the uses of the Teeles, the 
land appears to have lain as one of 
those isolated pieces of common lying 
open at the corners of roads or by 
watering places which remained after 
the division of 1695. I* i s not improb- 
able, however, that the Lyndes, who 
also held their lands under the Lewis 
title, had a claim upon it, r° the de- 
scription of the land conveyed to Wilson 
may indicate. This opinion is strength- 
ened by the fact that when John Kettell, 
as the administrator of the estate of his 
father, James Kettell, who had held the 
Lynde land through his wife Elizabeth 
Wilson, a granddaughter of Lieutenant 
Joseph Wilson, sold, in 1797, four acres, 
to Bernard Green, it was bounded as 
follows : N., by the road to the burying- 
ground; E., by the road to Maiden 
Bridge ; and s., by land of Bernard 
Green. Ibid., cxxvi. 52. Wheeler's land 
was not mentioned, although he had pur- 
chased it two years before. Two months 
later, Bernard Green sold Wheeler forty- 
six rods, bounded n. and n. w., by the 
road to the burying ground ; E., by the 
great road ; s., by land of Bernard Green. 
Ibid., cxxvi. 175. This, if any adverse 
claim existed, put the latter in full pos- 
session of the sixty rods which had been 
claimed by Ralph Shepard. 

No house is mentioned in the deed 
given by the town ; but it is said that 
Wheeler enlarged the Hallowell house. 



4 0O HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

In the margin of " A list of y e families y l bares publique 
charges Jn maiden," which is given in full in another place, 
appear the names of seven who are separated from their fellows. 
Two of them, at least, were small landholders, but they were 
apparently in a condition which prevented them from becoming 
taxpayers. Besides William Teele and " Goodvvife Holloway," 
who have been already mentioned, they were " Tho dunell, 
Tho Grouer Tho degree, wido Sayes, and Zachriah Hill." 

Claimants of other races now appear in the persons of Jack 
Welcome and his wife, Black Ann. Tradition says that he was 
a negro, or at least a mulatto, while she was an Indian. It was 
voted, March 2, 171%, 

That y e Town will Giue unto Jack welcom a small pece of Land 
about a quarter of an acre nere to boston line on y e upar side of the 
Create Rhoad. 

Here they lived with a family springing up about them until 
the death of the husband and father, November 8, 1744. He 
had previously deeded to his wife — " For and in Consideration 
of the Love and affection which I have towards my wife Ann," 
the improvement of the land " as also my dwelling house stand- 
ing on said Land." After her death it was to become the prop- 
erty of their son William on condition that he paid ten pounds 
in bills of credit, old tenor, to his sister Thankful. In 1755 a 
mulatto child was laid at the door of this house, which was given 
to Joseph Barrett, with fifty-two pounds and ten shillings, old 
tenor, he agreeing to clear the town 

which he sold to Elias Currell in 1797, Bailey of Roxbury. Ibid., cexxviii. 523. 

conveying therewith about fifty rods of Mr. Bailey came to Maiden and estab- 

land with the bounds already given, lished the business of tinplate working 

Ibid., exxxiv. 35. Currell sold the same in the buildings attached to the house, 

to Edward Newhall in 1799, who in which he occupied. The business was 

turn sold it to Benjamin Burditt, baker, very successful and was continued by 

in 1810. Ibid., exxxiv. 34; exci. 74. Mr. Bailey until his death, in 1S52, and 

Burditt mortgaged the property, then for several years after by his sons. Mr. 

described as containing about one-half Bailey was a well-known and influential 

of an acre with a dwelling house and citizen and was prominent in local finan- 

other buildings, to Field and Bradshaw, cial affairs. The old house, which was 

merchants, of Boston, in 1S17, and re- removed a few years after his death, 

leased his right of redemption the next now stands on Madison Street a short 

year. Ibid , ccxix. 1S7 ; cexxiv. 510. The distance southwest of its original loca- 

latter parties sold it in 1819 to Timothy tion. 



POVERTY AND SLAVERY. 401 

from any charge that may arise upon the account of said child so 
long as it may be made a slave to me my heirs or to them that I or my 
heirs shall assign said child too. 

[May 16, i75 7>] Voted, That the town dos alow to An Wellcom ten 
pounds old tenor to be laid out in repairing her Shatterd habitation 
and that on the account of her nursing a child eight weaks that was laid 
at the dore of her house. 

[June 6, 1 75 7,] Voted, that the selectmen shall take care that said 
money be laid out for that purpose. 

Ann Welcome died November 4, 1764; and Black Ann's 
Corner still bears her name, marking the site of her little cabin 
under the side of the hill on the northerly side of the road. 

After the death of his mother, William Welcome, who was 
called Black Will, succeeded to the ownership of the house. 
That he was a shoemaker is shown by an order entered in 1766, 
on which he received three shillings, fivepence, and two far- 
things for making a pair of shoes for Agnes Nichols, a pauper. 
He died, unmarried, in 1793, being called upon the record " a 
negro — town's poor." He may have become an inmate of 
"the house for the poor;" as the selectmen, having been 
authorized by a vote of the town, sold John Waite, Jr., July 5, 
1792, for fifteen pounds and twelve shillings, lawful money, 

a certain peice of Land lying in Maiden aforesaid (containing about 
a quarter of an Acre more or less with a small Building thereon stand- 
ing) on the upper side of the great Road leading from Maiden to Lynn 
near to Chelsea line, and has for a number of Years past been improved 
by William Welcome and was given by the Town aforesaid to Jack 
Welcome in the Year 171^9 and was afterwards conveyed by the said 
Jack by a Deed of Gift to the said William Welcome. 31 

The number of the poor increased during the second and 
third quarters of the eighteenth century; and their individual 
cases are not as prominent on the records as those of their ear- 
lier kindred. In 1727 Jacob Wilson agreed for thirty pounds 
to keep the town from any future charge for his wife's sister, 
Hannah Ross. 32 Cases of a similar kind were not infrequent. 
Joseph Ramsdell married Rachel, a daughter of William and 

31 Midd. Co. Deeds, cvii. 504. Wilson, married Susanna Ross, May 20, 

32 Jacob, son of Lieutenant Joseph 1696. 

26 



402 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Mary Teele, and after having four children, they disappear from 
the records. 33 That they both died during the year 1745 seems 
probable. The following entries appear in relation to their two 
youngest children : — 

[January 14, 174^,] Voted, That Edward Wayte shall have John 
Ramsdell who is about five years old till he comes of age and said 
Wayte shall have thirty pounds old tenor with him in case said Waitt 
will be obliged to learn said child to read wright and cypher and also 
to learn him the Shoemakers trade. 

[May 14, 1747,] Voted That the Select men shall have liberty to 
put out the youngest child of Joseph Ramsdell deceast til it comes of 
age if they think it shall be for the benefitt of the town. 

Lynn august the 31 st 1748 Then received of Stephen Paine one of 
the ouer seeres of the poor forty pounds old tenor in full for taking and 
bringing up of Joseph Ramsdels child as my own J say received by me 

Ruth 
her -{- mark Wife of 

Pitmon John Pitmon. u 

The indenture by which John Ramsdell was bound to Edward 
Waite is a good specimen of a class of papers which were for- 
merly common but are seldom, if ever, executed in Massa- 
chusetts at the present day. The following copy is from the 
duplicate signed by Edward Waite, which is preserved among 
the Green Family Papers^ 

33 Rachel, daughter of William and as selectmen and overseers of the poor,. 
Mary Teele, born August I, 1703, mar- and again in 1805. Although not always 
ried to Joseph Ramsdell, of Maiden, stated in the record, this appears to have 
April 29, 1730. Children — Joseph, been the custom until the annual meet- 
July 1, 1730; Mary, December 29, 1736; ing in 1S22, when the first distinct board 
John, April 5, 1741 ; and Nathan, March of overseers was chosen. It was com- 
18 174/^ posed of Henry Gardner, Esq., Captain 

34 It is elsewhere stated that over- Isaac Stiles, and Major Nathan Upham. 
seers of the poor did not exist as a At the next meeting, an appropriation 
separate board in the colonial and pro- of fifteen hundred dollars was made for 
vincial periods. Their duties were per- the poor. 

formed by the selectmen, who sometimes 35 This collection, comprising papers 

received the name, as in the case in the of much interest concerning public and 

text and in the indenture by which John family affairs during two centuries, was 

Ramsdell was bound to Edward Waite. formed by the late James Diman Green, 

The name itself first appears, May 14, and is now preserved in the library of 

1744, when it was "vot That the select the New England Historic Genealogical 

men shall be over seers of the poor this Society. 
year." In 1780 five men were chosen 



POVERTY AND SLAVERY. 403 

This Indenture witnesseth, That Joseph Lynde Tho s Wait John Dex- 
ter Stephen Pain and Joseph Wilson Select-men, Overseers of the Poor 
of the Town of Maldon in the County of Middlesex in New-England by 
and with the Consent of two of his Majesties Justices of the Peace for 
said County have plac'd and by these presents do place and bind out 
John Ramsdell a poor Child belonging to Maldon afores'. 1 unto Edward 
Wait of Maldon in the County of Middlesex yeoman, and to his Wife 
and Heirs, and with them after the manner of an Apprentice to dwell 
and Serve, from the Day of the Date of these Presents until the fifth 
Day of April, which will be in the Year of our Lord one Thousand 
Seven Hundred and Sixty two at which time the said Apprentice if liv- 
ing will arrive at the Age of twenty one Years, during all which said 
Time or Term the said Apprentice his said Master and Mistress well 
and faithfully shall Serve, their Secrets he shall keep close, their Com- 
mandments lawful and honest every where he shall gladly obey, he shall 
do no Damage to his s d Master &c nor Suffer it to be done by others 
without letting or giving Seasonable notice thereof to his s d Master &c 
he shall not waste the Goods of his said Master &c nor lend them un- 
lawfully to any : At Cards Dice or any other unlawful Game or Games 
he shall not play : Fornication he shall not commit : Matrimony he 
shall not contract : Taverns, Ale Houses or places of Gaming he shall not 
haunt or frequent : From the Service of his s d Master &c by Day nor 
Night he shall not absent himself; but in all things and at all times he 
shall carry and behave himself towards his s d Master &c and all theirs, 
as a good and faithful Apprentice ought to do to his utmost Ability 
during all the Time or term afores d . — And the Said Master doth 
hereby covenant and agree for himself his Wife and Heirs to teach or 
cause the s d Apprentice to be taught the Art and Mystery of a Cord- 
wainer and also to read write and cypher, and also shall and will well 
and truly find allow unto, and provide for the s' 1 Apprentice Sufficient 
and wholesome meat and Drink, with Washing, Lodging and apparrel, 
and other Necessaries meet and convenient for Such an Apprentice 
during all the time or term afores d : And at the End and Expiration 
thereof shall dismiss the s l ! Apprentice with two good Suits of Apparrel 
for all parts of his Body one for Lords-Days, the other for working 
Days, Suitable to his Quality — In Testimony whereof the s d Parties 
have to these Indentures interchangeably Set their Hands and Seals the 
thirtieth Day of April, in the twenty first year of the Reign of our Sov- 
ereign Lord George the Second King of Great Britain &c. Annoq: 
Domini one Thousand Seven Hundred and forty eight 

Signed Sealed and Delivered y< 

in presence of, Edward Wait ^l.s^ 

John Shute 
John willson 



404 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Edward Waite was a prominent citizen and a selectman for 
fourteen years. He had no son ; and if the future life of his 
apprentice be considered, it appears that he faithfully performed 
his obligations and that John Ramsdell profited by his precepts 
and example. The latter married soon after he attained his 
freedom, had children, and became a landowner and a respected 
and useful citizen. As a Christian he was a shining light in the 
church. His character was beyond reproach, and his influence 
was always exercised for good. He was chosen one of the 
deacons of the First Church in 1776 and continued in that 
office for nearly fifty years, until his death in 1825, when Dr. 
Ephraim Buck was chosen to fill his place. 36 His care for the 
gravestone of Michael Wigglesworth has been noticed. It was 
a happy thought, perhaps his own, which gave him for an 
epitaph two couplets of the Maiden singer's rhymes, which may 
be read upon the stone at Sandy Bank. 

Welcome, sweet rest, by me so long desir'd, 
Who have with sins & griefs so long been tir'd, 
Welcome, O Christ, who hast my soul redeem'd ; 
Whose favour I have more than life esteem'd. 

Abigail Pratt appears as a pauper in 1755; and the next year 
Dr. Simon Tufts of Medford 3T was allowed two pounds, thirteen 
shillings, and fourpence for " what he has don for Martha 
Mansur in the time of her sickness." In 1762 the town refused 
to pay Dr. Isaac Rand of Charlestown for doctoring Amos 
Stower in his last sickness, and Dr. Tufts for attendance on 
Germain Tibodo, one of the unfortunate French neutrals who 
had been sent to Maiden by the provincial authorities. The 
next year the selectmen of Medford acknowledged Widow Abi- 
gail Waite, 38 who was then boarding in Maiden, to be one of 
their poor ; but to offset this advantage, the town was indebted 
in another direction, as appears by the following order. 

The following a true account of bill granted to Docter Porter. 
To Cap! Ebenezer Harnden town treasurer or his Sucsessor in said 
office you are to pay unto Doctor Porter five pounds eight shillings 

:!1 First Church Records, April 13,1825. 38 Widow of Peter Waite, son of 

37 Dr. Simon Tufts, H. C. 1744, was a Joseph of Maiden, who died in Med- 
great-grandson of Peter Tufts of Maiden, ford, December S, 1721. 



POVERTY AND SLAVERY. 



405 



thre pence and three farthings out of the town stock in your hands 
which is in full for visits and medicines for the poor of the town (viz) to 
rar Covvens family to the widow Jemima Burditt to Thomas Manser to 
mrf Simms to Jeremiah Tabodo and to the widow Mary Whitemore. 

Dated in Maldon the 22 day of June 1763 By order of the select 
men. 
5-S-3-3 John Shute town Clerk. 

The Cowen family lived at the north end. Israel Cook, who 
kept the only store there, received the following order in 
1 769 : — 39 

Granted to Jsrael Cook an order on the town treasurer of ^0-7 - 
8 d -3* for sundery things out of his shop to Cowen 40 in the time of his 
sickness. Dated in maiden the 7 th of march 1769. 
By order of the select men : 

John Shute town Clerk. 

Others who are mentioned soon after, as receiving aid from 
the town, are Widow Elizabeth Berry, Mary Paine, Thomas 
Degresha, who boarded with the Widow Pratt, Abigail Howard, 
Widow Zibiah Sherman, Agnes Nichols, 41 and Daniel Floyd. 



39 Israel Cook, of Boston, married, 
January 11, 174 4 5 , Hannah (Waite), 
widow of Phineas Upham. He inhab- 
ited the house of his predecessor, which 
stood at the present corner of Green and 
Howard Streets in Melrose. Here he 
"kept the first store in this town [Mel- 
rose], and was granted a license to sell 
rum, by the General Court, as early as 
1759; and that article was continued to 
be sold here up to, and beyond, the 
time of the Revolution, if we judge 
from the story of the two Lynn minute 
men, — Hadley and Wellman, — who, 
filled with the spirit of patriotism, were 
on their way to Lexington, stopped here 
and became filled with another kind of 
spirit ; then went on their way and were 
both killed. In this house was used 
the first stove in our town, and as a 
whole the old house had an interesting 
history, but it is now a thing of the 
past." Goss, Historical Address, July 4, 
1876, 16. This writer incorrectly says 
that the house stood on "a part of lot 
No. 37 of the division of 1695," which 
Phineas Upham, the father, bought of 



Joseph Wilson in 1703. The four acres 
sold by Joseph Wilson were a part of 
lot 37 in the third range of the second 
division, which was near the Boston 
line. It was probably upon this lot that 
Phineas Upham built the house which 
was still standing near Upham Street 
in Melrose in 1898, and of which a de- 
scription and a view are given in Upham, 
Descendants of John Upham, 79. 

40 James Cowen had been an inhabi- 
tant of Maiden since his marriage with 
Jean Crawford, of Lynn, February 22, 
I 73%- Patrick he was called in the 
record of Intentions of Marriage at 
Lynn and in the record of marriage at 
Maiden ; but as James he appears in 
all other instances. He had a large 
family of children. His wife died in 
or after 1751 ; and he married, March 17, 
1763, Ruhamah Parker, of Reading. By 
reason of sickness or some other mis- 
fortune, he soon after became dependent 
upon the town. He died, December 2, 
1769. 

41 Agnes Leveston, or Livingston, 
married John Nichols, son of Deacon 



400 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



In February, 1767, the selectmen entered " an order on the 
Treasurer to m rs Reb a Emerson for two pounds twelve shillings 
seven pence & one farthing for Supplyes of Cloathing for the 
oor. 

In 1767 John Mudge, who had been a worthy citizen and a 
deacon of the South Church, appears in the following order as 
one who had become dependent upon the town. 

an order on the Treasurer to m r James Kittle for one pound ten 
Shillings & ten pence for Supplies of Rum & Sugar for Dea n Mudge 
Eight month (viz) from march io' 1 ' to Oct? 2f> 1766. Dated in mai- 
den Feby 18* 1767 
By order of the Select men Ezra Green Town Clerk 

He had been living with Joseph Pratt, who was paid for his 
board in March, 1767, and died before October 1, of that year. 42 



Nathaniel Nichols, December n, 1740. 
He was a soldier in the Louisburg expe- 
dition in 1745, and died in the service 
in that year. She died in April, 1793, — 
one of the " towns-poor." Widow Zibiah 
Sherman, who is mentioned in the text, 
died December 28, 1772. I think she 
was the daughter of Robert Levenston 
and perhaps a niece of Agnes Nichols. 

42 Mudge, Mudge Memorials, 196, 
says, with great apparent exactness, that 
he died, November 26, 1762, aged 
seventy-one years, one month, and eleven 
days, making him to have died on the 
same day as did his son John at Lynn- 
field, and estimating his age by the birth 
of John Mudge who was born October 
15, 16S5, and died December 21 in the 
same year. Deacon John Mudge was 
born November 21, 16S6. He was act- 
ing as a deacon of the South Church in 
June, 1 761, but theie was a vacancy in 
that office, February 23, 1763, when 
"the C hh meet to chuse a Deacon." 
South Church Records. That he was 
living in October, 1766, is evident from 
the order in the text, and he may have 
died about the time when the "Supplies 
of Rum & Sugar " ceased. That he died 
before October 1, 1767, appears from an 
entry in the town records. 

John Mudge, the father of the deacon, 
bought of the heirs of Job Lane, in 
170'/, for two hundred pounds, a tene- 



ment and farm of sixty-five acres, at 
Turkey Hill. Midd. Co. Deeds, xiv. 186. 
Part of this land was a portion of lot 34 
of the allotment of 1638, which had been 
set-off to the Rev. John Harvard, the 
benefactor of Harvard College, and was 
sold in 1649 by Ralph Hall to Richard 
Cooke. Suffolk Co. Deeds, i. 103. Deacon 
John Mudge, by inheritance and the quit- 
claim of his sister Martha and her hus- 
band, Peter Edes, of Needham, came 
into possession of the farm in 1738, 
which he occupied but a few years, 
until 1745, when he sold it to Peter 
Edes, his brother-in-law. Edes removed 
to Maiden and lived on the farm until 
1762, when he sold it to Isaac Chitten- 
den, of Boston. The Chittendens owned 
and occupied the land until 1813, when 
it was conveyed by Samuel Chittenden 
to William Hurd, of Charlestown. From 
Joseph Hurd, of Portsmouth, who had 
purchased it in 1S16, it passed in 1831, 
for forty-five hundred dollars, to Leavitt 
Corbett, of Charlestown, who resided 
there until his death, August 9, 1855. 
The farm is now in the possession of 
the proprietors of Woodlawn Cemetery : 
and the Chittenden-Corbett house, which 
probably contained a portion of the 
Mudge house, was still standing, in 
1S95, on the west side of Turkey Hill, 
near Elm Street in Everett. It was 
torn down soon after. 



POVERTY AXD SLAVERY. 407 

The poverty of the South Church at that time, perhaps, pre- 
vented the assistance which its deacon should have received 
from its funds or its contributions; for it was the custom then, 
as now, for churches to help their members so far as possible. 
Contributions for the unfortunate were sometimes made at the 
close of the weekly lecture service, and especially on days of 
public fasts and thanksgivings. An early instance has already 
been given, and the lost diary of the Rev. Joseph Emerson 
mentioned, at least, two contributions which were made for 
"Nat Nycholes." 43 Sometimes the neighboring churches were 
helpful in the work of charity. The Rumny-marish Church 
Book contains the following entry, made by the former pastor 
of Maiden, Thomas Cheever : — 

November 10 [1726]. Public Thanksgiving. The Contribution 
was appointed for Ebenezer Hill of Maldon, who, having a sore leg for 
several years which the Doctours at last judged incurable unless his 
leg was cutt off (which was done the 7 th of this month,) petitioned our 
Church and Congregation for our Charity, there was gathered about 
five pounds ten shillings — ^5.10.11. 

A distinction must be made between the workhouse, where 
the poor gathered daily to perform light tasks, and the alms- 
house, where they dwelt; although the former was finally 
merged in the latter where they both lived and worked. The 
workhouse preceded the almshouse, having been at first some 
house temporarily hired for the purpose, while the poor dwelt 
in their own dilapidated houses or were " boarded out " at 
the expense of the town. It was refused in March, 174./2, to 
"build a house to imploy the poor in; "and in 1753, it was pro- 
posed to join with Cambridge, Medford, Woburn, and Reading 
in building a workhouse; but the town declined to entertain so 
extravagant a proposition. Some effort to bring the poor 
together was made in 1765 or 1766, but it does not appear to 
have been of long duration. In February of that year, the 
selectmen issued an order in favor of John Paine for two 
pounds and four shillings 

43 Bi-Centenmal Book of Maiden, 202. 



$°^£oS& 



408 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

for work don on the school house by the meeting house upon the 
account of rent due from the town to the propriators of said house for 
the poors living therein. 

Finally, at the annual meeting March 2, 1772, it was voted 
"To hire a Work House for the poor of the Town; " and soon 
after, " That some Part of the Work House, to be hired for the 
poor, be also an Alms House if need be." The house which 
was hired was that which stood near the present easterly corner 
of Salem and Sprague Streets and which had formerly belonged 
to Thomas Burditt, Jr. The west end of the house, which had 
been set off to Widow Sarah Burditt, was that which was appar- 
ently used ; and it may be that the keeper, John Gould, lived in 
the other part, which had recently been sold to Samuel Merritt. 
However this may be, it is certain that John Gould was master 

of the workhouse in 1773, when 
Zaccheus Banks, cordwainer, was 
apprehended and committed to 
his care ; and here he dwelt in 
the latter years of the century. 44 It was voted, March 1, 
1773, " To support the poor at a Work House the ensuing Year, 
according to the Rules & orders of the last Year." A committee 
was chosen the next year "to lay a Plan for building a work- 
house ; " but the town refused to accept its report at a subse- 
quent meeting, and continued to hire until March 6, 1786, when 
it was recorded that Widow Burditt refused " to lett her house 
for the use of the poor." 

In the meantime, the town had come into the possession of 
an almshouse and it had been voted, March 6, 1780, 

that the Ouerseers of the poor shall moue the poor to the Towns 
house which lately Thomas Mancer lived in as soon as thay Conven- 
ently can. 

Thomas Manser had been sexton of the town and North 
Parish many years and in 1769 had become old and feeble, 

44 John Gould has been remembered Mount and pray until the temptation 

in tradition as an extremely honest man. had passed away. He died June 2, 

It is said that when he found himself in 1S00. Samuel Merritt, the town clerk, 

danger of becoming angry he would go was his adopted son. 
into the woods at the foot of Wayte's 



POVERTY AND SLAVERY. 409 

though he performed the duties of his office several years 
longer. His house 011 the north side of the Sandy Bank high- 
way was getting old like himself; and, considering the circum- 
stances, the town passed the following vote : — 

[November 17, 1769,] Voted To repair y e House of m r Thomas 
Manser, & provide for his comfortable Subsistance, during his natural 
Life, together with his Endeavours to Support himself, upon Condition 
that he will give a legal Conveyance of said House, with his other Real 
Estate to the Town. 

Voted, That Capt John Dexter, Capt. Harnden & M r . James Kettell be 
a Committee to acquaint M r Thomas Manser with the preceeding Vote ; 
which Vote he complied with and gave a Deed of y e Premises to the Town. 

At the annual meeting in 1783, it was voted that the survey- 
ors of highways " Shall make a Stone wall on the towns land by 
the Road to the Buring place that the poor may have a garden." 
The almshouse probably absorbed the workhouse after the 
refusal of the Widow Burditt to let her house longer for the 
town's use, and no more is heard of the latter. An enlargement 
of the former became needful in 1791, and a committee reported 
in April of that year that it was 

Necessary that an addition of eighteen feet be added on the West 
part of s d House to have a Gambrel Roof the Smoke to be carried into 
the Chimney of the Old house. 

No action was taken on this report until May 7, 1792, when a 
committee was chosen " to employ workmen & furnish materials 
for enlarging the house for the poor." The little house of 
Thomas Manser, with a sun-dial — " the economical town time- 
piece of Maiden," standing before its door, 45 continued to be the 
almshouse until 1822, when the town having purchased a por- 
tion of the Blanchard farm and adjoining lands on the Medford 
Road, sold for one hundred and forty-nine dollars and fifty cents 
the house and land on the " road leading to the Bank so called 
commonly called the old poor house." 46 The old house, 
enlarged and kept in good repair, yet stands on the northerly 
side of Madison Street, showing on its exterior few marks of age 
to distinguish it from its neighbors. 47 

45 Bi-Centennial Book of Maiden, 224. 47 It had been built on a lot of about 

46 Midd. Co. Deeds, ccxlvi. 2S9. a quarter of an acre, which Jonathan 



410 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

At a Generall Town meeting the 13th of July 1696 Cap william Green : 
moderator. This town taking jnto consideration y e jnconuenences and 
damig : Acurring To them : by Jnmates. And Jll efected parsons setling 
themselves amongst them Ahaue noted : and ordered : that Jf aney par- 
son whatsoeuer : that shall Resaiue any Jnmate : Jnto their hous more 
then fourteen days before they Giue notis Thereof to the select men : or 
that shall Lett out their hous to hier ; to aney parson : but such as the 
select-men shall aproue of from time to time shall forfit hue shillings 
p r weeck : so long as they continue defecttiue : heer jn : and pay all 
such damiges as shall com to the town thereby And that the Constable 
shall take the forfit : of those y l transgres herin by destres : by a 
warrant from y e select men : for y e use of the town : 

This vote, which was based on a Province law, continued, with 
various modifications in force nearly a century, and simplified 
the settlement of paupers. Upon receiving notice, or within a 
reasonable time thereafter, the selectmen issued their warrant 
and the constable proceeded to warn the new comers to depart. 
Apparently the first to experience the operation of this vote was 
Thomas Degresha, in reference to whom it is recorded : — 

Thomas degreuch ey entred as a parson Resedant jn maiden y e 14 of 
decembar 1699 : wharupon the select men of this town gaue ordar by 
a warrant to Thomas okes constable to warn y e said Thomas degruche y 
and his wife to depart y e town of maiden and be Resident no longar 
ther jn baring date y e 21 of decembar 1699. 48 

Rich or poor, those who came to remain or those who came 
for a season — all were treated alike. It was not always neces- 
sary to obey, as the legal effect was usually produced by serving 
the warrant, which cleared the town from future liability. 
Sometimes, however, the constable was ordered to take a party 

Howard, Jr. had deeded December 16, Samuel Shute. It is now known as 

1730, "for and in Consideration of love 53 Madison Street. 

good will and affection which J have 48 Thomas Degresha was married to 

and clou Bear towards my freind and Agnes Cracker by the Rev. Thomas 

towns man Thomas Mansser." This Cheever at Rumney Marsh, March 16, 

land was bounded easterly "on a High 169%. They did not "depart y e town" 

way that goes to y e Burring Place in but continued therein. They were the 

s'. 1 Town and Near s'. 1 Burring place." parents of Thomas and the grandparents 

Unrecorded deed in the writer's posses- of Mary, the well known "Moll Grush" 

sion. This property was afterwards of later days. Grushy Pasture, on Forest 

purchased by Timothy Bailey and was Street, preserved the name in Maiden 

for many years occupied by the late until recent years. 



POVERTY AND SLAVERY. 411 

by force and deposit him outside of the town limits. Sometimes 
the law required that notices of such warnings should be given 
to the County Court and approved by that authority. Thus, at 
the Court of General Sessions, March, 1734, the following entry 
was made : — 

The Selectmen of maiden are allowed to enter their caution against 
Richard Perkins and Judith his wife, mary Perkins their daughter and 
James Connon their servant, who have been warned to depart out of 
the s d Town of maiden, as appears by a warrant with a return endorsed 
thereon on file. 

The notices given by heads of families and landlords under 
this vote sometimes contain valuable information in relation to 
the origin and movements of families. The following is one of 
many which may be found in the town records : — 

Maldon June the 5 th 1756 

To mr John Shute town Clerk of Maldon These agreable to a law 
of this Province in such case provided are to acquaint you that mr 
John Rumbly & his Wife and children ware by me the subscriber ad- 
mitted into my house in Maldon as tennants upon Rent on the twenty 
eighth day of may last and they were then first received and admitted 
into the possession of my said house and the said John and his family 
came last from medford he is a Brickmaker, J belive he is an indus- 
trious man and that he will maintain himself and family and pay his 
rent and nothing more of his or his familys Curcumstances are known 
by your Humble Servant Ebexezer Pratt Ju r ; 

Uriah Oakes, in January, 1758, took Mary Saunders and her 
children, Mary and Margaret, into his family as boarders. Her 
husband was a seafaring man with " nothing els to trust to but 
his prosperity." In the same year, Rose Clough, a widow from 
Boston, was reported as one " who is under good sircum- 
stances ; " and John and Abigail Cades, who came from Stone- 
ham, were said to be "young and industrious." Soon after 
Susanna Downing, "a garl from Boston . . . under poor surcum- 
stances," was taken in by Isaac Wheeler ; while Joseph Lynde 
sheltered Mary Welch, a young woman from Charlestown, who 
Avas reported to be "not compos mentis;" and John Shute 
took Isaac Doubt of Boston — " he has been welthy but now 
very much reduced." 



412 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

A few years later Timothy Sprague certified to Mary Hendly 
"a poor garl from Marblehead;" and Isaac Wayte had two 
children, Richard and Elizabeth Sanders, from Boston, whose 
father is recorded as being " a strong laborious man but has no 
great matter in the world." In 1764 Thomas Shute received 
Joseph Grant from Boston — "much disordered in mind and 
has but little worldly substance." Timothy Waite gave the 
following notice in 1772: — 

Sarah Parsons of Leicester, a single Woman, came to live with me 
one year. She came the 29 th Day of May last 1771, in Order to learn 
to be a Taylor. 

Negroes are mentioned at times, coming probably as servants 
or farm laborers. Rebecca, " a melatto woman," was warned 
in 1745; and Jonas Green had "a molatto woman" named 
Mary Fair, from Lincoln, in 1768. Worster and Jupiter with 
their wives, Phyllis and Mary, from Medford, 49 were warned in 
1780; and in 1786 appears the following entry in relation to one 
whose name and appearance, in her latter years, are still remem- 
bered by a few old inhabitants : — 

To Ebenezer Waitt Constable of the Town of Maiden Greeting, in 
the Name of the Commonwealth of Massechusets. you are Required 
forthwith to warn Deborah Sawco a Negro woman (Daughter to Cuffe 
Sawco of Medford) who Came into town from Salem in Jan r . 1786 — 
that she forthwith Departe out of this town to Salem and that she be 
nolonger Resident herein — And Make Returne of this warrant with 
your Doings here on to me the Subscriber. Dated Maiden July 18. 
1786 — By Order of the Selectmen Joseph Perkins Town Cle r 

Agreabl to the within writtin warrant I have warned the within men- 
tioned Person to Departe out of this Town to Salem from whence she 
Came — Maiden, Aug'. 1 786 — Ebenezer Waitt Constable 

Deb Saco, who was thus warned to " Departe," died at the 
almshouse in Maiden, June 17, 1839, aged about eighty years. 
Whether she was a negro or an Indian, I cannot say. Those 
who remember her are divided as to that matter. The name of 
her father is that of a negro, and the record of her death calls 

49 Worster had been a slave of the of Maiden; and Jupiter of Timothy 
Rev. Ebenezer Turell, of Medford ; his Fitch, of the former town. A daughter, 
wife Phyllis, of the Rev. Eliakim Willis, Rebecca, accompanied the latter. 



POVERTY AND SLAVERY. 413 

her " a colored person." The late Augustus D. Rogers, of Salem, 
in a note to me, says that she was an old colored servant of Col- 
lector De Witt of that town, and that she was popularly supposed 
to be one hundred years old. He says, " I often gazed on her 
with awe, when, as I rode to Maiden, she might be seen bending 
on her staff, with ' arbs ' to sell." A representation of her as a 
fortune-teller was formerly in the East India Museum in Salem, 
and she has often appeared by proxy at ladies' fairs. I suspect 
that she was of two races, having an Indian mother. This was 
a not uncommon mixture during the continuance of slavery; and 
it was popular with the negroes, as the children of an Indian 
mother were free. She was a tramp, or, in the speech of that 
day, a " walk-about," ranging the country from Salem to Cam- 
bridge. She would disappear for months, returning suddenly, 
as eager to tell fortunes, as dirty, and as fond of rum as ever. 

Of a similar character was Hannah Shiner, known also as 
Squa Shiner, an older woman, in whose veins the Indian blood 
predominated, if it were not wholly pure. She was a small 
woman with a thin face, and she usually travelled, with a small 
dog, selling baskets and herbs. She, too, was known in all 
the neighboring towns ; but her home was near a spring on 
the borders of Turkey Swamp in Middlesex Fells, where she 
lived with a kindred spirit known as Old Toney. She is said 
to have been " kind-hearted, a faithful friend, a sharp enemy, 
a judge of herbs, a weaver of baskets, and a lover of rum." 
She was drowned in the Abajona River in Woburn, having 
been blown off a bridge by a high wind, on a cold winter day 
[December 22, 1820]. 50 She was eighty-two years old at the 
time of her death. 

Mary Degresha, otherwise Moll Grush, was another individual 
of the "walk-about" class. She was a daughter of Thomas 
Degresha and first appears as a town charge in 1786, when at 
a town meeting it was 

[October 16, 17 86.] Voted to put up Mary Degrusha to a vandue 
to see who will take her at the next Parish Meeting of this North 
Parrish. 

50 Cf. Brooks, History of Medford, 81 ; Winchester Record, i. 274. 



414 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

[October 25, 1786. J Charles Hills west Room then meet accord- 
ingly and Lieu! Francis Phillips bid her of for one year and the Town 
was to Cloath her Deacently and by him to keep her Deacently 
Cloathed and the Town to Give Lieu 1 Phillips Six Dollers for his taking 
her and taking Proper Care of her and he is to keep her from being 
any farther a Town Charge for one year from the time that the Select- 
men Delivers her to him the said Lieu! Phillips. 

Mary Degresha is said to have been an active and spirited 
woman and to have been offended when called Moll Grush. 
The story of her being the last sufferer at the whipping post in 
Maiden is related elsewhere. In her old age she is described 
as having a thin body and a dark yellow complexion, from 
which she was popularly supposed to be of Indian blood. She 
lived a short time in a hut near Bear's Den, and died at the alms- 
house about 1838. 

Whatever deals with poverty in its many forms has little to 
relieve it. Grotesque it may be, or a trace even of the comic 
may at times pass through it as a gleaming thread ; but its 
grotesqueness becomes hideous, and the gleaming thread is 
tarnished when for a moment is seen beneath it stolid despair, 
starvation, sickness, lingering death — all the many woes which 
have attended the poor in all ages. What they suffered who 
are gone, what they are suffering who are living none may 
know save those who may live as they. Yet there is a deeper 
depth to which men and women in Massachusetts have descend- 
ed without hope ; for SLAVERY was here from the beginning 
and remained under the protection of the law until after the 
Revolutionary period. 

It matters not that it existed in a mild and patriarchal form ; 
for it was still a real slavery, wherein human beings had a 
money value and were sold like cattle or the ground on which 
they trod. The names of a few of these servitors have come 
down to us ; but the names of Brahma Bucknam and Cato 
Lynde, of Phyllis Willis and Violet Hills, belong to a day and 
a condition which have passed away. So far removed are they 
from us — so remote from the thoughts and customs of the 
present is the condition in which they lived that the record of 
their existence has no living interest, and we look upon it only 



PO VER TV A ND SLA VER V. 415 

as a curiosity of the past. As such, with much care and no 
slight labor, I have brought together from scattered sources the 
little that remains to illustrate the story of slavery in Maiden. 
Its existence spans the time from the incorporation of the town 
to a day almost within the memory of man. Indeed, within 
sixty years I have taken the hand of the last survivor of 
enforced servitude here. 

That slavery was almost coeval with the Colony cannot be 
doubted. Antiquaries know the story of the negro who was 
lost in the woods in 1633, and who, after frightening some 
Indians, who thought he was Abamacho — the Devil — was con- 
ducted to his master. 51 The ninety-first article of the Body of 
Liberties, established by the General Court in 1641, concerns 
the 

Liberties of Forreiners and Strangers. 

91. There shall never be any bond slaverie, villinage or Captivitie 
amongst us unles it be lavvfull Captives taken in just warres, and such 
strangers as willingly selle themselves or are sold to us. And these 
shall have all the liberties and Christian usages which the law of god 
established in Israeli concerning such persons doeth morally require. 
This exempts none from servitude who shall be Judged thereto by 
Authoritie. 52 

This article has been cited to prove that the spirit of the early 
Massachusetts laws was against slavery; and yet it recognized 
the right of property in human flesh and provided for its transfer 
as clearly as any law of the later slave-holding colonies or states. 
By its authority captives taken in- the Indian wars were sold into 
domestic servitude, or sent to the West Indies in exchange for 
negroes ; and Africans were subjects of sale for nearly a century 
and a half. Nor was it ever expressly repealed ; nor can the 
closest student of the subject point to the exact date when 
slavery in Massachusetts became legally extinct. 53 

51 Wood, New-Englands Prospect, 77. in America, have entered upon the field ; 
(Ed. 1634.) but the one is written in a controversial 

52 Mass. Hist. Coll. xxviii. 231. spirit, and the author of the other is 

53 The history of slavery in New influenced by sympathy with his race. 
England is unwritten. Moore, Notes of On the other hand, the historical writers 
the History of Slavery in Massachusetts, of New England have ignored or mis- 
and Williams, History of the Negro Race represented the subject, or have at- 



4 l6 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

The first notice of slavery in Maiden is implied in an order of 
the General Court in relation to the servant of Job Lane, who 
had been found guilty of " runing from his s d master." 

[May 1 8, 1653.] Ebedmelecks y e negros censure. In ans r to the 
petetion of Job Lane, in the behalfe of Ebedmeleck, his servant, for the 
remittment of the rigor of the lawe, &c, the Court judgeth it meete, 
that the sajd Ebedmelecke, for his stealing victualls and breaking open 
a window on the Lords day, shall, the next lecture day, be whipt with 
five stripes. 54 

The next is in a bond of Job Lane to John Leverett, after- 
wards Governor of the Colony. 

Know al men by these p'sents that I Jobe Lane, of Maiden in the 
Covnty of midelsex in New Engld., Carpenter, acknowleg my selfe to 
be indebted vnto John Leverett, of Boston in the Covnty of Svffolke, 
in the Massachvsets Collony in New Engld, for a negro boy called 
mercvry the svm of thirty povnds of Cvrrant monney of new Engld., 
the which svm, I, the sayd Jobe Lane p'mise to pay vnto the sayde 
Leverett at his Now dwelling hovse in boston, or in other pay to his 
Content, as for monney, or to his heyres execcvto r s or assignes, for the 
trve performance of the same, I doe hereby fyrmely bynd myselfe my 
heyres, execcvto r s & assignes in the penalty of sixty povnds of like 
Cvrrant monney. In witnes whereof, I have herevnto set my hand & 
seale this 12th day of Jvne 1667. 
Witnes, Job Laine. 

William Sedgwicke 
Isaac + Gross. 

The close of Philip's War was fruitful in "servants" of an- 
other race — of heathen, who for their souls' everlasting good 
were doomed to temporal servitude. There is extant a paper 
written by Daniel Gookin in 1676, the endorsement and one 
item of which are as follows : — 



tempted to excuse that which they could gan to pervade the land that a general 

neither ignore nor misrepresent. The public opinion against slavery was 

simple truth is that slavery was just and aroused. When the truth of history is 

its purposes were righteous in the eyes sought before the undue exaltation of 

of those who saw their profit therein, the fathers, the history of slavery in 

and there were few who could see its Massachusetts may be fairly told, 
enormity under the influence of a present 54 Mass. Colony Records, iv. ( 1 ), 137. 

advantage. It was not until a spirit of 55 N. E. Hist, and Geneal. Register, 

liberty and resistance to oppression be- xiii. 204. 



PO VER TV A ND SLA VER Y. 4 1 7 

A List of the Indian Children put to seruice that came in with John 
of Packachooge. . . . 1 Boy. To Goodman Greenland a carpenter 
of Charles towne on Misticke side, a boy name Tom aged twelue yeares, 
his lather named Santisho of Packachooge. 56 

Besides this I have found no case of Indian servitude on 
Mystic Side or in Maiden, and slavery here, with this excep- 
tion, seems to have been confined to the negro race. 

"Turan Negro Serv 1 to Edw Carrington, & a negro wench 
serv! to old m' rs Lines" are mentioned in 1677; and their ac- 
quaintance, resulting in a presentment at the Court, brought 
fifteen stripes to the former and ten to the latter. 57 

In the will of William Bucknam (1693) a negro is mentioned; 
and others are found, as property, in wills and inventories made 
prior to the Revolution. Samuel Bucknam's "negro peeter," 
and his troubles in 1703, have been mentioned. Jonathan 
Knower (1722) was possessed of a "Negro woman named 
Jenne," who was to serve his wife during her life and to be free 
at her decease; and Deacon John Greenland (172%) left to his 
grandson, John Shute, " one negro woman," who was valued at 
fifty pounds. The comparative value of human flesh in Maiden 
during the early half of the eighteenth century may be known 
by the inventory of Deacon John Pratt, which was made in 
1742, when an " oald negroman " and a cow were alike valued 
at ten pounds each. 58 

During this period, the condition of the slave was hardly as 
tolerable as it afterwards became. He was a barbarian — a 
heathen whose conversion was hardly worth the cost, and whose 
soul, if any he had, was of little moment in the scheme of sal- 
vation. Rarely did his children receive the rite of baptism; 
nor were his brothers and sisters often admitted to the privi- 
leges of church membership before the middle of the century. 
The reason was obvious. If he became a church member he 
became eligible to the privileges of a freeman, which might by 
some favoring circumstances be brought within his reach; and 
no freeman could remain or become a servitor, save after a legal 

56 N. E. Hist, and Geneal. Register, 57 Midd. Court Records, iii. 176. 

viii. 272. There are twenty-one boys 53 fifidd. Probate Files, in loco. 

and eleven "mayds" in this list. 

27 



41 8 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

judgment of the court for some sufficient reason. His life and 
limbs were protected by the letter of the law; but the slayer of 
a negro was hardly to be set by the side of one who killed a 
white man. In the former case the law might interpose with a 
show of authority and a faint zeal; but public sympathy was 
usually with the murderer. In the following extract, pity for 
" the poor man " who lost his temper chokes any appearance 
of regret for the death of his victim. 

[December 2, 1728] On Thursday last an Irishman hapning to 
quarrel with a Negro man belonging to Sweetser of Maiden, proceeded 
to strike the said Negro, and thereby wounded him to that degree that 
he dy'd on Saturday last, and the poor Man was the same day committed 
to Goal in order to be try'd for the said Crime. 59 

Yet, to the slave the attainment of freedom was not impossi- 
ble. Faithful servants were sometimes freed by will, after the 
deaths of their masters; and sometimes an earlier manumission 
was given. Nor was the release of aged or unhealthy depend- 
ants, from considerations of economy, uncommon ; and the un- 
fortunate freed man became a charge to the town or turned 
the mill of his poverty and distress alone. So frequent did 
such cases become that the General Court passed an act in 
1703-4, which prohibited the freeing of servants, except upon 
giving bonds to save the public from future charges. 60 

59 New - England Weekly Journal. " There is a tradition that one of the 
There is a tradition, which can hardly old Esquires of this town had a slave 
be connected with this story, that a who had been in his family until he was 
negro was killed in the house of Thomas about seventy years of age. Perceiving 
Hills, which stood on the easterly side that there was not much more work left 
of Harvell's Brook Lane, near the pres- in the old man, the Esquire took him 
ent corner of Cross and Lyme Streets, one day, and made him a somewhat 
In the course of time, the old house pompous address to the following effect: 
became not only dilapidated but haunted, ' You have been a faithful servant to me 
so that no tenant, save the unearthly one and my father before me. I have long 
who was supposed to have returned, been thinking what I should do to re- 
could be found to remain in it. A black ward you for your services. I give 
cat was seen there, and people said that you your freedom ! You are your own 
spirits could take a great many forms, master; you are your own man.' Upon 
The house became more uncanny and this the old negro shook his grisly head, 
ruinous, and was demolished about and with a sly glance, showing that he 
seventy years ago. Perhaps this story saw through his master's intentions, 
may have been connected with Jack, quietly replied : ' No, no, Massa, you eat 
"a negro who lived at M r Thos Hills," de meat, and now you must pick de 
who died, May 25, 1800, aged fourteen bone.'" Bi-Cetiteiniial Book of Maiden, 
years. 131. 

63 Province Laws, chap. 1, 1703-4. 



POVERTY AND SLAVERY. 419 

By the middle of the century, a feeling antagonistic to slavery 
began to work a change in public opinion and the condition of 
the slave began to improve. The laws for his protection 
became more direct or were better observed; and he was more 
freely admitted to the enjoyment of Christian rites and privi- 
leges. His children might be baptized and he might become 
a member of the church. " Ginne negro servant to Mf Thomas 
Pratt of Chelsea" was baptized in 1750, by the Rev. Aaron 
Cleaveland of the South Church; and there were at least two 
negroes who were members of the same church, in full commun- 
ion, before the Revolution — Tower, "servant to Mrs. Blany," 
who was admitted, April 3, 1763, and Peter, "servant to M r 
Darius Green," who was admitted March 17, 1765. The 
children of the latter, Margaret, Simon, and Phebe were bap- 
tized at the South Church. 61 He was familiarly known as Old 
Peter, and he afterwards became the slave, or servant, of Ezra 
or Bernard Green. 

The Green family had several slaves, as had also the Lyndes, 
the Dexters, and the Bucknams. 62 The inventory of Ezra 
Green, taken July 5, 1768, contains the following items: — 

To the Servents 

To a Negro man Named Jeferre ^"20.00.00 

To a Negro Boy Named Simon 33.06.08 

To a Negro Garl Named Vilot 10.13.04 63 

Some of the papers by which Ezra Green obtained ownership 
of his slaves are extant and are worthy of preservation, not only 

61 South Church Records, m loco. of this estate. This rhyme, which, with 

62 There were several slaves attached other curious or interesting papers, is 

to the farm of William Bucknam and in the possession of Mr. Swan, is hardly 

his descendants, a portion of which is to be compared with the work of Phyllis 

now occupied by Joseph Swan, whose Wheatley, the slave poet of Boston. It 

house on Bucknam Street in Everett was to be sung " In the tune of the 

is upon the site of that of the Buck- black swan ; " and two couplets of the 

nams. " The two last woolly-haired seven of which it is composed will fairly 

residents upon the place rejoiced in the present its merits. 

decidedly euphonious names of Pomp ... , , , . , , ,. . 

theare was hue cobbelers made a Irouck 
and Samp." Maiden Mirror, August 1 4, an one was taken with the collick , 

1875. " Pomp and seser," are mentioned 

£JJ1 r ,■ • " the fidlers name was pomp nr seser 

as fiddlers at a country frolic in 1777, , , ., , , ■ ', ,, 

J . . , and dauid danced with a mop squeser. 

in a piece of doggerel which is said to 

have been written by one of the slaves 63 Midi/. Probate Piles, in loco. 



420 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

as showing how a legal right and title to the bodies and life 
service of men could be transferred and preserved, but as 
undeniable proofs of the reality of African slavery in New 
England. 

Know all Men By These Presents That I Peter Hayes Iun r of Stone- 
ham in the County of Middlesix in his Majesties Province of the 
Masachusetts Bay in New England Yeoman Have Sold a Negro man 
Servant Named Tom : to Ezra Green of Maiden in the County afore- 
said Gen! and in Consideration of the Sum of Fifty Five pounds which 
I Do By These Presents Acknowledge I have Received of the above S d 
Ezra Green for the above S d . Negro man Servant and am there with 
fully Satisfyed and contented, and I the Said Peter Hayes Iunr have in 
my Self Good right full power and Lawfull Authority to Sell and Dis- 
pose of SI Seruant as above Expressed and I do hereby Covenant and 
promise to warrant and Defend the above SI Ezra Green in the quiet 
and peasable possion of the above SI Negro man Seruant to his own 
proper Use and Disposal as he Shall think fitt In Wittness whereof I 
have hereunto Sett my hand and Seal the Twenty Sevnth Day of Oct 
Anno Dora: one Thousand Seven Hundred & Sixty And in the Thirty 
Forth year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Second 

King &c 

Signed Sealed and Delivered Peter Hay Jun* <^> 6i 

in Presents of 

James Hay 

Mary Brown 

Know all men By These Presents that we Tho^ Burditt Iabez Burditt 
Sam 1 ! Sweetser & Ioseph Burditt all of Maiden & Iacob Burditt of 
Charlstown Being All of the County of Middlesix & province of the 
Massachusets Bay in New England Have Sold a Negro man Servant 
Named Ieffrey to Ezra Green of Maiden & County aforesaid Gentle- 
man for and in Consideration of Thirty Seven pounds Six Shillings & 
Eight pence which we Do By These Presents Acknowledge we have 
Received of the above s d Ezar Green For the Above S d Negro Man 
Servant & am therewith Fully Satisfyed & contented, and we the above 
S d . Thomas, Iacob, Iabez, and Ioseph Burditt and Samuel Sweetsar 
Have in our Selves good Right full Power & lawful Authority to sell and 
dispose of s'! Servant as above Express : & we do hereby Covenant and 
Promise to warrant and defend the above s d Ezra Green In the Quiet 
And Peasable Possesion of the above S d Negro Man, to his own Proper 
Use & Disposal as he Shall Think fit In witness whereof we have Here- 

64 Greeti Family Papers. 



POVERTY AND SLAVERY. 42 1 

unto Set our Hands And Seals this eighth Day of February Anni Dom ; 
one Thousand Seven Hundred & Sixty two In the Second Year of the 
Reign of our Soverein Lord George the third King ; &c. 
Signed Sealed & Delivered 

in Presents of Thomas Burditt 

James Houev Jacob Burdit 

John Nickols. Sam ll Sweetserer 

Jabez burditt o 

Joseph Burditt. 65 o 

Boston June y e 7 th 1 762 
Rec d of Joseph Bryant of Stoneham Twenty Six Pounds thirteen 
Shillings & four pence in part of pay for a Negro Man for pay of Whom 
I have s d Bryants Note of hand. 
Witness my hand Ezra Green. 66 

The town records contain an entry relating to " a Malatto 
child " who was "made a slave " to Solomon Townsend, who 
afterwards occupied the house and land on Ferry Street since 
known as the Haskins estate. 

Maldon february the 4"' day 1761 be it known that whereas the 
select men of said town have put a Malatto child to me The subscriber 
alowing me thirteen pounds six shillings and eight pence for my 
trouble in bringing up of said child and having received an order for 
said money J the subscriber do promis for me and my heirs to endem- 
nify and clear the said town from any charge that may arise upon the 
account of said child so long as it may be made a slave to me or my 
heirs or to them that J or my heirs shall asign said child to Jn witness 
wherof J have hereunto put my hand the day and date above said. 

Solomon Townsend. 

There were forty-eight negroes in Maiden in 1764-65, many 
of whom were slaves ; and thirteen " servants for life " formed 
an item in the valuation of 1767. 67 There were a few free blacks 
whose situation was not superior to that of the servants, even if 
it were not more pitiable, for they were suspected and despised. 

65 Green Family Papers. The sellers was Tom, who does not appear in the 
of Jeffrey were sons and heirs of Lieu- inventory of the estate of Ezra Green 
tenant Thomas Burditt, an elder of the in 1768. 

South Church, who died October 15, 67 Columbian Centiuel, August 17, 

1758, aged 75, whose estate had not 1S22. The negroes were about five per 

been settled at this time. Samuel Sweet- cent of the population, which was then 

ser married Mary Burditt, July S, 1736. nine hundred and eighty-three persons. 

66 Ibid. Perhaps this " Negro Mar. " 



422 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

They were usually of a shiftless or roving disposition — vaga- 
bonds and wanderers ; while their enslaved brothers were, at 
least, housed, clothed, and fed. 

It is probable that at this time slavery in Massachusetts was 
at its height and that it soon began to decline. 08 Property in 
slaves became precarious when the sense of the community 
awoke to its enormity; and instances began to appear in which 
servants asserted their freedom and invoked the protection of 
the law. So gradually did it pass away that, as I have before 
stated, its final extinction cannot be marked. In 1780 negroes 
were openly advertised as merchandise in the Boston papers. 
The next year Nathaniel Jennison of Barre, in the county of 
Worcester, was indicted " for assaulting, beating, and imprison- 
ing" his slave, Quork Walker. At his trial, before the Supreme 
Judicial Court in 1783, he was found guilty and fined forty 
shillings. 69 A note, which had been given for the price of a 
slave in 1787, was sued, when "the Court ruled that the maker 
had received no consideration, as man could not be sold." 70 
These cases denote the ebb of slavery. It might linger a few 
years longer under the plea of indentures of service or appren- 
ticeship and be no less the slavery that it had been ; but in its 
latest form it was of short duration. The following notice is a 
relic of its later days. 

Ran away from the Subscriber, on the 3 d inst. an indented negro 
Servant, named Ephraim Pomp, 18 years old, about 5 feet 3 inches 
high ; walked lame ; speaks broken by reason of a hair-lip which has 
been cut and sewed up ; wore or carried away a blue cloth coat, a 
white do. waistcoat, dark colored cloth pantaloons, and a straw hat. 

68 That the importation of fresh vie- the Small-Pox. — Treasurer's Notes, and 

tims had not wholly ceased a few years New-England Rum will be as Pay." 

earlier is shown by the following adver- Bos/on Gazette, July 17, 1758. 
tisement : — 69 Mass. Hist. Coll., iv. 203. The 

"Just imported from Africa, and to several cases in which Quork Walker 

be Sold on board the Brig [enney, Wil- was the real party concerned are treated 

liam Ellery Commander, now lying at by Washburn, Extinction of Slavery in 

New-Boston, A Number of likely Negro Massachusetts, in Mass Hist. Coll.,xxxiv. 

BOYS and GlRLS, from 12 to 24 Years 333-316. This writer declares that the 

of Age; Inquire of said Ellery on board decisions of the Court in these cases 

said Prig, where constant Attendance gave the death-blow to slavery in this 

is given. state. 

Note, The above Slaves have all had 70 Nell, Colored Patriots, 59. 



POVERTY AA'D SLAVERY. 423 

All persons are forbid trusting or harboring said Lad, as they would 
avoid the penalty of the law ; and any person that will take up and re- 
turn said Lad, shall receive a reward of One Cent for their trouble. 
Maiden. Sept. 13, [1S04]. Bernard Green. 71 

Several individuals who had been slaves were living in Maiden 
within the last sixty years, among whom may be mentioned 
Katie Lynde and Simon Knights. The latter and his worthy 
and industrious wife are well remembered by many. He was 
the son of Old Peter, who has been noticed as the slave of 
Darius Green and as a member of the South Church. He was 
baptized by the Rev. Eliakim Willis, October 28, 1770, and was 
brought up by Bernard Green, with whom he lived some years 
after the extinction of slavery. Afterwards he earned his living 
as a laborer at whatever offered. He had the unstable and im- 
provident ways of his race and it is said that his energetic wife 
would sometimes rebel at his thriftless proceedings and clear 
the house, either of him or herself. These separations were 
never of excessive length, as both were inclined to forgive and 
forget, and a few words from a neighbor would usually settle the 
matter. This was not an uncommon occurrence and sometimes 
several would join in the work of reconciliation, which was 
popularly called " marrying Simon Knights." They lived in a 
small black house of one story and two rooms, which after 
serving the children of Scadan as a school house for thirty 
years, was removed to Haskins's Lane, where it stood a little 
east of the site of the Unitarian Church, and made a comfortable, 
though humble, home for the worthy couple. 

Lydia Knights was younger than her husband by a number 
of years ; and while he was an unmixed African, there was white 

71 Columbian Centinel, September 15, He was to receive at the expiration of 
1S04. Ephraim Pomp, " a poor negro his time one hundred and ten dollars in 
boy under our care," was bound to money and two suits of apparel — one 
Bernard Green by the selectmen of being "suitable for the Lords Day." 
Charlestown, January 20, icSo2. He was Green Family Papers. He was a grace- 
to serve until January 21, 1807, when he less dog to run away from so many bene- 
would arrive at the age of twenty-one. fits and so great a reward, unless there 
His master was to teach him the calling was an inside view of the system under 
of a husbandman, besides giving him which he served which was not indicated 
the rudiments of an education and keep- in the indenture, 
ing him well-fed, sheltered, and clothed. 



424 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

blood in her veins. As has been intimated, she was industrious 
and energetic to an unusual degree, and her character entitled 
her to the respect of all.. She was the " Miss Knights" of the 
town, while her husband was simply "Simon"; and neither 
wedding nor funeral was complete had she not borne a part in 
its preparation. She was the adjunct of the minister at the 
former, nor was the sexton more indispensable at the latter. 
Her presence at either insured skilful preparation and good 
service after the simple manner of the times. She was an auto- 
crat in her department on such occasions, and it was said that 
parties had been postponed at her behest. Indeed, it was face- 
tiously asserted that no one dared to die in Maiden until it 
suited the convenience of " Miss " Knights. She left Maiden to 
visit a son or a daughter, by her first marriage, in Tennessee, 
contrary to the wishes of Simon, who said she would never 
return. It is said that she died there very suddenly; but there 
were those who feared that she had been abducted and thrown 
into slavery. The latter, although not probable, was not impos- 
sible, as she was active and her skill as a cook would have made 
her a desirable servant. 

After the departure of his wife, Simon, being infirm and be- 
yond the performance of any considerable labor, became an in- 
mate of the almshouse, where he lived several years. He was 
an early member of the Baptist Church, having been baptized in 
1804-1806; and although he was once set aside and at other 
times became the subject of visitations and discipline for neglect 
of duty, he was on the whole a consistent and sincere Christian. 
He died in July, 1847; and his funeral service, which was held 
in the Baptist Church, was attended by the townspeople as that 
of a neighbor and friend. 72 

72 Simon Knights was not the only ern, who defended him when it was 

person born in slavery who has been a sought to take him back to Medford. 

member of the First Baptist Church. He remained in Maiden several years, 

Peter Nassau, or Nassus, was baptized, and was afterwards in the service of 

April 8, 1803. He was born a slave in John Coffin Jones of Boston and others 

Martinique and was brought to Medford as coachman. When an old man, he 

by his master, Joseph Domier, a French went to Woodstock, Vermont, and be- 

merchant. Having some difficulty with came in time a town pauper, 
his master, he fled to Maiden and was Peter Nassau was popularly supposed 

sheltered by Charles Hill of Hill's Tav- to be an extremely old man. A portrait 



POVERTY AND SLAVERY. 425 

Although the subject be lowly and the names humble, the 
record of these servitors may not be wholly useless, even though 
it may serve only to give another proof of the reality of slavery. 
The names in the following lists are in addition to those already 
mentioned. 73 

MARRIAGES. 

James and Margrctt, negroes. Nov. 20, 1727. 

Tobia, negro of Maiden, and Ziporah, negro of Lynn. Dec. 
18, 1729. 

Sambo of Stoneham and Mcrcar of Maiden. By Rev. James 
Osgood. Jan. 11, i73"/i. 

John, a negro belonging to Joseph Lynde of Maiden, and 
Vilot, a negro belonging to Thomas Hills of Maiden. Jan. 26, 
17%. 

Cesar, a negro belonging to Benjamin Thwing of Boston and 
Phyllis, a negro belonging to Joseph Wilson of Maiden. By 
Rev. Joseph Emerson. Dec. 6, 175 1. 

Peter Perkins, a negro of Lynn, and Jcnney, a negro of 
Maiden. By Rev. Joseph Emerson. Nov. 19, 1755. 

Bramer'^ a negro belonging to Benjamin Bucknam of Mai- 
den, and Dinah, a mulatto belonging to Mr. Toler of Stoneham. 
By Rev. Joseph Emerson. Jan. 24, 1760. 

of him, which is said to have been a he felt about two hundred years old. He 

good one, was given in Ballou's Pictorial died soon after his return to Vermont. 
Drawing-Room Companion, December He retained a lively interest in the 

13, 1856, with an article in which he was sons and daughters of his old protector, 

called the oldest man in America and Charles Hill; and in their honor two of 

said to have " reached the extraordinary his daughters are said to have been 

age of one hundred and twenty-six named Sally John Sprague Nassau and 

years." His age, however, was exag- Mary James Crane Nassau, coupling the 

gerated. I was informed by the late names of husband and wife in each 

Benjamin Goodwin Hill, a son of the instance. 

landlord, Charles Hill, that he was " 3 Not all the names in this list are 

merely a large boy when he fled to those of slaves. Some are undoubtedly 

Maiden, which was apparently about those of free negroes or persons of 

the year 1790. He was accustomed to negro and Indian blood ; but it is not 

make lengthy visits to his Maiden friends possible to separate them. 
— at first with considerable regularity " 4 Brahma. Brammer or Grammer, 

but less frequently as his years increased. " a Negro man Slave to Benj a Bucknam," 

His last visit was in March, 1857, at was accused of stealing "a Cow Calf 

which time he was probably about Spotted red and white and with a white 

eighty-five years of age. He disclaimed face " from the close of Ezra Green in 

any knowledge of his real age and said May, 1763. Green Family Paters. 



426 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Dover, a servant to Mr. Stoddard of Boston, and Vilot, a 
servant to Mr. Ebenezer Pratt of Maiden. By Rev. Eliakim 
Willis. Oct. 7, 1764. 

Prince, servant to Thomas Hills, and Tarmar, servant to 
Ezra Green, Esq., of this town. By Rev. Joseph Emerson. 
Nov. 9, 1764. 

Cato, a servant to Nathan Lynde, and Mareri, servant to 
Capt. Dexter. By Rev. Joseph Emerson. April 5, 1765. 

Jupiter, servant to Jonathan Waite of Lynn, and Vilot, ser- 
vant to Thomas Hills of Maiden. By Rev. Joseph Emerson. 
Dec. 26, 1765. 

Bristol, servant to Zachariah Pool of Medford, and Violet, 
servant to Mr. Ebenezer Pratt of Maiden. By Rev. Peter 
Thacher. Feb. 7, 1771 . 

Worster, negro servant of Rev. Mr. Turell of Medford, and 
Phyllis, negro servant of Rev. Mr. Willis of Maiden. By Rev. 
Eliakim Willis. Nov. 25, 1771. 

Samuel, servant of Joseph Lynde, and Phyllis, servant of 
Nathan Lynde, both of Maiden. By Rev. Peter Thacher. 
April 16, 1772. 

Prince, servant of Thomas Hills of Maiden, and Hannah, 
servant of Francis Brown of Medford. By Rev. Peter Thacher. 
Oct. 7, 1773. 

Sampson Bassctt and BilJiah Emerson of Maldon, negroes. 
By Rev. John Treadwell [of Lynn]. Aug. 8, 1776. 

Pompcy A I ago s of Maiden and Zipporah Bar/iua 75 of Stone- 
ham. By Rev. Peter Thacher. May 26, 1778. 



INTENTIONS OF MARRIAGE. 

Fortune, servant to Nathan Sargeant of Maiden, and Violet, 
servant to William Oliver of Chelsea. Oct. 3, 1770. 



75 These were free persons of mixed who was well known here sixty years ago. 

negro and Indian blood, if the woman As a " walk-about " she divided the hon- 

was not purely of the latter race. They ors with Deb Saco and Hannah Shiner, 

were parents of Sal Magos another peri- Pompey Magos was a soldier of the Rev- 

patetic fortune-teller and vendor of herbs olution and is mentioned elsewhere. 



POVERTY AND SLAVERY. 427 

BIRTHS AND DEATHS. 

Season; son of Roger and Margaret, negroes, born 70 Aug. 
27, 1730. 

Cesar, a negro boy, son to Peg, died Sept. 30, 1741. 

Sippco, servant to Capt. Jonathan Green of Stoneham, " Came 
to his Death by Accident By Slipping of a Raft of Seag & was 
Drowned [in Maiden River]." 77 Sept. 22, 1762. 

Dinah, negro, servant to John and Mary Shute, died July 22, 
1768. 

Titus, a negro man, servant to Capt. John Dexter, died July 
3, 1782. 

Flora, a negro woman, servant to Lydia Holmes, died July 17, 
1782. 

Samson, a negro man belonging to Benjamin Bucknam, died, 
Jan. 5, 17S6. 

Cato, a negro, aged 70, died of dropsy, Oct. 23, 1797. 

Jack, a negro who lived at Mr. Thomas Hills', aged 14, died, 
May 25, 1800. 

SOLDIERS. 

Titus, negro, served with his master, Jacob Lynde, in the 
army in 1760. 

Samuel Harden, in service, 1777, and said to have deserted. 
Prince Hills, in service, 1775. 
Aaron Oliver, in service, 1775. 
Pomp Magos, in service, 1779. 

76 This is the only birth of a negro They have been publickly advertised in 

child which can be found recorded in the news-papers ' to be given away.' " 

Maiden prior to 1S40. Married slaves Mass. Hist. Coll., iv. 200. The " Seasorr " 

and their young children were not looked who is mentioned in this entry was 

upon with favor. Dr. Belknap wrote probably the " Cesar " of the next, 
that " Negro children were reckoned an "'" Original inquest, signed by Jona- 

incumbrance in a family ; and when than Porter, coroner, in Green Family 

weaned were given away like puppies. Papers. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

HIGHWAYS AND BRIDGES. 

THE roads existing on Mystic Side and in Maiden during 
the colonial period have been described ; and the record 
relating to the ways laid out in the commons has been given in 
full. 

On Mystic Side, the way from Penny Ferry to Maiden ; the 
Winnisimmet Road running from Maiden by the Bucknam land, 
Nichols's Hill, and Powder Horn ; the highway from the house 
of James Barrett along by the head of the five-acre lots into the 
Winnisimmet Road ; and perhaps a way leading into Maiden 
bounds over Sargeant's Hill to the point of rocks [Black Ann's 
Corner] in the Salem Road, were the principal ways, as they 
are to-day. 

Although the way from Mystic River to Maiden had existed 
since the settlement of Mystic Fields, it seems to have been 
vaguely defined and partially unsettled. At a meeting of the 
selectmen of Charlestown it was ordered, 

[May 2, 1670.] Thomas Lynde, Will Dade and Richard Kittle 
Are to laie out A highway from the Gate Standing in the countrie high- 
way from the peny ferrie and vp along that way so farr as Stephen paines 
land runs in that way towards maulden. 1 

This committee reported during the next month, when it 
appeared that they had required Stephen Paine to make " that 
wet place on this side his house to be a sufficient high way for 
horse & cart." 2 This was apparently merely a survey or con- 
firmation of the way already existing through the Carrington 
land, which Stephen Paine appears to have occupied in the 
lifetime of his father-in-law, Edward Carrington. The " wet 

1 Charlestotv)i Records, iii. in loco. 2 Ibid. 



HIGHWAYS AND BRIDGES. 429 

place " may be readily identified in the low ground formerly 
known as "the swamp," lying south of the Carrington house. 3 

The portion of the road nearer Mystic River ran through the 
land of the innholder, Richard Stowers, whose house of enter- 
tainment stood near by. He requested " [February 4, i6?}i,~] 
allowance for a highway y l has bin frequently thorow his land 
to penny ferry; " and a lot of two and a half acres was granted 
him " on y e North side of North Spring at Mistick Side . . . 
with a highway thorow it." 4 Three years later, March 19, i68°/i, 
a highway was laid out and settled " at Misticke side from y e 
Meadows belonging to y e north River through Ric. Stower s his 
grovnd and so downe to y e watter side," and also a way from 
Thomas Rand's marsh " downe upon a line to a whitte thorne bush 
& so downe to y e watter side right over against y e whitte Hand." 5 
These ways, which were practically one, were for the conve- 
nience of the owners of the marsh lots. Indications of the old 
way upon the shore opposite White Island were apparent twenty 
years ago, and some traces may perhaps still be found in other 
portions of its course. The thorn bush has disappeared; but 
the name of Thomas Rand is preserved in Rand's Creek, which 
runs through the marshes from Everett to North River and 
formed the northerly boundary of his land. In the record of 
this way, the former settlement of the country road through 
the land of Richard Stowers is mentioned and it is added : 
" he owned to vs yt he hath had satisfaction for it." 

The way to Wormwood Point, although it has lost its former 
importance, is one of the oldest on Mystic Side. It gave access 
to the common landing place at the point, which was freely 
used by the inhabitants of the easterly bank of the Mystic 
many years, and was called "an antient high way" in 1681, 
when the following report was made : — 

The Return of an order that was Jshued out aug s ^ y e i st 1681 for the 
laying out of an antient high way of maiden Side leading to peney ferry 
and from thence down to wormores point the committee chosen ware 

3 Henderson Street, in Everett, east 4 Charlestown Records, iii, in loco. 

of Main Street, is laid out through the 5 Ibid., iv. in loco. 

centre of the old swamp. 



43° HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Edw d : Carrington Will" 1 : daudy Richard Stowers : which made this 
there return feb r : y e 13 th 1681 the high way that was appointed to be 
laid out from Bengamin Svveetsers gate that stands upon the high way 
that goeth to penney ferry & so along upon the ground that was for- 
merly William Daudyes & goeth upon the ferm ground to the upper 
side of a great Rock & so goeth streight a little above bengamin Sweet- 
sers hous and so goeth streight till we come down against Sarg c : Law- 
rances Dowces Meadow then goeth along by said Dowces meadow with 
an elbow upon ferm land in the old way till we come to Barnibus 
Davises ground and on the upper side of a Coupple of trees at one 
corner of said Dowces meadow and so goeth through the lower side of 
barnibus davises ground on the upland to the water side and this fore- 
said high way is to be one pole wide till we come to Barnibus Davises 
ground and through Barnibus Davises ground to be two pole till we 
come to Cap" Thomas Brattles meadow and then four poles wide till 
we come through his meadow to the water side : 
Atest the mark WD of: JJ: Daudy 

Jn°: Newel Record*. Richard Stowers 

Edward Carrington 
A true Copy Book 4 th page 23 Exam d : p r : 

Nathaniel Dows town Clerk 

the above said is a true Copy of what was taken out of Charlestown 
Book of records and recorded here by order of the select men of 
Maiden in the year 1738 

Atest John Shute town Clerk 6 

The condition of the Mystic Side ways in 17 14 may be under- 
stood by the following extract from a report made in that year 
by a committee chosen by Charlestown " to prevent incroach- 
ments." 

Mistick Side. — The Way at mistick side as followeth : 

there is a Small peice of land belonging to the town left for a pound 

or any other use : lying between m r James Barrets Land & m r Tuffs land 

formerly Stoweres. 

6 This extract from the Charlestown firmed is represented, so far as it is now 

Records was apparently entered in the a public way, by the present Heacham 

Maiden Records in consideration of the Street in Everett. There was formerly 

evidence which it afforded respecting a large rock on its westerly side, which 

the public rights which were thought to was probably the "great Rock " of the 

be threatened in the controversy with report. It is now under the sidewalk, 

Joseph Wilson in relation to his gates, the road having been widened about 

to which reference is made in another twenty-five feet since 1827. 
place. The way then laid out or con- 



HIGHWAYS AND BRIDGES. 431 

The high way or contry road leading down from Maiden to peney 
ferery is wholly inclosed & improved by m r Stowers Sprague & Accknol- 
edged by him & he paid one shilling : 

There is a highway of one pole wide bordering on the head of the 
lotts within Stowers Spragues land from the contry road or high way 
by a ditch between the lotts formerly Tho s . Rand & s d . Spraages land 
North west ward & so along till it comes to Phinneas Uphams land : 
and the said high way runs from the said Thomas Rands marsh down 
till it comes over against the White Island : the s' 1 high way was for the 
Accommodation of the marsh lotts on the North & North westerly Side 
of the said Stowers Spragues Upland, And is all inclosed & improved 
by said Stowers Sprague : 

Att the lower end of the said high-way by the river there being 
formerly an old thorn bush, & that being demollished & gone, wee have 
driven down a stake on each side the high way near where the said 
thorn bush stood : over Against the White Island : 

There is a highway belonging to the town of one pole wide leading 
out of the contry road by Samuel Switsers through the said Switsers 
land, &: so through m r Benj a Swittsers land by his house to wormwood 
point : the said high-way is one pole wide till it comes to the head of 
the marsh formerly Dowses & then turns on the said Benj a Swittsers 
Upland : att the head of the marsh till it comes to the gate between 
m r Swittsers land & m r Odleins land formerly mitchells, now in the 
possession of James Nicholls : & then the said high way is two poles 
wide down to wormwoods point untill it comes to the Southerly corner 
of Brattells marsh & there measures two poles. 

from the Old Stump against the barn & then the way & towns land 
is four poles wide for a landing place by the Watter side round the 
point till it comes to the cove or harbour against the door of the now 
dwelling house : 

There is incroached and inclosed 7 or 8 foot of the towns land by 
James Nicholls within his garden fence att wormwoods point. 7 

After the annexation of Mystic Side to Maiden, some contro- 
versy existed in relation to gates across the way to Wormwood 
Point ; but the way, itself, seems to have been neglected. At 
the annual meeting, March 5, 174^, 

Jt was put to vot whether the town would do any thing respecting the 
way to wormores point as well for the accommodation of mr Joseph 
Willson as the persons that have occasion to pas over his land to the 
salt marsh and water side and it past in the negetive. 

7 Charlestown Archives, xxxiv. 265-266. 



432 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

At the same meeting liberty was given to Thomas Richard- 
son " to build a wharf upon Wormores point down from high 
water mark to half tide sixteen foot wide upon the high way 
where it is four poles wide for the benefitt of the town or any 
perticular person thereof." This landing place continued, as it 
had been from the earliest settlement, to be much used by the 
general public. Men like Ebenezer Pratt of Moulton's Island, 
and others, who made boating a means of livelihood, lived in 
the vicinity ; and their boats were used to transport produce, 
timber, wood, and supplies to and from this and the neighbor- 
ing landing at Moulton's Island. Both landings continued to 
be used until the building of Maiden Bridge, and even after, 
when the wharves gradually disappeared. A boat, that tradition 
says was from the landing at Wormwood Point, met with a mis- 
hap which is thus recorded in the Maiden record of births : — - 

John Rudge, James Sargeant and Nathan Burditt on the 5 day of 
May 1759 by the overseting of a small boat in a high gail of wind were 
drowned between boston and winesimmit Providence ordered it so that 
an aged woman mother to the said burditt who was over with him was 
saved alive by taking hold of an oar and a bag of bred. 

In 1768 the road to Wormwood Point was again called in 
question ; and at the annual meeting in that year, the selectmen 
were authorized to join with John Beacham, who had pur- 
chased a large portion of the Sweetser land, " in settelling And 
in haveing a town road confirmed to the town that leads from 
the said Beachams house to wormores point so called." Two 
years later [March 5, 1770] it was " Voted, to accept y e Report 
of y e Committee chosen to lay out the Way to Worm-wood's 
Point;" but the report was not recorded. It apparently did 
not settle the question; for at a meeting, November 3, 1800, it 
was " Voted to hear the Report of a Committee which is that 
M' Lewis Acknowledges their is a Town Roade from the 
County roade to Beachams point so Call d but M 1 ' Beacham does 
not." The matter was delayed until November 11, 1801, when 
" the Selectmen with the Town" Committe for the purpose 
of finding out the Old Roade leading to Beachams point so 
Cal<?, after obtaining a Coppy of the Record of s 1 ! Roade : pro- 



HIGHWAYS AND BRIDGES. 433 

ceeded & staked out s*? Roade agreable to the s<? Record." 
The record used was the Charlestown report of 17 14, a copy of 
which forms a part of the committee's return. 

The earliest entries in the town records in relation to high- 
ways, after the division of the commons, are as follows: — 

[March 13, 16989.] Voted That y e Select-men are Chose a Com- 
mitie to set y e bound between y e peece of land that Capt Wilsons shop 
and Coal-hous stands on : and y e highway And to signe and Acknowleg 
a deed of it. 

[August 24, 1699] The Select-men are jmpoured to set y e bounds 
of y e high way by y e clay-pits neer Lewisis bridg : and punish transgres- 
sors y' shall intrench on y e high ways jn diging of clay : by laying a fine 
on y m . 8 

[May 16, 1 701.] voted f John Sargeant Sen r John Greenland, Jona- 
than Sprague Joseph Lamson and nathaniell upham are a commitie to 
bound y c country Rhoads jn this town and also to see whare jt may be 
most conuenant to Stop : or stake town highwaise : and make Report 
therof to y e next town meting : 

The committee mentioned in the last entry made the follow- 
ing report, which the town approved : — 

[September 3, 1701,] We find Recorded jn y e first Town book a 
highway laid out from The Cuntry Rhoad between M r Hils & M r Bun- 
kars farmes to thomas calles hous 4 pols broad from thomas calls to 
john wilkensons & by Thomas Moltens Richard prats & peetar Tuffts 
to Charlestown Line towards y e South Spring. 9 

8 Joseph Wilson's house and land From it were made the bricks which 

have already been mentioned as being form the walls of the First Parish 

at the corner of the Salem and Reading Church. Clay-pits were also opened 

Roads. He was a blacksmith, and his near Shute's Meadow, in the vicinity 

shop was one of the public places of the of the present Holyoke and Wyeth 

town. Whether it was on the former or Streets; on Hutchinson's Lane (Cross 

latter road does not appear; but it may Street) near the Skinner house; and on 

have been on the westerly side of Main Harvell's Brook Lane (Cross Street), 

Street, as tradition says the rubbish of south of the present Willow Avenue, 

a forge was found there while excavating In the southern part of Mystic Side, 

many years ago. from the marshes of the North River to 

Of the clay-pits near the bridge, some Rumney Marsh, an extensive deposit of 

were at the corner of the present Main clay early attracted an industry which 

and Madison Streets, and others were in still remains; and the kilns which to-day 

the land on which the First Parish meet- are burning on the line of the Eastern 

ing house was afterwards built. Pricks Railroad in Everett are the successors 

were made near by for many years after ; of those which were lighted more than 

and the Frog Pond, well remembered by two centuries ago. 

Maiden boys of the writer's generation, 9 This was Harvell's Brook Lane, 01 

was a relic of the clay-digging days, that part of the present Cross Street 

28 



434 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Also a way from Thomas Cals hous to y e meting hous 2 polls broad. 

furthar this commitie doe think : whare y e formar commitee laid out 

The abou s d wais js most conuenant for y e east end of y e town. 

And also y* Row of y e naighbour-hood do pas from pembartons brook 

to y e meting hous other waies y c jnhabitants on both these parts of y e 

town haue no alowed way to y e meting hous. 

Also we doe jug jt nesesary y' ther be a way laid out for y e east & 

south end of y e town to pas to y e buring place. 

At the meeting at which this report was presented, the Read- 
ing Road was considered ; and it was 

noted y l Henery Green Joseph Linde, Phines upham Thomas okes 
And John Greenland are apointed a commitie to bound out y e highway 
of 2 pols broad from Capt william Greens to y e meting hous whare y e 
formar commitie yt was chose between maiden & charlestown Laid it 
and to Giue notic y l y e incumbrances now upon it be remoued by the 
first of nouember next jnsuing this date. 

The selectmen, in answer to the request of Thomas Burditt 
of Maiden and John Marble of Mystic Side, 

Layd out a highway on y e 10 of June 1702 between y e s d thomas 
burdit and John Marbls land from Joseph Sargeants land : of one pool 
broad to y e northeast cornar of John Rigways land : also y e same way 
js laid a pool wide along by y e head of the s' 1 Rigways land jnto y e Great 
Rhoad. 

This way was laid out for the use of the persons whose lands 
are mentioned ; and for some consideration connected there- 
with Joseph Sargeant paid John Marble eight shillings in 
money. This was upon the easterly side of the present Ferry 

which runs from Salem Street to Ferry in i66r, he deeded to his son John two 
Street. The farm of Joseph Hills, as hundred acres in Maiden, bounded w. 
has been stated, comprehended most of by Joseph Hills and others; s. by the 
the land between Salem, Ferry, and great swamp; and N. by the common 
Cross Streets, north of Harvell's Brook, and three small lots. Midd. Co. Deeds,. 
as well as other lands north of Salem ii. 181. Most of the Bunker land in 
Street and south of the brook. Maiden finally came into the posses- 
Bunker's farm was a parcel of upland sion of John Bunker, the saddler of 
and swamp lying south of Salem Street Cambridge, grandson of George, whose 
and east of Cross Street. It was that claims so troubled the town and indi- 
ssventy acres of woodland, "scituate in vidual landholders in 1695. 
misticke fielde," which was owned by The house of Thomas Call, near the 
George Bunker in 1638. Charlestmun present corner of Cross and Walnut 
Archives, xxxiv. 36. To this he added, Streets, is noticed in note 11 of the pres- 
by unrecorded purchases, a large tract ent chapter. The others were between: 
of other lands in Scadan, out of which, Call's house and the South Spring. 



HIGHWAYS AND BRIDGES. 



435 



Street; and it was that lane which, having been extended to 
Washington Avenue in Chelsea, has become Nichols Street 
in Everett. 10 

A committee was appointed, June ir, 1706, "to lay out a 
conuenant highway for the jnhabitants of y e East end of y e town 
to goe to ye meting hous : or to say whare y e highway js jf alredy 
layd out." A way from Scadan already existed; but it was 
circuitous, and in a portion of its course the right to pass 
appears to have been somewhat doubtful. It was over that way 
which has been mentioned as leaving the Salem Road and run- 
ning " between M r Hils & M r Bunkars farmes to thomas calles 
hous " — ■ the later Harvell's Brook Lane and a part of the pres- 
ent Cross Street. From Thomas Call's house, which stood near 
the present southeasterly corner of Cross and Walnut Streets, 11 a 
narrow way called the Stony Lane ran southwestwardly over the 
hill towards the ancient Green house, which is still standing on 
Appleton Street, near the Everett line, and entered the Win- 
nisimmet road of 1653. A longer way was open then, as now, 
over the Salem and Reading Roads by Wilson's Corner, Hill's 
Tavern, and Lewis's Bridge. The report of the committee, if 
made, was not recorded ; but the following vote may have 
been its result : — 



10 It ran easterly no farther than the 
house of Joseph Sargeant, which, after 
his death in 17 17, appears in the records 
as that of Widow Mary Sargeant. All 
the land around it ultimately fell into 
the hands of the Nichols family. There 
were but two houses upon it as late as 
1856 — those of Andrew D. Nichols and 
Ebenezer Nichols. The latter house, 
which stood at the head of the lane, 
was probably the old house of Joseph 
Sargeant. 

11 Thomas Call died in November, 
1678. His widow, Lydia (Shepherdson), 
married Thomas Skinner, and carried 
the house of her former husband into 
the Skinner family. The process by 
which it came into the possession of 
Abraham Skinner, and finally of his 
widow, Hannah, has been described. 
Vide chap. xi. note 43. After the death 
of H'nnah Skinner, January 14., i~- = ". 
it was in the occupancy of Abraham 



Skinner, perhaps her son ; and it after- 
wards passed into the hands of the 
Parkers in some way of which I have 
found no record. This estate, when 
deeded to Abraham Skinner in 169^, 
compiised three acres of land, with the 
house and barn, on the northerly side of 
the road, running to a point at the 
easterly end, and twelve acres on the 
southerly side of the road. The re- 
moval of the highway in 1729 left the 
house on the southerly side of the new 
way. The old house was not standing 
in 1798; and it had been demolished, it 
is supposed', many years before. Its 
cellar remained until within sixty years 
past ; and a large rock, which stood in 
the field near the southeast corner of 
the present Cross and Walnut Streets, 
bore the name of Skinner's Rock, and 
preserved the name of its former owners 
long after they had passed away. It 
was removed in 18S7. 



436 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

[May 28, 1708,] noted ensin phinas uphara sam" wayt sen John prat 
John mudge and Thomas okes To Be acomity to uewe the lain throw 
John Greens paster commonly called the stonny lain in order unto the 
stoping of it and Remoueing of it down to John hutchinson land that 
now is and to maike aReturn of your dowings heare in at the next 
Town meting 

The Return ^' ee the Subscribers Being chosen and Apointed By the 
of the com Town to uewe the Ground from the highway aGainest John 
mity Greens house alonge By the Towns fence and so to John 

hutchinsons fence and so to the litel Gate By widow Skiners and Like- 
wise to uewe the highway commony called the Stoney Lain and whare 
it may Be Beste to Stope it in order to the Remouel of it if the Town 
See case douen to that Sid of John Greens land next to John hutchin- 
son fence and so to the litel Gate By widow Skiners 

Which Saruis wee dide some time in June last past and doe judge 
that it may Be most for the Towns Benifet to Remoue it And that the 
Best placeses to Stope the Stony laine is Belowe widow Skiners hous 
at end And aGainst the fence that is Between nathanell uphames land 
and obeds jankens land on the South Sid of nathanell uphams land 

Samuel Wayt Sener 
phinas upham 
Thomas oakes 

The report of the committee was made to the town, March 
4, 170%; and it was voted "that the Stoney laine Be Stoped 
as the commity has mad thar Return and the Sad John Green 
to hange Gats at each end of Sad way." The committee was 
also authorized to "stake out the highway Through John Greens 
land from the Contery Roode A Gainest John Greens To the 
Contery Rode By widow Skinners." 

This way, which was now opened by John Hutchinson's 
fence, was that portion of the present Cross Street which was 
known as Hutchinson's Lane and more recently as Peter Tufts's 
Lane. It began at the Winnisimmet road, which crossed the 
line of the present street near the corner of High Street as it 
now exists. There is some uncertainty as to its course after 
it reached the highway over the hill. The present Walnut 
Street, which it joined, is a portion of the old way from Lewis's 
Bridge, which ran along the easterly side of the Hutchinson 
land in its present course. It is clear that the way did not run 



HIGHWAYS AND BRIDGES. 437 

straight from Hutchinson's Corner to the house of Thomas 
Parker, which stood on the hill at the present corner of Ferry 
and Cross Streets, where was lately the house of James H. 
Whitaker; 12 but it proceeded more directly by the southerly 
side of the Call, or Skinner, house to the old way from the 
Salem Road to the South Spring. This left a V-shaped piece of 
road, around which the weary Scadanites had to trudge on their 
way to the meeting house. To overcome this difficulty, it was 
voted, May 15, 1710, " That y e Town doe think jt needfull That 
ther be a highway of 2 pols broad from Thomas parkars house 
To y e meting hous." In accordance with this vote, the select- 
men met May 25, 

and layd out a high-way for y e use of y e Town of Two pols broad on 
y e norwest side of Abraham Skinars stonwall from y e high way neer 
Thomas parkers house to y e highway at y e end of s d Skinars Garding. 

This was not satisfactory and, in fact, there seems to have 
been some opposition to the whole way. The matter was car- 
ried by somebody to the Court of General Sessions of the 
Peace, which performed among its other duties those of the 
later County Commissioners. At a town meeting April 20, 
171 1, Lieutenant Henry Green, Deacon Phineas Upham, Isaac 
Hill, and Benjamin Whittemore were chosen "to apere at y e 
Sesions of y e peece to be held at charlestown on Tusday y e 24 
jnstant to answer jn Referanc to y e high way jn contreuarcy." 
After hearing the case, the Court passed the following order : — 

[April 24, 1711J. Upon hearing the Petition or motion of Phineas 
Upham & Henry Green & others of y e Town of maldon refering to 
a p r tended high way thro the peonage Land in maldon from Tho s Calls 
house to the meeting house, which seeming contrary to y e primitiue 
Return of the comitte of maldon for y e laying out of high waves in sd 
Town in y e year 49 : And that the Town of Maldon haueing appointed 
a Comittee of late to stake out the high way of Two Rod wide through 

12 The house of Thomas Parker, about i860 to the vicinity of Ashland 

which was originally of one or two Street. Ferry Street from Parker's 

rooms, is supposed to have been built Corner at Cross Street to the easterly 

in the latter part of the seventeenth cen- spur of Powder House, or Liberty Hill, 

tury. When it was enlarged is not did not exist until 1835. The land over 

known ; but its former appearance indi- which it passes was a meadow, around 

cated a date not later than the early which the old way passed on the firmer 

half of the last century. It was removed land by the present Walnut Street. 



438 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Jn° Greens Land from the Country Road against John Greens to the 
Country Road by the Widow Skinners along by the outside of John 
Hutchinsons fence & the Towns fence which is the peonage Land, 
which s d comittee on or about the year 1709 did lay out or stake out 
sd way as p r theire Return under their hands of theire Doings therein 
Exhibited in Court fully appears This Court (Sundry of the members 
w r of haveing been upon the place and viewing the same) upon hearing 
of all parties Referring to y e same, Conclude and order that the s d Re- 
port of the late Comittee now Exhibited to y e Court as aforesaid Js to 
be accepted and Jmproved as the Settled high way from s d Thomas 
Calls house lot that way upon a straight Line to y e Road leading to the 
meeting house of Two rods wide, and for p r venting of Charge, That 
there may be hanged a gate at Each End for the Conveniancy of those 
that haue occasion of y e said Way Till further order of this Court and 
that all parties Concerned bear theire own cost. 13 

This closed the way between the Parker and Skinner houses ; 
and the east end people had to " go 'round " for more than 
eighteen years, unless, as may have been, they were allowed to 
" cut acrost." At length it was voted : — 

[November 26, 1729.] That y e selectmen shall move y e Highway 
that is by Abraham Skinners barn, to y e north sid of His Land, & lay it 
out so as shall be most Conveiant for y e Town 

Five days later the selectmen finished the work and Hutchin- 
son's Lane, or Peter Tufts's Lane, as it was afterwards called, 
was completed and so remained, tolerably straight but very nar- 
row, until it was straightened, widened, and otherwise improved, 
and became the westerly portion of Cross Street. That section 
of the street beyond Ferry Street, equally narrow, and crooked 
to excess, was long known as Harvell's Brook Lane, from the 
brook which it crosses a short distance below Salem Street. 14 

13 Midd. Court Records, — General who had been brought up by Job Lane, 
Sessions, in loco. The "primitiue Re- and who in that year, a few months prior 
turn" of the committee of 1649 is a to his marriage with Mary, daughter of 
record or paper which lias disappeared. Robert Calley of Sandy Bank, sold to 

14 A mill was established at an early James Ilarvellof Lynn a dwelling house 
date on the easterly side of Cross .Street with half an acre of land, bounded west 
on the brook by the Eastern Railroad, on the highway and north on the brook 
The dam, crossing the meadow from then called Stone Brook. Midd. Co. 
bank to bank, was very distinct and per- Deeds, xxiv. 697. 

feet until the ground was graded for William Mathews, apparently, after- 
building purposes in 1SS7. The mill wards occupied a house and fourteen 
appears in have been owned and oper- acres of land in the division lots, which 
ated, prior to 1706, by William Mathews, lie sold to John Lynde, Jr., in 1714. He 



HIGHWAYS AND BRIDGES. 



439 



Memorandum, Maiden December y e : i : 1729: y e Select men Did 
then move y c High way that was laid out behind Abraham Skinners 
Barn, & laid it out on y e north side of His land, two pole wide y e sd 
way is laid out part in Skinners & part in Thomas parkers land y e North 
side of y e sd way is laid from apost standing in y e fence at y e south End 
of y e sd parkers primmhedg, & so to a post south of y e Claypitt, & near 
y e same, & from thence on a Straight line to y e corner of John Hutch - 
ensons stone wall, & y e south side of y e sd way is bounded by aheep of 
stones lying on an old Dichwall by y e side of y e highway leeding toward 
Nathanell nickoles, 15 & so to a stake, and from y e sd stake, on aline to 



had then removed to Lynn, and was still 
called a miller. Midd. Co. Deeds, xvii. 50. 

James Harvell and his wife, Mary 
(Waite), had three children born in 
Maiden. Another James, probably 
their son, had a wife, Sarah, and two 
sons, one of whom died in infancy. 

No other traces of the Harvells in 
Maiden are known to me. They may 
have lived and died here or removed ; 
but their name, although changed in 
time to Harvey, became firmly attached 
to the road and brook on which they 
lived, and has remained unto the pres- 
ent day. The mill is supposed to have 
been used as late as the close of the 
Revolution. 

In 18 1 3 the town gave Aaron Waite 
of Salem, who then owned the farm 
which John Bunker had sold to Samuel 
Waite, " Liberty to dig a ditch through 
Harvey's Brook so Called in Maiden for 
the purpose of taking the water of his 
Meadow," and " to tak up & new lay the 
Bridge over s'J brook." A convenient 
watering place was made at the side of 
the road, where the women were accus- 
tomed to wash their yarn in the earlier 
days of this century, when spinning was 
a female accomplishment. 

15 The house of Deacon Nathaniel 
Nichols was that which stood upon a 
lane which formerly ran from Ferry 
Street a little south of the present Har- 
vard Street. The farm upon which it 
was situated became the property of 
Nathaniel and Samuel Nichols after the 
death of their father, May 10, 1725. 
The former sold the western half of the 
house with adjoining land, bounded 
s. f. upon the lane, to Jacob Parker in 
1742. Midd. Co. Deeds, xlviii. 396. 
Samuel Nichols, the owner of the other 



half, went in the expedition to Cape 
Breton in 1745, and died, with his 
younger brother John, during the siege 
of Louisburg. His widow, Jemima, 
married, July 18, 1746, John Polly of 
Medford, and joined with her son, 
Samuel Nichols of Medford, in 1761, in 
conveying the moiety to Jacob Parker, 
who thus became sole owner of the 
house and surrounding lands. Midd. 
Co. Deeds, lix. 27S. 

Jacob Parker married Rebecca, a 
daughter of the Rev. Joseph Lmerson ; 
and died January 17, 1779, of small-pox, 
which was brought into the town by his 
wife, and of which seven others died. 
After his death his widow enjoyed the 
customary widow's third of his estate 
and occupied a portion of the old house, 
where she kept a school at the expense 
of the town until her marriage with 
Deacon Benjamin Brintnall of Chelsea, 
August 3, 1780. In 1S00 Asa Tufts, 
who had married Elizabeth Parker, and 
had come into possession of two-thirds 
of the house and homestead land, con- 
veyed his portion to David Faulkner, 
and with his brother-in-law, Joshua 
Parker, quitclaimed the remaining third 
to the same grantee. Midd. Co. Deeds. 
cxxxv. 3S5, 387. At the demise of the 
widow, who died insane, July 21, 1S16, 
being then the relict of Deacon Samuel 
Waite, the estate came wholly into the 
hands of David Faulkner. His son, the 
late David Faulkner, razed the old 
house in 1849, anc ^ built that at the 
corner of Ferry and Harvard Streets 
in which his widow resided until her 
death in 1S92. 

The kitchen of the old house ex- 
tended the whole length of the building 
at its rear; and its chimney and oven 



440 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

y e north corner of y e sd Thomas parkers pastuer & so y e way comes 
fluch with y° way from faulkners, to Hutchenes (with a little winding) 
y e East End of y e sd way is all in Skinners land as far as to y e post by 
y e clay-pitt. 

In consequence of the closing of the Stony Lane and the 
moving of the road to Hutchinson's fence, the way formerly 
granted to Mr. Wigglesworth through the parsonage land was 
discontinued. Soon after the inhabitants of the easterly portion 
of the town, for whose convenience the new way had been laid 
out, prayed the County Court to remove the gates which had 
been hung across it. Their petition was as follows: — 

To the honored Justices of y e Cort of Sessions now siting jn Charles- 
town The 10 of march : 1 712/3 The Humbl peticion of sundrey of y e Jn- 
habitants of the East and north-east side of y e Town of maiden Humbly 
Sheweth : that whar as your honours were pleas d to Take the pains to 
com to maiden sum time jn y e yeer 17 10 And did then setle a high 
way Then jn contreuercy : And did say y e way should ly on y e out side 
of y e Towns land : — that js jn y e possesion of our Reuerand ministar : 
— And whar as there was At y l time 3 Gates did hang a thwart y e said 
way : — you honour 5 were then pleasd to say Those Gates should Re- 
maine there untill furder ordar : — And whar as y e peec of way js a 
bout : 100 : pols jn length and y e one half almost fenc d alredy the othar 
half ther js fencing stuff lyeth neer : 

Therefore we humbly jntreat your honours y r Those Gats may be Re- 
moued and Remain no longar there : — That we and our families may 
haue the same priueleg : as all our frends and naighbours haue jn our 
Town — To haue our way cleer from Aney jncumbranc — To y e pub- 
lique worship of God 

And your peticionars shall as duty binds Euer pray 
maiden date y e 
3 of dec 1 7 1 2 

John Greenland Jonathan Knower Snr 

slman grouer john mudg sner 

Peter Tufts Jeames Whittemore 

Jonathan Knower inr william Sargeant 

John mudg iner Jeames houey 

Jacob Hasey Beniamin hills 

Joseph : Lamson 16 

were famous for their size even in the supposed to be of an early date, and 

days when large chimneys and capacious may have been the " old shop " which is 

ovens were common. A smaller house, mentioned in the deed of Asa Tufts, 

which stood in the lane near by, was 10 Midd. Coui-t Files, in loco. 



HIGHWAYS AND BRIDGES. 441 

This petition was considered at the Court in April and its 
prayer allowed to the inconvenience of Samuel Green, the then 
owner of the Green farm and the son of John Green, who had 
died March 22, iy°9/ lo . He carried the matter back to the Court 
of Sessions with his complaint. 

[July 7, 1 71 3] upon hearing the petition of Samuel Green for satis- 
faction for Land of his Jmproved in maldon for a high way, on which 
the gates that hang thereupon were ordered to he taken down some 
time Since. The Court order that y e gates be made convenient for 
Travellers, and continued so till the next Quarter Sessions and there to 
make Report of theire Doings therein. 17 

At a town meeting soon after [July 20, 171 3,] the case was 
considered and 

It was put to vote whether y e Town will mak Samuell Green Reson- 
abl allowanc for y e land called y e way from y e litle Gate by widdo 
Skinars to y e Gate by The contrey Road and jt past on y e negitiue : 
The inhabitants of y e town said y f Samuell Greens fathar took y' way jn 
y e stoney lane jn lew of y e way by huchensons fenc. 

That the " jnhabitants " were determined to stand by their 
opinion is evident; for at the same meeting a committee was 
appointed to defend the " cause in law with Sam 11 . Green : in 
Refrence To y e high way from y e Litle Gate neer y e widdo 
Skinars To y e Gate by y e countrey Road neer y e s d Greens 
hous." The Court sustained the inhabitants and recorded an 
order which settled the case. 

[December 8, 17 13.] The Court are of opinion upon view of the 
euidence before them, that the Complanants Father hath had satisfac- 
tion for the same And do order that the high way be where it lyeth and 
so continued. 18 

In the meantime other roads were being considered and laid 
out. Nathaniel Upham, Jonathan Sprague, Sen., and John 
Green, Sen., were chosen, May 24, 1710, to run the line between 
" Eueness farm and y e Countrey Rhoad " at the northern ex- 
tremity of the town. At the same time, a committee was ap- 
pointed to view the 'land " between James houe's and boston 

17 Midd. Court Records, — General Sessions, in loco. 18 Ibid 



442 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Rhoad : 19 And se whar jts most conuenant to lay a high-way 
out for y e use of y e Town." 20 This committee made the follow- 
ing return, which was accepted at a meeting three days 
later : — 

[June 2, 1 710,] first we Turn out of y e highway jnto Jonathan 
Knowars land by y e cornar of James houes orchard and so by s d or- 
chard To y e north east cornar and from thenc on a line to a black oke 
Jn s d houeys feeld neer y e fenc on y e southwardly side of s d Tree And 
so through said houes feeld : on y e southwardly side of two white oke 
trees standing neer to gethar jn Thomas waits land neer to y e sd houes 
feeld on y e eastwardly side and so jn y e old way As jt Runs along to 
Steuen Lerebes cornar of his cornfield and so along jn y e Raing Line to 
boston Rhoad. 21 

At a meeting held July 20, 1 71 3, "It was putt to vote 
whethar y e Town will mend y e way y l Runs from y e country 
Road neere Sam 11 Grouars To John Wilkinsons between y e Raig 
of lots. And jt past on y e negitiue." In consequence of this 
vote, John Uphatn, Jonathan Barrett, and other inhabitants of 
the northern portion of the town petitioned the Court for con- 
venient highways from their houses to the meeting house; and 
the Court ordered the selectmen " to look to such matters." - 2 
Soon after it is recorded 

[September 29, 17 13.] y 4 y e select-men doe lay out a conuenant high 
way for Them ... 2 pols broad on y e northwardly side of That Raing 
of lots y 4 Runs from John Wilkinsons Land neer his hous down to y e 
cuntrey Road y 4 leads to Reding. — beginning at y e s d Wilkinsons 
land. 



19 Boston Road, the road from the Josep haseys : land so y' he may pass 

point of rocks, or Black Ann's Corner, from his one land jnto sum Cuntrey 

to Winnisimmet, so called because it highway." 

was near the line and partly within the 21 This was evidently a confirmation 

limits of Boston. in part of an old way, the location of 

23 The duties which were here im- which I cannot closely determine. It is, 

posed upon a committee were sometimes however, certain that it was north of the 

performed by the selectmen, as appears tract now occupied by Woodlawn Ceme- 

in the following vote, relating to a high- tery, and east of the old highway which 

way or lane in the southeastern part of ran from Sargeant's Hill to Black Ann's 

the town. Corner. 

"[May 8, 1704] voted That y e select- -- Midd. Court Records, — General 

men hath liberty to lay out a conuenant Sessions, August 25, 17 13. 
high-way of Two pools broad from leut 



HIGHWAYS AND BRIDGES. 443 

This was a confirmation to public uses of one of the rights of 
way which were laid out between the ranges of common land in 
1695. From the fact that John Wilkinson's house and lands 
were on the highlands towards Long Pond, and other indica- 
tions, it is 'evident that the way now laid out was that long 
known as Upham's Lane and now as Upham Street in Melrose. 

[March 1, 1713^,] vote : That Jose Line has libarty Granted to him 
and his haires To Raise the causeway y l Lyeth betweene y c medo for- 
marly cap' waits : and y e sd Lines medo so high as to flow y e s d lines 
meddo : and y e s d Lins doe oblige him self and his haires To maintain 
y e s d causway jn good Repair suficant for both Town and countrey to 
pass : — so long as they se cause to flow y e s d medo Also y e said line 
hes libarty to take earth and grauill on y e high way on y e Top of y e hill 
near y e s d caseway for y e ends aboue s d 

The proximity of Captain John Wayte's meadow proves this 
causeway to have been across the meadow near Island Hill, 23 
and so marks the origin of the present Main Street in that direc- 
tion. It afforded " a short cut" to the meeting house to a por- 
tion of the north end people who may have passed across the 
Lynde land by a private way on the westerly side of Boston 
Rock. 24 Another private way ran along the southern side of 
Boston Rock to the old Reading Road near the present Wyom- 
ing Cemetery, which, widened and made a public way, has be- 
come Sylvan Street in Melrose. An entry made in the records 
in 1 7 17 may have reference to a connection made between the 
Reading Road and the way over the causeway at its southern 
end, or it was in the near vicinity. 

sum time in y e mounth of June or July in y e years 17 17 y e select men 
Laid out away by y e side of Joseph Lynds Land estly in to y e old 
Road Sam 11 wait giveing up his Right in s' 1 Land. 

23 Island Hill, north of Wayte's 24 Soon after an attempt was made to 

Mount, which sometimes has been con- close a way which had, perhaps, fallen 

founded with Island End on the South into disuse or become of doubtful public 

River, was formerly a picturesque object benefit. Its location is uncertain, 
in the landscape. It is situated on the "[May 10, 17 14,] Jt was putt To vote 

westerly side of Main Street, a little whether y e way shall be stopt neer to 

north of Forest Street. At the present lames Moltons hous ouer To obadia 

time the ledge of which it is composed Jenkins land — and jt past on y e negi- 

is being removed, and it will soon be- tive." 
come a thing of the past. 



444 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

The select men of maiden mett y e 17. of feb 1721/2 And doe alow of 
y c Two pools jn bredth y' lieth Att y e south end of the first Raing of 
y e second Thousand acrs — from boston line to Reding Road To be a 
Town high-way : 

The select men on the 15 th day of nov! 1754 opened.A town road 
from m r James Barrets orchard to Chelsea line between the first and 
second range of lots in the second devision. 

Although the latter entries are nearly thirty-three years apart 
in time, they refer to a single way in North Maiden which had 
existed as one of the rights of way between the ranges, and now 
became a settled town road. It was formerly known as Barrett's 
Lane, and is now Porter Street in Melrose. 

The roads which had now been laid out answered the needs 
of the people for many years; and no new ways were granted 
until several years after the close of the Revolution. The few 
notices which appear in the meantime relate to repairs or con- 
firmations of old ways, or to regulations and agreements respect- 
ing private ways which had become of public use. In 1751 
Phineas Sprague, Nathaniel Howard, Samuel Sprague, Thomas 
Vinton, Benoni Vinton, and Phineas Sprague, Jr., inhabitants of 
the north end, were allowed to work out their highway rates 
for three years on a private way from Jonathan Howard's house 
to that of Phineas Sprague. The few houses which then existed 
at the north end west of the Reading Road appear to have had 
no allowed town ways by which they could be reached. Their 
owners passed by private ways over the neighbouring lands; 
and as these ways came to be of more than local convenience 
they were adopted as town ways. Thus, over the way from 
Jonathan Howard's house and its extensions running in all 
directions but a straight one, as it passed from house to house, 25 
was laid out in time the road to Stoneham. This road in its 
eccentric course is now represented by Vinton Street, and by 



25 How it ran in changing courses North District in 1S30, which will be 

from house to house, as it grew up to given in a succeeding volume. On the 

suit the convenience of the neighboring plan it is that road which runs from the 

farmers, may be seen in the report of house of Joseph Howard to that of 

the selectmen, who laid it out as a town Aaron Vinton and the Stoneham line. 
way in 1789, and in the plan of the 



HIGHWAYS AND BRIDGES. 445 

portions of Foster, Cottage, and Hurd Streets, and that section 
of Wyoming Avenue which ends at Main Street. 

In 1755 it is recorded that Timothy Sprague had given the 
town a deed of land " near the place called the water falls which 
accommodates said town for a road." 26 At the same time he 
asked for a portion of the town's land at Sandy Bank, and was 
refused. It is mentioned in 1761 that " Timothy Sprague by 
moveing his fence has incroached on the high way or towns 
land near to the house of Elizabeth and Tabitha willson ; " 27 but 
the town refused to act upon the matter at the annual meeting 
in that year. 

In 1769 the ancient way and public landing place at Moul- 
ton's Island were laid out anew. The report of the committee, 
and the records relating to the neighboring landing place at 
Wormwood Point, which have been freely quoted, are interest- 
ing as defining the ways and town rights at the earliest settled 
portions of Mystic Side. 

Maiden May y e 2 ml 1769 
We the Subscribers being chosen a Committee to Stake out the Way 
leading to the Jsland End, have laid out Said Way, from y e Country 
Road to the Landing Place, about one Rod and an half wide, as 
y e Road now runs ; and have Stak'd out the Landing Place ; beginning 
at y e Head of y e East Dock, & from thence across y e Well, on a 
straight Line to y e Westerly Stake, which is about 16 Rod, & from 
thence to the Southeast Corner of M' Blaney's Wharffe, & from S d 
Bounds to low Water Mark 

The above Way and Landing Place, M 1 . Ebenezer Pratt gives to 
y e Town, to be kept free and clear of all Incumbrances, except Liberty 
to hang & maintain a good Gate across S d Way, where it now Stands, 
wide enough for Carts to pass and repass ; Said Liberty to be reserved 
to him & his heirs for ever 

Eben* Harnden 1 

John Dexter 

John Bucknam \ Committee 

Jonas Green 

Eben* Pratt 



26 Near his mill at Black Rock, since which had been an allowed public way 

known as Odiorne's Mill. This was for many years. 

some part of the lane that became Mill 27 At the corner of the Salem and 

Street, and afterwards Mountain Avenue, Reading Roads. 



44^ 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



[May 1 8, 1769.] Voted, To accept the Report of the Committee 
respecting the Way leading to the Jsland End.- 8 

It was voted, May 18, 1772, "To exchange y e Road, formerly 
laid out on the East Side of Swain's Pond, for the Road now 
improved." A committee was appointed to agree with the 
owners of the land; and the new way was confirmed "where 
the Road is now improved on the East Side of Swain's Pond." 
The discontinued way was one of those which were opened in 
the sheep pasture and three hundred acres; and the new way 
was probably only a slight removal to easier or firmer ground. 
It was that which, with perhaps a few slight changes, is now 
known as Swain's Pond Avenue. It is described as running 
from John Grover's field and by his mill on Swain's Pond 



2S The road from the South Spring 
to the end of Moul ton's Island was one 
of the earliest on Mystic Side. It is 
mentioned as a highway in 1650. Closed 
by gates and vaguely defined, it re- 
mained more for the use of the owners 
of the land over which it ran than as a 
public road. The few who passed to 
the common landing place at its end 
alone raised it to the dignity of a trav- 
elled way. Both the landing place and 
the highway are mentioned in 17 17 — 
the former as the Charlestown landing 
place. Thomas Mitchell, who married 
Mary Moulton, and died in 1709, built a 
house on the east side of the highway, 
near the landing place, which he passed 
by a deed of gift to his oniy son, Captain 
John Mitchell, in 1703. After the death 
of Elizabeth, widow of John Mitchell, in 

1749, Ebenezer Pratt bought the rights 
of the several heirs, which, added to the 
lands which he inherited from his father, 
Ebenezer, a few years later, gave him 
the possession of most of the island and 
the adjacent marshes. The old house 
was standing within the second quarter 
of the present century; and its cellar 
remained until the ground was levelled 
for the improvements made in its vicin- 
ity. The station of the Eastern Railroad 
now stands on or near its site. 

The landing place was improved in 

1750, when Captain Benjamin Blaney, 
whose tan-yard was at the South Spring, 
was allowed by the town 



" To build a wharf upon the beach 
at the Island end thirty foot front Said 
wharf to be about forty foot from m r 
Thomas pratts marsh and not so nigh 
the bank but that there may be room for 
a cart way between said wharf and said 
bank said blany to improve said wharf 
for the term of thirty years and then to 
have liberty to remove said wharf." 

This wharf was known for many years 
as Blaner's Wharf, and later as Clapp's 
Wharf, from Timothy Clapp, who manu- 
factured bricks at the clay-pits near the 
South Spring early in the present cen- 
tury. In 1890 some remains of the wharf 
and its easterly dock were to be seen. 

The town way has disappeared with 
the hill over which it formerly passed. 
It left the main road near the South 
Spring at the present corner of Everett 
Avenue and Vine Street in Everett, 
taking a course a little west of the latter 
street. In 1890 a slight inequality in 
the ground where it passed over the 
meadow alone remained to reveal it. 

Moulton's, or Mitchell's Island was 
an extensive mound of glacial waste of 
the same character as Powder Horn and 
other hills in its neighborhood. In 1898 
bui slight indications of its former exist- 
ence remained, and the little that was 
left was rapidly disappearing. As large 
quantities of the material of which it 
was composed has been deposited upon 
the surrounding marshes, its original 
character as an island exists no longer. 



HIGHWAYS AND BRIDGES. 447 

Brook 29 to "y e road formerly laid out to Chelsea, as y e cart 
way now goes." On the northerly side of the pond it existed 
for many years as a vaguely defined and partially discontinued 
way leading up to Upham's Lane. Relocated and changed in 
many portions of its course, it is now a settled street. 

There is upon the town record an agreement between 
Nathaniel Paine and John Grover, dated July 2, 1772, in rela- 
tion to a way beginning at the road from Black Ann's Corner 
to Winnisimmet, near Grover's house, and running to Paine's 
house through the fields. This way, which was accepted by 
the town at its next annual meeting, was that which old inhabi- 
tants will remember as formerly leading to the house of Benja- 
min Nichols, which was built upon the site of the house of 
Nathaniel Paine. It may be readily recognized on the plan of 
Maiden South School District, which will appear in a future 
volume. 

The Spragues, who passed from Naumkeag to Mishawum in 
1629, must have crossed the Mystic at a ford a few rods above 
the location of the present bridge at Medford. A few years 
later Nicholas Davison, the agent of Governor Cradock, whose 
farm stretched along the easterly bank of the Mystic, built a 
bridge near by. On the Charlestown side it was reached by a 
long causeway over the low land ; and it is described as having 
been " exceedingly rude and dangerously frail." 30 It seems to 
have been built primarily for the use of Cradock's.men ; but it 
soon became a public convenience and as such was recognized 
by the General Court, when it ordered "[(10) 10: 41.] that 
Leift Sprague & Edw d Converse should repair the bridg at 
Meadfoard, over Mistick River, & the same to bee paid for out 
of the treasury." 31 It was apparently of the most simple con- 
struction and required frequent attention. It soon again be- 
came unfit for travel, and the Court appointed Ralph Sprague 
and Edward Converse again 

23 The site of the mill of John Grover west side of the brook the shape and 

could be found in 1894 in the meadow size of the little mill could be traced, 
on the easterly side of Swain's Pond 30 Brooks, History of Medford, 59. 

Avenue, near its junction with Lebanon This writer says it was built in 1638. 
Street. The dam was then as distinct 31 Mass. Colony Records, i. 343. 

as in the days of its builder; and on the 



448 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

to veiw y e bridge at Mistick, & what charge they conceive meete, to 
be p r sently expended for y e making it sufficient & p r vent y e mine 
thereof, or by furtlV delay to endang r it, by agreeing w th workmen for 
y e compleate repairing thereof, & to make their returne to M r Wil- 
lowghby & M r Russell, & w* they shall do herein to be satisfied out 
of y e treasury. 32 

Two years later the Court again took it into consideration, 
and fearful, perhaps, of the expense which seemed to attend its 
proper maintenance, ordered 

[October 27, 1648,] that the said Mistick bridge henceforth shall 
not, by the country, any way be repaired, & that the passage for travel- 
lers shall be over the foarde w ch is above the bridg e ; & further, for 
the p r venting future charges about bridges & high wayes, it is ordered, 
that all bridges & highwayes, in the limitts of the severall towneships, 
that now are or hereafter shalbe made by the severall townes, in whose 
limits such bridges and highwayes are, be by them repaired, made, & 
maintained. 33 

This was the origin of the law, now so well established, by 
which towns are made responsible for the maintenance of public 
ways within their borders. The order appears to have become 
a dead letter at once, and the bridge fell into a worse condition. 
It was, however, of value to the Cradock tenants and to the 
country above the Mystic, and if its users could be made to 
contribute to its support it might be properly maintained ; so 
Davison, for his principal, petitioned the General Court and 
obtained the passage of the following order, which established 
the first toll bridge in New England, if not in the British 
Colonies : — 

[June 2, 1653,] Itt is by this Court ordered and declared, that if 
any person or persons shall appeare that will engage sufficyently to 
builde, repaier, and maintajne the bridge at Misticke at his or theire 
propper costs and charges, it shall be lawfull, and all and euery such 
p r son or p'sons so engaging are heereby authorized, and haue full power, 
to aske, requier, and recouer of euery single p r son passing ouer the sajd 
bridge i' 1 ; and for euery horse and man, 6 d ; for euery beast, 2 d ; for 
euery cart, I s ; and this to continew so long as the bridge shall be suf- 
ficyently rnajntajned as aforesajd. 84 

32 May 6, 1646. Mass. Colony Records, 33 Ibid., ii. 263. 

ii. 149. 34 Ibid., iv. (1), 148. 



HIGHWAYS AND BRIDGES. 449 

Still, neither Davison the agent, nor Edward Collins, who had 
recently purchased the Cradock lands, undertook to rebuild the 
bridge, nor did any others appear to assume the responsibility; 
and the passage across the ford became the common highway. 
The need of a better passage, however, appears to have been 
obvious ; and the following petition was presented to the County 
Court : — 

To the honoured Court now holden at Cambridge octo: 2 d 1655 
Samuel Hough : Edw: Convers and Joseph : Hills, on behalf of the 
Countrie humby shew 

That, the Countrie (as is well known to this Cort) haue Sustained 
great loss and damage for some yeares past by the decay and want of the 
Bridg Called mistick Bridge notwithstanding the Severall Complaintes 
petitions and presentments made to Several Courts concerning the same ; 
our humble request Therefore to this honnoured Cort is that Deacon 
Mousal of charlstowne Deacon child of wattertowne m r Tho: Danforth. 
of Cambridge m r Edw: Collins of medford Will: Coudre of Redding 
Sam: Richardson of Wobu n and Lit' John Waight of moldon, or any 3 : 
or 4 of them or Such others as the Corte Se good may be appointed 
and Authorized forthwith to make vp a sufficient Cart Bridge over the 
Sayd river in Such Convenient place as may be most comodious for 
the Cuntrie in generall. And that the same may be Effectually carried 
on wee further humblie desire that there be by this Court An Asses- 
ment made on the Severall Townes within this Countie for raysing the 
Sum of one hundred and twenty poundes and warrants Jsued forth to 
the Severall Townshipps for levying and collecting the Same by due 
Course of lawe According to the Assesment for Countrie rates. And 
to pay it in vnto m r Collins at his howse at meadford or as he shall 
appoint. And that the Comitte be ordred to giue Account of the 
said som at the next Countie Courte to be holden at Cambridg or the 
Court following at Charlstowne So shall wee with many others be bound 
to blesse God for your furtheranc of Soe needfull A Service. 35 

[At a County Court, April 1, 1656,] Cap! Norton, m r Edward Collines, 
m r Joseph Hills & m r Brattle, are appointed by this Court a Committee 
to errect misticke Bridge, and to levy the charges there of vpon the 
•County, according to Law. 36 

35 Midd. Court Files, in loco. Rev. well-known deputy of Maiden. The 
Samuel Hough was the pastor of Read- inhabitants of Reading preferred a simi- 
ing; Edward Convers, a leading inhabi- lar petition at the same time. 
tant of Woburn ; and Joseph Hills, the 3G Midd. Court Records, i. 97. 

29 



45 O HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

The rebuilding of the bridge was performed in accordance 

■with the order, and during its progress the County Court was 

drawn by its cost to the consideration of its future maintenance. 

A committee reported to the Court at Charlestown, April 7, 

1657, as follows: — 

Wee question the countjes abilitje to mainteine & beare the charge 
thereof, and having some experimentall knowledge that tounes will be 
more cautious in laying out theire oune costs then the countjes, both in 
building & repayring, doe therefore conclude, according to our weake 
ap r hentions, that as few bridges should be built at the countjes charge 
as possibly maybe, only those two bridges, i. e., at Billirrikey & Misticke, 
to be finished at the countys charge, and for tjme to come majnteined 
in repajre by the tounes & precincts in which they are. 

This report, which was accepted by the County Court and 
confirmed by the General Court soon after, 87 led to the taxation 
of the several towns which were benefited by the bridge and 
caused many disputes and lawsuits. 

During the next thirty years little appears in relation to the 
bridge and the connection of the several towns with its main- 
tenance ; but its later history was probably a continuance in 
spirit and form of that which preceded it. Mr. Brooks remarks 
that " The bridge seemed to have a wonderful aptitude in get- 
ting out of repair; and, as Medford was liable to be indicted 
for the fact the bridge became the standing vexation of the 
town." 3S An entry in the Maiden records, November 29, 1689, 
shows that " maulden workt a mistak bridge with cart and 4 
oxen and 3 hands to gravell the bridg." In less than two years 
the town was delinquent and, with Woburn and Reading, neg- 
lected or refused to pay her dues. The selectmen of Medford 
petitioned the General Court and were referred to the County 
Court for " a finall Jsue of that matter referring to the Settle- 
ment of Said Bridge." 39 The latter favored the petitioners,, 
although the opposing towns made a concerted defence. It 
was, perhaps, in connection with this case that Maiden at a 
meeting, November 20, 1694, allowed Henry Green his charges. 
" with Lawers and expenses consarning mistick bridg." 

37 Mass. Colony Records, iv. (i), 306- 38 Brooks, History of Medford, 64. 

308. aa General Court Records, vi. 189. 



HIGHWAYS AND BRIDGES. 45 I 

The towns were again unsuccessful before the Court in 1698; 
and Deacon John Green was chosen, on the part of Maiden, to 
carry out the following vote : — 

[May 6, 1698,] Voted — That this town will joyn with oborn and 
Reding jn tryall of law vpon apeall : from y e jugment of y e justices of 
y c peace : at y e Court Last held at Charlestown : To y c next Superior 
Court or Courts Consarning mistick brhlg. 

Several ineffectual attempts were made to cast off the burden. 
At a meeting, April 1, 1702, it was 

voted y' Leu' Henery Creen and Thomas newhall are apointed to 
Join with oborn and Reding : and y l they haue full power to agree with 
medford : as they can Jn Refranc to mistick brig: not Exceeding our 
proportion to eighteen Shillings p r yeer : prouided Jn so doing : y e town 
shall haue an aquitance for euer : for euer hauing aney furthar charg 
consarning s d brig : 

The proposed agreement with Medford came to naught; and 
in the following December Isaac Hill and John Greenland were 
chosen to meet with " oborn And Reding men to consider what 
to doe in Referanc to mistick brig." " Sarg 1 upham & sarg 1 
dextar " were appointed to the same service in 17 14; and at a 
meeting, held November 29 of that year, it was voted not to 
raise " 15 pounds to pay Towards y e Rebuilding of mistick 
bridg." 40 However, in spite of the opposition of the neighbor- 
ing towns, the rebuilding was completed and Medford applied 
to the Court of Sessions for redress. The Court apportioned 
the charges upon the five towns of Charlestown, Medford, Read- 
ing, Woburn, and Maiden to the amount of one hundred and 
thirty-five pounds and three shillings — the proportion of the 
former town being sixty-four pounds and fourteen shillings, and 
those of the others seventeen pounds, twelve shillings, and three- 

40 This was in consequence of the fol- Charlestowne, and paid in p suant to 

lowing order of the Court of Sessions: y e Courts order, and Sixty pounds more 

"[Concord, August 31, 1714-] P r su- to be raised forthwith by the Towns of 

ant to y e Return & Motion of the under- Woburn Reading Maldon & Medford 

takers of y e Building of Mistick Bridge in equall proportion To say ffifteen 

referring to their provision of Timber pounds to be raised by Each of s d Towns 

Plank and Labour already provided . . . and to be paid in to y e Respective Town 

order that there be forthwith raised the Treasu rs hands, etc." Midd. Court 

sum of Sixty pounds by the Town of Records — General Sessions, in loco. 



452 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



pence each. 41 At a meeting, August 8, 171 5, Maiden voted to 
raise twenty-four pounds, twelve shillings, and sevenpence " to 
defrey y e charg of mistick bridg ; " for which the selectmen 
soon after laid a town rate of twenty-five pounds and seven- 
pence. 

Disputes with Medford and presentments at the Court were 
not unfrequent during the succeeding years until the early part 
of 1760, when the town refused to join with the other towns in 
repairing or rebuilding the bridge ; and a committee was chosen 
to carry the matter before the General Court. At the April 
session of the Court the following entry was made : — 

[April 24, 1760,] A Petition of Joseph Lynde and others, a Commit- 
tee of the Town of Maiden, Setting forth That in the Year 167 1. the 
Great and General Court ordered That Medford, Woburn, Reading and 
Maiden, should Build and maintain the one half of a Bridge, lying on 
Medford River, and Charlestown the other half. 42 That the circum- 
stances of said Towns are since greatly alter'd. And Praying that the 
Town of Maiden may be freed from that charge for the future. 43 

Consideration of the petition was referred to a future time; 
and notice was given to the other towns, who answered accord- 
ing to their several interests. The reply of Woburn gives in 
review some of the reasons adduced in the Maiden petition. It 
says : — 

1. they say a Considerable part of the Town [Maiden] that Jmproued 
said Bridg in that Day are since anexed to the Towns of Reading and 
Stoneham and those are the Persons that mostly vse said bridg : to 
which by Jnformation their is but two families that is set to Reading 
from said maiden that go ouer said bridg more than one apeace in 
three year and we are sencable that one half of the Town of maiden must 
of Necessity go the same way to boston that woburn Doth so that if the 

41 Brooks, History of Medford, 65. appears to correct the error of the 

42 This must be an error. There is Maiden committee. 

no notice in the Mass, Colony Records "about the year 16157 The Towns of 

of the passage of such an order in 1 67 1. Charlstown Medford Woburn Reading 

The Council, whose records from 1656 and Maiden were ordered by y s Court 

to 1686 are not known to be in existence, Relateing to the Bridge at Medford as 

may have acted in the matter; but the followeth (viz) Charlstown to maintain 

following extract from the petition of the Southerly half of s' 1 Bridge & Med- 

Woburn indicates that a settlement by ford woburn Reading and Maiden the 

the General Court followed the order northerly half Equally between them." 

of 1657 which is given in the text, and Mass. Archives, cxxi. 369. 

43 General Court Records, xxiii. 322. 



HIGHWAYS AND BRIDGES. 453 

said bridge be not an advantage to the Town of maiden it is No benefit 
to the Town of woburn : and as to woburns being so much Larger then 
the Town of maiden it Needeth no answer the Tax bill will set that in 
a True Light 

2 The Town of maiden say that the Line being Run between Chelsy 
and their Town that they haue a Considerable bridg to maintain which 
bridge as we apprihend is Not So Chargeable to the Town of maiden as 
a Number of bridges in woburn. 44 

The reply of Medford was an answer not only to the Maiden 
petition but to those, as well, of the towns of Woburn and Read- 
ing, which had also prayed for relief. 

To his Excellency Thomas Pownall Esq. Captain General & Com- 
mander in Chief in and over his Majesty's Province of the Massachu- 
setts Bay aforesaid, the Hon b . le his Majesty's Council and House of 
Representatives in General Court Assembled June 2? 1760 

Whereas the Towns of Wobourn, Reading & Maiden lately Exhibited 
to this Hon b .' e Court by their respective Committees their Several Peti- 
tions, requesting your Excellency and Honours, that the said Towns 
may for the future be freed from any Charge relating to the Maintain- 
ing the northerly Half of a Bridge in Medford for Reasons therein 
mentioned, 

In Answer to which Petitions we in behalf of the Town of Medford 
beg Leave to offer what follows, That is to Say 

That by the Acknowledgment of the Petitioners their Predecessors 
and they have been at the Charge of Repairing & Keeping in good 
Order Three Quarters of the northerly Half of said Bridge, for more 
than an Hundred Years past, notwithstanding their frequent applica- 
tions to the Court of General Sessions, his Majesty's Superior Court of 
Judicature and this Hon? Court, to be freed from the said Charge, Yet 
they at this Time of Day pray to be excus'd from the Charge and Trouble 
of Maintaining their usual Proportion, Because Say they, the Town of 
Medford is Enlarg'd and grown much more able than heretofore and 
also that there was Land Assign'd for the Maintenance and Conve- 
nience of each Half of said Bridge also that they are straitned for 
Room on the northerly Side of the Bridge for Landing Materials for 
the Repair of the Same, Also that they are at a great Charge in main- 
taining Bridges, Highways &c ; Now granting the Town of Medford is 
Larger than heretofore, yet our Charges as to other Bridges (excepting 
the Two over Medford River) are more in Proportion to our Bigness 

44 Mass. Archives, cxxi. 373. The bridge mentioned was that over Pines River 
below Black Ann's Corner. 



S 



454 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

we Apprehend than any of the before mentioned Towns — and as to 
any Lands assigned to the Building or Repairing said Bridge, we know 
not of any, neither have heard of any on the Northerly Side, neither 
have we Receivd any more directly or Indirectly than about the Sum 
of Seventeen Pounds towards supporting the Southerly Half of said 
Bridge & Causey adjoyning, Since a part of Charlestown has been An- 
nexed to Medford, Tho' the Charge we are now Obliged to be at in 
Order to Rebuild said Southerly Half of the Bridge & Causey will 
amount to more than an Hundred Pounds as near as we can think — As 
to Room the said Towns have the same that the Town of Medford has 
for Landing Materials for Rebuilding & Repairing said Bridge. More- 
over, The aforesaid Towns make a much greater Use of said Bridge for 
Carting &c than the Town of Medford aforesaid does, Who maintain 
Five Eighths of the Same. Besides we are at the Charge of one Half 
of the Bridge over the Same River at a Place called the Wears, where 
it is considerably wider than where the first mentioned Bridge is, the 
Repairing of which this Year we Apprehend will amount to Twenty 
Pounds at least to us. 

Upon the whole we Humbly Conceive that there is -not so much as 
the Shadow of Reason for the said Towns being Excused from bearing 
the Same Proportion of Rebuilding and Keeping in good Order the 
said Half of said Bridge which their Grandfathers readily agreed to do 
— And therefore Entreat your Excellency and Honours wou'd not Ex- 
cuse said Towns from bearing the Same Proportion of the Charge of 
Rebuilding & Keeping in good Order said Half of the aforementioned 
Bridge but Dismiss their Petitions which Apprehend are vexations — 

Your Excellency's & Honours most Obedient Hum! Servants 

Committee 
for 
dford™ 

At the General Court in June a committee was appointed to 
" take the same under consideration; " but they made no report 
until April 17, 1761, when the matter was recommitted, perhaps 
in consideration of a prospect of an early settlement being made 
between the towns. 

At a town meeting, June 30, 1 761 , Timothy Sprague, Edward 
Waite, and Stephen Paine were appointed " to act what they 
think may be most for the towns benefit refering to medford 
bridge which said towns are in controversy about." The recent 
annexation to Medford of a portion of Charlestown on the south- 

45 Mass. Archives, cxxi. 371. 



Sam Brooks Francis Whitmore ) 

B Pool Simon Tufts f ,, J . 

) Mct{ 



HIGHWAYS AND BRIDGES. 455 

erly bank of the Mystic had thrown the bridge and its approaches 
entirely within the territory of the former town; and it seems to 
have been considered desirable for several reasons that that town 
should assume its complete control. Arrangements were made 
with the neighboring towns; and August 18, 1761, a committee 
acting for the town of Medford, for sixteen pounds, thirteen 
shillings, and fourpence, lawful money, paid by the Maiden 
committee, gave a release of" all the said town of Maldons part 
of supporting said Bridge forever," 40 and the controversy of 
more than a hundred years was at an end. 

Mystic Bridge was not the only bridge out of its limits which 
the town was called upon to assist in maintaining. At a 
meeting of the selectmen, December 20, 1699, a county rate 
amounting to four pounds, nine shillings, and threepence was 
made " for cambridg great bridg and othar County Charges." 
At the annual meeting in March, 174^7, no action was taken on 
a question referring to a charge with Chelsea in repairing the 
bridge between Benjamin Waite's and David Parker's, and the 
county bridge over Pines River on the road from Black Ann's 
Corner to Winnisimmet, sometimes called the Boston Road. 
The latter bridge, although within the Maiden line, was con- 
sidered of more advantage to the inhabitants of Chelsea and 
the county of Essex than to those of Maiden, and it was some- 
times a charge to the former town. A committee was appointed 
by the Court of Sessions, December 8, 1747, to " view the Bridge 
in Maldon between Oliver's Farm, and Black Anne's (which 
m r . Benj a : Kent inform'd the Court is defective & dangerous)." 
This committee reported in the following May that they " find 
the same to lye within the Township of Maiden, and to be much 
decayed, and are of opinion that it be thoroughly repaired as 
soon as conveniently may be." 47 

Early mention is made of Lewis's Bridge, through which the 

4G Maiden Town Records, in lor o. The more especially as the annalists of 

Mystic Bridge was of great importance Medford have treated it with slight 

to all the country above the river. Al- attention. 

though it was within the territory of 4T Midd. Court Records — General Ses- 

another town, I have considered it of sions, in loco. 
consequence in a history of Maiden, 



456 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

tide flowed into the meadow of Joseph Hills lying between the 
Reading Road and Cedar Hill. Pemberton's Creek, or Harvell's 
Brook, which it spanned, has ceased to be the pleasant stream 
of yore and has become a dirty ditch by the side of the Eastern 
Railroad track, and Lewis's Bridge a mere culvert under Main 
Street. At a County Court, December 27, 1659, 

Mauldon being p'sented for a defective Bridge neere to the ordnary 
are fined two Shill: 6 d & are injoyned to repayre the same before next 
Court on Penalty of 40 s & to pay Costs of Court 2 s & 6 d . 48 

The City Hall now stands on or near the site of Abraham 
Hill's ordinary and the bridge may have been that just men- 
tioned or that which crossed the Three Mile Brook at the junc- 
tion of the Medford and Reading Roads. Both these bridges 
are frequently mentioned. They were probably rudely built of 
logs and so continued many years. John Wilson and Joseph 
Green, " in behalf of themselves & the rest of the Selectmen of 
Maiden," appeared before the Court, April 13, 1725, 

to answer to y e p'sentment of the Grand Jurors for want of a Bridge. 
They declare that there is a new sufficient Bridge Erected over the way 
that is presented, are dismissed paying fees and costs. 49 

The selectmen of Maiden had a frequent acquaintance with 
the Court through the vigilance of the Grand Jury. Two years 
later they were presented " for not keeping in good repear a 
Bridge in maiden aforesaid commonly called Lewis's Bridge." 
They failed to appear when cited and a warrant was issued to 
secure their appearance " to answer their contempt." At the 
next session they appeared and " do say that the said Bridge 
is now & has been for sometime in good repair." How they 
were purged of their contempt does not appear ; but it is to be 
supposed that the Court was satisfied, as they were dismissed 
after paying fees. 50 

In however "good repair" Lewis's Bridge may have been in 
1727, it soon required rebuilding. At a meeting held, Decem- 
ber 7, 1738, the town refused to raise money "to defrey the 

48 Midd. Court Records, i. 194. 50 Ibid., General Sessions, April 4, 

49 Ibid., General Sessions, in loco. June 13, 1727. 



HIGHWAYS AND BRIDGES. 457 

charge that the surveyors have been at in building the new 
bridge near the meeting hous ; " but the next month a more 
liberal spirit prevailed, and fifty-one pounds, one shilling, and 
one penny were raised for "building the new bridge near the 
north meeting house in this town." It was voted, May 19, 1760, 
to " build anew the bridge called Lewis's and the bridge by mr 
Jsaac Hills with stones when they need to be rebuilt." Our 
fathers were not given to haste. Six years elapsed before it 
was voted, "[May 19, 1766] To Build anew the Bridge at 
Lewises creek with Stone this Year ; " and another year passed 
before it was decided " That the town will rebuild the bridg by 
mr Kettles this year and that with stone." 51 That the work in 
the latter instance was done is evident, as James Kettell was 
paid in October, 1768, for "a cart to carry stons to build the 
bridge near his house." When the bridges were rebuilt it was 
voted, after the usual delay, "[May 18, 1772,] To erect Rails 
on each Side the two Bridges, near the North Meeting House, 
for the greater Safety of Travellers." 

Other bridges are mentioned. At a Court of Sessions, March 
13, 171^6, the selectmen were called to answer " for not repair- 
ing a bridge over a Brook neer Capt Dexters." 52 The building 
of Maiden Bridge at Penny Ferry belongs to a later period. 

The charges for roads and bridges appear to have been met 
at times with liberality and at other times grudgingly, although 
for the most part convenient ways adapted to the prevailing 
methods of travel were well maintained. In 1705 the selectmen 
made a highway rate of twenty pounds, one shilling, and six- 
pence. 53 This was hardly adequate to the purpose; for the 
next year the selectmen appeared before the Court to answer 
" for the Defect of y e high way neer Lewisses Bridge, Jnforming 

51 James Kettell, who added to the the course of the brook having been 

calling of a tavern keeper, the office of materially changed within the last forty 

a deputy sheriff and the trade of a years. 

baker, now kept the Rising Eagle, or 5 - Midd. Court Records — General Ses- 

Hill's Tavern, to which he had recently sions, in loco. 

succeeded by his marriage with Sarah hz This was proportioned to the in- 

( Haven), the widow of Isaac Hill, the habitants of the north and south sides 

former landlord. The bridge by Hill's, of Harvell's Brook as follows : to the 

or Kettell's, was near the present south- north side, £\2 lis. 7d. ; to the south 

ern coiner of Main and Pleasant Streets, side, £j 9s. 1 id. 



458 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

the Court they are mended." 54 In 1707 the appropriation was 
twenty pounds in money, and the same sum was voted in 1709; 
but at the annual meeting, in March, 171 73, it was raised to 
thirty pounds, " to mend y e high wais." During the distress 
occasioned by the issue of paper money in the earlier half of 
the eighteenth century, the appropriations varied from time to 
time as the amounts were fixed in money or the depreciated 
currency of the several issues. Reduced to twenty pounds in 
1715, the amount was raised to one'hundred pounds in 1734 
and was the same in 1741. For many years, during the scarcity 
of ready money, much of the highway rate was " worked out " 
at fixed rates, as in 1750, when the work of a man with a cart and 
two pairs of oxen, or with one pair of oxen and a horse, was 
rated at six shillings and fourpence a day. With one pair of 
oxen and a cart a man could decrease his highway tax at the 
rate of five shillings and fourpence a day; while the poorer man, 
who brought his hands alone to the task, received a daily quit- 
tance of two shillings and eightpence. The custom of working 
out taxes was not wholly abandoned until within fifty years. 
Many an old inhabitant now living has wielded the shovel and 
the hoe upon the town highways in his earlier years. 

The closing of even the most important roads by gates was 
common in the early part of the eighteenth century and in some 
instances survived to a time within the memory of persons now 
living. This was necessary to prevent the straying of cattle 
from the fenced farms into the open roads, whence they might 
wander into the woods or uninclosed meadows. At first this 
was done at the convenience of landowners without the inter- 
vention of the authorities or the town ; but as travel increased 
and the great inconvenience of frequent gates appeared, it 
became a question to be acted upon at town meetings and 
sometimes, even, considered by the County Court. A com- 
mittee of the Court made a report in 1701 concerning "Gates 
in Maklon," by which it appears that they were ordered " to 
open both wayes Easie for Travailers ; " and the petition of 
the selectmen of Maiden, " for the hanging of a Gate neer the 
54 Midd. Court Records — General Sessions, July 9, 1706. 



HIGH W AYS AND BRIDGES. 459 

pound by Jsaac Hills," was allowed in 1705. 55 This gate, not 
far from the site of the City Hall, may have crossed the Reading 
Road or closed the way to Medford. The roads at that point 
were narrow and no indication as yet existed of the present 
square, which gradually grew by the appropriation of a watering 
place at the northwesterly corner of the roads. 

At the annual town meeting in March, 170 s 9 , Leonard Drown 
and William Teele were allowed to set a gate and fence across 
the highway " Betwene John willsons and Samuell wayts fence 
nere the apelltree." They were to pay for " the fede within the 
sad Gate." The next year this privilege was given to William 
Teele alone upon the same terms, it being voted that he " may 
haue y e feed on y e Towns land between y e gate and The landing 
places [at Sandy Bank.] " In March, 1719^, he had liberty 

To feed or pastor y e Towns land at Sandy bank : between y e Gate 
neer Lewiss bridg and Lannard drowns land this presant yeer prouided 
y e s d Teel. doe maintain a gate That Shall hang well a Thwart y e way 
whare y e Gate now Stands. 

[March 1, 171^,] vote: y' william Teel hes libarty Granted for y e 
presant yeer: To jmproue y e land that lyeth between y e clay pits and 
goody drowns fenc for pastoring — and also he may hang agate jn y e 
usuall place neer The clay-pits : 56 

55 Midd. Court Records — General Ses- mother, and was obliged to give bonds 

sions, March 18, \~o%\ March 13, 170^. to save the town from charges concern- 

5,5 John Wilson's land was on the ing it. Wyman, Genealogies and Estates 

south side and Samuel Waite's land of Charlestown, makes an ugly intima- 

and " the apelltree " on the north side tion in respect to its parentage. Drown 

of the way to Sandy Bank at the corner appears to have left his wife and lived 

of the great road. The clay-pits were in Charlestown with John Johnson, who 

near by. The house of William Teele married his sister or, perhaps, his daugh- 

011 the small piece of town land, at the ter by a former marriage. The land was 

southerly corner of the roads, is the mentioned in 171433 "goody drowns" 

subject of a note elsewhere. and as Calley's soon after. In 1737 

The land and house of Leonard widow Drown and Robert Calley, the 

Drown, on the way below the burying son, sold seven acres on the south side 

ground, were those of Robert Calley, who of the burying ground to John Waite 

died February 15, 17073. Leonard Drown of Lynn. This land afterwards became 

married Widow Mary Calley and entered a part of the Green farm and was known 

upon the estate of his predecessor; but as the John Waite pasture until recent 

his occupancy was not of long duration, years. While excavations were being 

There is a story of a child put to nurse made on Converse Avenue, a few years 

with the wife of Leonard Drown by since, indications of a cellar were found, 

Jonathan Sprague, who refused to inform which probably belonged to the Calley 

the Court of the names of its father and house. 



460 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

This privilege was granted yearly to William Teele, during 
his life; and after his death it was voted to his widow, Mary 
Teele, in 1719, when she had liberty " To hang a gate a thort 
sandy-bank high-way neer her hous, and to haue y e benefit of 
y e feed or paster in y e buring place." 

In 1709 it is recorded that " Seuerall parsons haue desired to 
hang a gate a cross y e Town high-way between william waits 
and dextars Rox: and jt js granted by a vote." The report 
relating to a road " between James Houes and boston Rhoad," 
in 1 7 10, was accepted by the town, 

prouided y e propriotors of y e land shall not be compeld To fenc on 
each side of s d way but haue libarty to hang and maintain Gates be- 
tween each propriotars land upon sd way. 

The County Court, in 1713, allowed the petition of the inhab- 
itants of Maiden 

for the Removeing of Three gates standing athwart the highway set- 
tled by the Justices of s d County Anno : Dom. 17 10 that lyes on y e out- 
side of the Towns Land in y e possession of the minister. 57 

Liberty was given Joseph VVaite, in 17 14, to hang three gates 
on the town highways in Scadan : — 

one acros The way neer To dextars Rocks, one on y e way y' leads 
Towards Samuel greens, and one on y e way y' leads Towards Zachre 
hills for this presant yeer. 

Seven years later Nathaniel Jenkins entered his " decent " 
against the following vote : — 

[March y e 13 : 1720 2I ] Sam 1 . 1 wayte — daniel newhall - — nath : upham 
— sam" newhall — eben upham — eben hils — sam' 1 Green — And 
Abraham skiner desireth liberty of The Town To hang foure Gates 
a thurt y e Towns high-way : one neer To nath Jenkins — one a thurt 
y e way leading to swains pond one upon The line of The sheepastor : 
and one a thurt The way neer To william prats — The Town hes 
Granted there desier by A vote att y e abous d Meting : 

The obstruction of highways by gates was now beginning to 
be met with disfavor, as appears in the following votes : — 

5| Midd. Court Records — General Ses- gates from the way between Thomas 
s/ons, April 14, 1713. The difficulties Skinner's and the meeting house have 
which attended the removal of these been noticed. 



HIGHWAYS AND BRIDGES. 46 1 

[May 12. 173SJ it was put to vote to see if the town will grant 
liberty to Joseph Willson to hang a gate for one year near his nous 
upon the town road that leads to wormwood point upon this consider- 
ation that said Willson alows the town ten shillings for said liberty and 
it past in the affirmative 

it was put to vote to se if the town will grant any other person or 
persons liberty to hang and keep up a gate or gates on any other load 
or roads belonging to the town : and it past in the negetive 

At the annual meeting in March, 173%, the privilege of 
Joseph Wilson was not renewed, and the town refused to allow 
Ebenezer Pratt to close the way to the landing place at Moul- 
ton's Island. Wilson either disregarded or disputed the vote of 
the town ; and at a later meeting the interposition of the Court 
was asked. 

[July 5. 1739] vot That mr Timothy Sprague shall request in behalf 
of said town, of his Magesty's Justices of the sessions of the peace to 
be holden at Cambridge the tenth day of this instant July that there 
may not be any gate hang acros any town road in said town conterary 
to a vote of the town and to the damage of any of the inhabitants 
thereof 

Timothy Sprague presented his petition and motion to the 
Court at Cambridge, and the case was referred to the December 
term. The landowners at Wormwood Point may have had 
some prescriptive rights which were considered valid. The 
following petition, which was preferred to the selectmen, indi- 
cates fears of " a needless contention : " — 

To the Select men of The Town of maldin. 

Gentlemen — Whereas at a General meeting of the Inhabitants of 
said Town, on the fifth Day of July Last Timothy Sprague was Chosen 
as Agant for said Town To prefer amotion on the Towns behalf lb the 
Court of General Sessions of the peace To be held at Cambridge on 
the tenth of July last by adjourn' Desiering that the Gate which Joseph 
Willson Set up On the way Leading To wormwood point might be re- 
moved and fearing the Consequence of Involving the Town in a need- 
less Contention, we the Subscribers, Inhabitants of said Town Desier 
that in your next warrant for a General meeting in said Town you would 
insert such words as these viz* that they Give their vote whether they 
will recall the power Given To Timothy Sprague as agent for the Town 
of maldin Respecting the removal of Joseph Willsons Gate Standing on 



462 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

the way Leading To wormwood point, and also whether they will with- 
draw the motion made by the said Timothy Sprague on the Towns 
behalf Be fore the Court of General Sessions of the peace held at 
Cambridge in July Last by adjournment for the removing the said Gate, 
(which Is Continued Till December Court next.) in Doing which you 
will we humbly conceive Serve the Interest of the said Town as well 
as Gratify Gentlemen your Humble Serv ts 
Maldin Sept. 25. 1739. 

James Barrit Samuel Stower 

Stower Sprague Joseph Caswell 

Sam ll Green Jabez Sargeant 

Samuel Blanchard Jonathan Sargeant 

Joses Bucknam iun John Green Jun r . 5S 

This petition received no favorable attention. The case was 
continued from Court to Court until May 20, 1740, when the 
petition was dismissed. 

While travelling was entirely on foot or on horseback, the 
inconvenience of gates was not great; but the gradual introduc- 
tion of chaises and other vehicles rendered unobstructed roads 
desirable. Little thereafter appears concerning gates across 
county and town roads, save on the less travelled ways, where 
some rights were still granted. At the annual meeting, 

[March 4, 1765 J Jt was put to vote to see if the town will give 
liberty to rar Samuel Green and others to run a fence between ell 
pond and the high way. provided they leve a convenient way open for 
watering of cattle at the pond And keep convenient draw bars or 
a gate for people to pass and repass with their teams in the usual place 
of their going to and from said pond with their flax. And it past in 
the affermative. 

Some old gates, doubtless, remained for a while. The way 
to Wormwood Point was so stopped for many years, and the 
portion towards the river and landing place gradually merged 
in the adjoining lands. The road to the burying ground and 
landing place at Sandy Bank was closed by a gate until nearly 
the middle of the present century. 

68 Original MS. in the possession of Artemas Barrett of Melrose, 1S66. 










CHAPTER XIV. 



DAVID PARSONS AND JOSEPH EMERSON. 

A FTER the death of Mr. Wigglesworth the spirit of strife 
-£*- revived; and out of the church came discontents and 
evils, which kept the town uneasy for the next three years. 
More than four months elapsed after the death of the pastor 
before any action was taken towards filling his place. Then a 
meeting was held with the following result : — 

[October 24, 1705] The town was warned to Giue there con- 
currenc jn y e churches actt Jn chosing M r Medceff to be there Minister 
for fiue or six months A vote was cald for : and ther came jn one and 
thirty vots for M r Medceff and not one vote for any other man. 

In the face of this apparent unanimity twenty-one persons 
immediately entered their " decent" upon the record against the 
action of the town ; and in December, 

The meting being warned to Raise a suply of money for y e main- 
tainanc of the misestrey jt was put to vote whether y e town would Raise 



464 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

aney money for y* end And y e vote past on y e negitive : and nothing 
was don jn y l mattar. 

That preaching was continued appears from a vote passed at 
a meeting in the following March, by which Mrs. Wigglesworth 
was paid four shillings " for her entertaining y e ministars sine 
M r Wigglesworth deces d : which is 30 weeks." At the same 
meeting it was voted " y l ther shall be 3. 10. o. money Raised 
for M r Metcaf." An additional vote to raise no money for the 
ministry for the ensuing year was hardly in the spirit of the 
others. 

Meanwhile the church appears to have struggled with the 
question of a settlement of a pastor; and, having nominated 
two candidates, Mr. Joseph Metcalf [H. C. 1703] and Mr. John 
Barnard [H. C. 1700], a meeting of the town was called, 
May 24, 1706, for an agreement. At this meeting the school- 
master " natt waite [was] jmproued as a moderator," and Mr. 
Metcalf had " 25 vots for him To be y e towns minister." To 
this record the clerk added: "Ther was about twelue men 
which did enter ther decent a gainst y e abou s d choice : namly 
Isaac Hill Richard pratt Jonathan Sprague Sam 1 Sprague 
Jonathan Sargeant Tho Waite Sen r : Tho. burditt Sen r Sam" 
Waite Sen r . Sam 11 Waite Jun r Jacob Wilson John Wilkenson 
Sen r Edward Sprague." Finally the meeting passed the 
following vote, which effectually prevented the calling of Mr. 
Metcalf or any one else: — 

It was putt to vote whether y e town would Raise aney money to 
maintain The ministrey among us And y e vote past on y e negitiue. 
The moderator said jt was no vote. 

Two months later the town was in better humor, and passed 
a vote of concurrence, " The Church hauing latly made choice 
of M r Jerimiah Wise 1 to be there minister." Whatever action 
may have followed this meeting, it came to nought, and Mr. 
Wise went to Berwick. The church made another choice, with 
a most lame and impotent conclusion. A meeting was warned, 
November 15, 1706, — 

1 Jeremiah Wise [II. C. 1700], a son was pastor of the church at Berwick 
of the Rev. John Wise of Ipswich. He forty-eight years. 



DAVID PARSONS AND JOSEPH EMERSON. 465 

To se whether y c town would concur with y° church jn the Choice 
y e haue made of m r Corwin : y e maigor part of y e church with seuerall 
of y" town Refused to vote saying y e proseedings were nott leguall : 
y e Rest of y e town presant brogt jn There votes nonconcurranc for 
m r Corwin. '- 

Three months now passed, and the church again took action ; 
and the town was called, February 21, 170^ 7 , to concur in the 
choice of Mr. Peter Thacher [H. C. 1706]. The record says: 
" y e vots were called for jn and ther was 31 vots which was The 
maiger part considerable." Matters proceeded so far with Mr. 
Thacher that a settlement was voted in April as follows : — 

Uoted That M r Thacher shall haue fifty pounds per yeare in mony and 
the use of the parsenag housing and land and a suficent suply of fire- 
wood lade at his dore and the benifet of Strangres mony all this so long 
as he carieth on the work of the minestrey amongst us in maiden. 

There are now indications of an open breach between the 
church and the town. At a meeting of the latter, held June 15, 
" uotes was called for in and M r Clape 3 was cleary uoted for 
and chosen to Be this towns minestar in order to setelment; " 
and Deacon John Greenland and Corporal Samuel Green were 
chosen to " lay the townes uote Before m r Gape." At the 
same time, the salary and privileges which had been offered 
Mr. Thacher were voted for the "incoriging" of Mr. Clap, 
" and it wase a cleare uot; " and the selectmen were authorized 
to agree with Isaac Hill and John Green " for the entertaining 
minesters for time past." No reference was made to the church 
in this matter, but the fact that the town was choosing a minis- 
ter was emphasized. This meeting was apparently held under 
the pressure of an indictment by the Grand Jury, which hastened 
the independent action of the town ; but it was barren of results, 
and Mr. Clap's prospective settlement promised no better end- 

2 George Cunven, a native of Salem 3 Probably Nathaniel Clap [H. C. 

[II. C. 1701], and afterwards minister 1690], a native of Dorchester, who, with- 

of the First Church in his native town, out a church, was then preaching at 

He married Mehitable Parkman, a Newport on Rhode Island, where he 

granddaughter of Captain John Wayte, commenced in 1695, continuing his labors 

and was father of Samuel Curwen, the in the midst of difficulties and trials 

noted loyalist, whose diary and letters, until 1720, when a church was formed 

illustrating the days preceding the Revo- and he became its pastor, 
lution, form a volume of value. 

30 



466 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

ing than the others. The County Court, which met at Charles- 
town in July, applied the spur to the dilatory town by the 
following order : — 

The Court on Consideration that the Town of maldon who notwith- 
standing they haue been p r sented for y e want of a Settled minister 
according to Law & also haueing been Strictly ordered by y e Court to 
whom they were p r sented to prouide y m Selues of [a] Settled minister, 
are yet without a Settled minister The Court order that they forthwith 
prouide y m Selues of a Settled minister by y e next Quarter Sessions for 
Midd x , or the Court will proced w th them according to y e late act of 
y e Province for maintaining and propeating Religion by Entering theire 
Complaint to y e Generall assembly, y l so they may be proceeded 
w th according to y e Seuerity of Said act. 4 

In consequence of this order, the selectmen appeared at the 
Court, September 9, and " made answer y' they haue applyed 
them Selues to m r Clap and are waiting for his answer." 5 
Three weeks later they again appeared before the Court, 

Jnforming y e Court that they haue been p r sueing theire call to 
m r Clap and a few days since Receiued his Ans\v r in y e Negatiue, and 
praying the Courts favo r for a little longer .time to proceed to apply to 
another in order to Settlm'. 6 

A meeting of the town was held, October 3, being " warned 
By order of the selectmen," and twenty-five pounds, in money, 
were raised for the ministry for six months. No action towards 
a permanent settlement was taken until November 24, when a 
public meeting was "warned by order of a Justes of the peace," 
and the town, by a vote of forty-one in the affirmative and none 
in the negative, concurred with the church in the choice of Mr. 
Nathaniel Gookin [H. C. 1703]. A settlement was voted by 
which he was to have a yearly salary of sixty pounds, the use 
of the parsonage, and the " naked money that comes in to the 
Boxe." This action the selectmen duly reported to the Court, 
saying, — 

that they haue had a generall meeting of the Town and are in a hope 
full way of being Supplyed, haueing applyed them Selues to m 1 Gookin, 
and are waiting for his Answ\ 7 

4 Midd. Court Records, — General Sessions, July ■ 1, 1707. {i Ibid., Sept. 30, 1707. 

5 Ibid., Sept. 9, 1707. 7 Ibid., Dec. 9, 1707. 



DAVID PARSONS AND JOSEPH EMERSON. 467 

The application to Mr. Gookin had no better issue than the 
others. Preaching was continued, apparently without interrup- 
tion. At a meeting held January 26, 170/3. Isaac Hill, the inn- 
holder, was allowed two shillings and ninepence for each 
Sabbath that ministers were entertained at his house, " exept 
M r Tufts days that he preached;" and it was further " noted 
That the minesters shall Be intertained at John Greens house — 
whilest the Town meating in March next." 

The next candidate was Mr. Joseph Parsons [H. C. 1697], 
who was the choice of the church and received forty votes, 
with none dissentient, at a town meeting, February 6, 170^. 
He was offered the salary and privileges that had been offered 
Mr. Gookin ; and a committee of six was chosen to confer with 
him. Lieutenant Henry Green, who was a selectman and had 
been moderator of the meeting, reported to the Court that 
" they are in p r suance of a Complyance w th m r Joseph Parsons 
who hath taken the matter into Consideration, and they are 
waiting for his answer." 8 

The result of the " consideration " of Mr. Parsons was not 
favorable and the spring and summer passed without a settle- 
ment. The town raised sixty pounds, money, for the support 
of the ministry during the year, and passed several votes relat- 
ing to the care of the transient supplies and candidates which 
the church procured. It was " noted That the menister shall 
Be intertained at John Greens sener his hous ; " and soon after, 
a claim of Isaac Hill for a like service at the rate of three shil- 
lings for each day was refused ; but he was allowed two shillings 
and ninepence a day as before, " exept m r Tufts and for his 
entertainment o-i s -6 d per sabbath." 

Meanwhile the affairs of the church and town became more 
unsettled and the divisions increased. So hopeless was the out- 
look and so far it seemed from any change for the better, that 
in September Lieutenant Henry Green and John Green, two of 
the selectmen, threw themselves and the town upon the judg- 
ment of the Court; and the Court, acting with promptness, 
made a settlement of the affair at once. 

8 Midd. Conn Records, — General Sessions, March 9, 170^8. 



468 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

L' Henry Green and Jn° Green of maldon appearing in Court to 
Jnform the Court referring to their Providing them Selues w th a Settled 
minister p'suant to the order of y e last Sessions, Jnformed the Court, 
that they haue had Severall meetings of the Church and one of the 
Towne in order to y e accomodateing that affaire referring to a minister, 
but can make nothing take effect, but yet are in a verry unsettled and 
Divided frame, and So like to Continue and leaue them Selues to the 
pleasure of y e Court 

The Court haueing from Court to Court in theire Seuerall Respectiue 
Sessions for a long time p r suant to y e Directions of an act for Settlm' of 
ministers called the Town of Maldon before them to answ r to y r p'sentm* 
by y e Grand Jury for being without a Settled minister according to Law, 
and haueing passed severall orders upon y e s d Town to provide them 
Selues of an orthodox minister and to make theire Return of theire do- 
ings theirein to y° next Courts of Sessions, all which orders proveing 
Jneffectuall, and they Still so continueing and like so to do being in an 
unsettled and Divided frame and Leaving them Selues to y e Court for 
to use theire pleasure w th them as to that affaire. The Court Do unani- 
mously agree and Conclude as followeth That m r Thomas Tuffts is a 
Suitable p r son qualified as aforesd for the Worke of the ministry in that 
Town of Maldon, and see cause to Settle him there in that Worke And 
Do order the Town of Maldon to pay him for his maintenance during 
his Continuance in s d Worke amongst them after y e Rate of Seventy 
pounds money p r annum The Same to be Levied upon y e Respectiue 
Jnhabitants etc* 

Mr. Thomas Tufts [H. C. 1701] was of the Mystic Side fam- 
ily and, being in some measure a prophet in his own country, 
may not have been acceptable to the people of Maiden. Per- 
haps his talents were not remarkable; for his appointment by 
the Court seems to have been the nearest he ever came to a 
permanent settlement. Thus pushed by the Court and threat- 
ened with a pastor not of their choice, the church and town 
quickly put themselves " in a very hopeful way of a loveing 
Agreem 1 ." The following record of the town meeting and the 
accompanying petition to the General Court tell the story in a 
quaint and not uninteresting manner: — 

October 

27: 1708 A publick Town meting Lef Henry Green moderater Jn 
order to the Townes concorance with the Chirch in Thare Choyse 

9 Midd. Court Records, — General Sessions, Sept. 14, 1708. 



DA VI D PARSONS AND JOSEPH EMERSON. 469 

of m r dauid parsons to Be the towns minester in order [to] setel- 
ment and uotes was called for to Be Brat in for that purpos and 
thare came in 53 uotes for m r dauid parsons to Be the towns min- 
ester in order to setelment And thare came in none to the 
contary 

noted That the Town will alowe m r dauid parsons for his incorigement 
60 pounds per year in mony and the use and benifet of the parti- 
neg and the town to put the partineg in Repair and all the naked 
mony that comes in to the Box so longe as he setells heare and 
contineues in the worke of the minestary amounht us here in 
maiden 

noted Lef Thomas newhall Edward Sprague Sam" Green sen and En- 
sin phinas upham To Goe to se to Gite apotition draue to present 
to the Gererall Corte for the taken of the quarter sessions order 
consarning m r Thomas Tufts Being the minester of maiden 

A true Cope Atest John Green Town Clark 

John fausdick Ebenezer hills 

beniamin wittemor john linds junier 

nathaniel waite joseph waite 

Samuel bukman peter tufts 

Samuel wait junier william waite 

thomas oaks lemuel jenkins 

Wee aboue named enter our desents because we doe conceive here 
is a contempt of the authority 
2 : we are not able to maintaine two ministers 

We aboue named du anter our decents a gainst your procedens this 
day becos we doue con ceue it tis a contemp of a authority and we dou 
thnk we are not abl to mantain two minesters at once. 10 

To his Ex cy . Joseph Dudley Esq r . Cap 1 . General 6° Govemf i?i Chief, 
ete. . . . in General Court Assembled y 20 th of October i~o8. 

The Petition of Thomas Newhall, Edward Sprague, Samuel Green & 
Phineas Upham, Jn the name & by Appointm! of y e Town of Maiden 
May it please y r Ex cy 
& this Hon ble Assembly. 

The Church & Town of Maiden ever Since the Death of the Rev" d 
M!i Wigglesworth their late Pastor about Three years Since have w , . h all 
manner of Application Endeavoured a New Settlem! of the Ministry 
among them, and given an Jnvitation to Several worthy Gentlemen to 

10 Mass. Archives, xi. 276. The "de- ment, a copy of which is entered in the 
cent " appears to be the original docu- town records. 



47Q 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



Preach w th them for a Taste of their Gifts in Order to a further procee- 
dure but have been Obstructed of Obtaining their desire by some few 
of their Brethren Neighbours laying Discouragements in y c way. And 
the Town have been under presentm ts fore being Destitute of a Minis- 
ter, Altho Her Ma tys Justices have been Indulgent to them from time 
to time Adviseing them to a good Agreem'- among themselves But fin- 
ally in Sept! last appointed a Minist 1 One M r Tuffts to come to them, 
some time before w c . h the Church had made an Jnvitation to One M' 
David Parsons then at Long Jsland, who so far Accepted thereof, as to 
come down thereupon. And the last Lords day Visited & preached to 
them part of the day, being the first Sabbath of Ml Tuffts preaching, & 
on the Munday following the Church met, And gave a Call to M r Par- 
sons, their being Thirty one Voters present, of w ch he had the Votes of 
Twenty Six, the others not Voting at all, and on y e Wednesday after, 
the Town met & pass'd a Vote in Concurrance w l . h the Churcn by Fifty 
three Votes, w^ h is by far the greater p l of the whole Town there being 
but Twelve that has descented. They have Also Treated w'. h M r Par- 
sons ab! Maintenance, so that both Church & Town are in a very hope- 
ful way of a loveing Agreerm & good Settlenv; of a Minister of their own 
Chuseing to Mutual Satisfaction. 

We Therefore humbly pray That this Hon b, . e Court would be pleased 
to Direct That the afore recited Order of the Quarter Sessions may 
[be] Surperceded set aside & made Void 

And Yof Pet? as in Duty bound Shall every Pray &c. 

Boston Oct 1 ? 28"? 1708. Tho Newhall 

Edward Sprague 
SamaOell Gren 
Phinehas Vpham 
28* Oct . 1708 In Council 

Read and Ordered That the Prayer of this Pet?" be Granted, so far 
that the Order of the Court of Sessions be Stayed until the Issue of the 
affair referring to m r Parsons. Sent down for Concurrance 

Js A Addington Secry. 

Jn the House of Representatives Octo r 29 th : 1708 Read and Pass'd 
a Concurrence Thomas Oliver Speaker 11 

Mr. Parsons was apparently not immediately ordained ; nor 
does an agreement with him appear to have been made without 
considerable deliberation on the one part or the other. At the 
annual meeting in March, 170^9, John Pratt and Joseph Green 
were allowed forty shillings "to Beare thare charges in thar 

11 Mass. Archives, xi. 275. 



social ~ 

larship JftaJ* q^oSpriS 

of his A U 



DAVID PARSONS AND JOSEPH EMERSON. 47 1 

uiouge of fetching m r parsons from Spring fielde;" and it was 
" noted That the Town will Alowe m r parsons 20 coard of wood 
per year and yearly so Longe as he cares on the worke of the 
minestry Amonght us And the wood to be Lade at his dovvr." 
In April Jacob Winslad was allowed eighteen shillings for " y e 
hier of his hors to Spring-feild to fech m r parsons." In Oc- 
tober a vote was passed by which his year was made to begin 
on the first of April, and his salary was to be paid in half- 
yearly instalments. It is probable that he was ordained during 
the early summer of that year, as in May, 1721, he stated that 
he had "served in the work of the ministry for near 12 years 
past." 

David Parsons, the successor of Michael Wigglesworth, was 
a son of Joseph Parsons of Northampton, where he was born, 
February 1, i679/g . His social 
position or lack of schoh 
placed him at the foot 
class at Harvard College, where he was graduated in 1705. 
His elder brother, Joseph, was among the early candidates for 
the pastorate, after the death of Mr. Wigglesworth, whose set- 
tlements failed. Well would it have been with the church and 
town had the "affair" with the younger brother failed as well. 
Of his talents as a preacher nothing is known. As a man he 
was eccentric and quarrelsome ; and his strong passions were 
such as were neither of advantage to himself nor conducive to 
the peace of the church and community. His labors in Maiden 
do not appear to have been altogether peaceful, although he 
remained here about twelve years. He was not a man to con- 
sider the circumstances of his people nor to share with them 
in their misfortunes, as Mr. Wigglesworth had so readily done; 
but he appears to have been ready to drive a sharp bargain and 
to insist on its fulfilment to the last condition. 

His salary, which had been fixed at sixty pounds, was changed 
in 171 1 by the allowance of eight pounds in money instead of 
twenty cords of wood, and so remained through his pastorate. 
Apparently it was not paid with great punctuality; for in Octo- 
ber, 1718, he receipted upon the town record for payment " Jn 



472 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

full for y e money past for my saruic jn y e ministrey jn maiden 
jn y e year 1717." In 1720 his complaint was met by the town 
as follows : — 

[May 16, 1720] VVhar as m r dauid parsons had latly complained 
Tha 1 his sallarey Js not so Good by A third as jt was when he first set- 
tled heer : Therfore jt was putt to vote whether The Town will alow 
m r parsons one Third more jn prouinc bils And they That are of that 
mind should bring jn ther minds by papars : — And they that Are of 
a contrary mind should bring jn non-con-curranc. 

And The vote past on y e negitiue : 

A second and a third complaint of a like character were of 
no avail, and the town steadily adhered to its refusal to add to 
the salary of its pastor. Mr. Parsons here distinctly showed his 
aggressive and uncompromising character; for while demand- 
ing an increase of salary, which might readily have been granted 
under different circumstances, he was driving the town at the 
County Court for "neglect to fullfill and p'form Their Contract 
& agreement." The town was inclined to do neither until com- 
pelled. At the Court, June 14, 1720, Lieutenant Thomas New- 
hall, Captain John Dexter, John Pratt, and John Green, " all of 
y e Church of Maldon," were admitted in behalf of Mr. Parsons 
to prosecute his complaint against the town, which was repre- 
sented by three of the selectmen, John Wilson, Jonathan Sar- 
geant, and Daniel Floyd. A jury found the town guilty, but 
inclement was deferred until a committee could visit Maiden. 
When the committee reported in July, judgment was entered ; 
and it was ordered " y' the said Select men of Maldon Do pay 
as a fine to y e King y e sum of Ten pounds, unless they Do 
shingle the Barn, and Repaire y e House and fences." At the 
end of August the selectmen reported that they had complied 
with the order of the Court, and the case was dismissed. 

It cannot be supposed that great harmony existed at this 
time, especially when the characters of both parties are consid- 
ered ; nor could there have been any prospect of a settlement 
aside from a dissolution of the ties which bound them together 
as pastor and people. The records of the church for this period 
are not extant; but the town records indicate that a council of 



DAVID PARSONS A AD JOSEPH EMERSON. 473 

neighboring churches was called in the winter or spring of 1721, 
which recommended a separation. An entry in the Leicester 
town records confirms this and shows that the council was held 
prior to March 30 of that year. 12 The departure of Mr. Parsons 
had not at this time been determined, but it was evidently 
thought of as desirable and not at all improbable. Votes passed 
in relation to a provision for the ministry and " y e contribution 
jnto y e box," at a meeting held March 29, were to take effect 
only " when m r parsons doth quity e pulpit" and " when m r par- 
sons leaueth This Town." A little less than seven weeks later, 
the following entry was made : — 

[May 15, 1 72 1.] It was put To vote whether y e Town will Giue 
m r parsons fiue pounds for what he hath disburst upon y e parsonage 
prouided he doth now quitt his pastorall office in this Church and jt 
past on y e afirmatiue : 

noted That Three pounds shall be aded to y e fiue pounds upon The 
abousd conditions — And m r Joseph line doth promis upon his word jn 
The presants of This meting That this Town shall not be: charged with 
y e said Three pounds. 13 

On the same day Mr. Parsons entered the following acquit- 
tance upon the record : — 

These may signifie to all persons concerned that J the subscriber hav- 
ing served in the work of the ministry for near 1 2 years past & the 
Town of Maiden being under obligation to me upon settlement J do 
now upon the towns paying of me acording to agreement in time past 
till the 21 of May current J relinquish all their former obligations to me 
having asked of the Church a dismission from my pastoral relation 
among them (according to the direction of the late council) &: the 
Chh also having granted it 
Maiden, dat y e 15 of May 1721 

David Parsons 

Meanwhile Mr. Parsons had secured a settlement in the new 
town of Leicester, of which he became the first pastor. His 

12 Mr. Parsons was in waiting at Maiden; upon which he produced and 

Richardson's tavern in Leicester while read the judgment of a council of clerks 

that town was considering the question favoring his remove.'' Washburn, His- 

of his settlement. torical Sketches of the Town of Leicester, 

" [March 30, 1721] Mr. Parsons being 77-78. 
called in, it was desired that he would vi Joseph Lynde paid the promised 

show how far his way was clear to leave sum to the town treasurer in December. 



474 



HISTORY OF MAIDEN. 



brother, Joseph, although not a resident, was a large landholder 
in Leicester; and several of his Maiden parishioners had 
removed there and were numbered among its original settlers. 
Among them were Captain Samuel Green, 14 a grandson of 
Joseph Hills, who became the Nestor of the new settlement, 
John Lynde, a son of Captain John Lynde, Thomas Newhall, a 
son of Lieutenant Thomas Newhall, and others who carried the 
family names of Maiden into the woods of that section, where 
they flourished and, having subdued the wilderness, after many 



14 The story of Thomas Green, a son 
of Captain Samuel Green, illustrates 
the old times and shows the difficulties 
which attended a removal, for even so 
short a distance, in those days. A family 
may now go beyond the Rocky Moun- 
tains with more of ease and comfort 
than they experienced who moved from 
Maiden to Leicester in the early half of 
the eighteenth century. 

" His father came to Leicester as 
early as 171 7 and was one of its first 
settlers. While he was preparing to 
remove his family, he visited the town, 
bringing his son with him ; and left him 
there to look after some cattle, which he 
had driven from Maiden, and turned out 
upon his lands in Leicester. It was 
summer ; and, as he expected to return 
in a short time, no clanger was appre- 
hended in leaving the young man — 
then seventeen or eighteen years old — 
thus alone in the wilderness. He, how- 
ever, was soon attacked with a fever; 
and his father was unexpectedly pre- 
vented from returning as he had in- 
tended, and he was left to battle with 
the disease as he best could. His only 
shelter was a kind of rave under a rock, 
near the stream on which his father 
afterwards erected his mills. His only 
sustenance consisted of the milk of one 
of the cows, which he contrived to obtain 
by tying her calf to a tree near his cave; 
which led her to visit the spot several 
times a day, and brought her within his 
reach. The water he used he obtained 
by creeping upon the ground to the 
stream. In this deplorable condition, 
some of his former neighbors who were 
landholders, and about to remove to 



Leicester, and had come there to look 
after their cattle, found him. He ap- 
pealed to them for aid to return home ; 
but they were unable to afford it and 
left him. On their return to Maiden, 
they informed his father of his condi- 
tion ; and he immediately came to his 
relief. But he had no other means of 
removing his sick son through the new 
and (a considerable part of the way) 
wilderness country between Leicester 
and Maiden, except on horseback ; and 
after four days' travelling, he accom- 
plished the journey." Washburn, His- 
torical Sketches of the Town of Leicester, 
112. 

Greene, Descendants of Thomas 
Green[e], 22, says, that a fever sore 
added to his troubles and reduced him 
"to a state of great weakness." He 
"made use of different roots which fell 
in his way as medicine ; " and his cour- 
age "sunk for the first time, when the 
two neighbors of his father's refused to 
take him home with them. He wept at 
their unkindness." 

Thomas Green afterwards practised 
the science of medicine with great suc- 
cess, having acquired its principles from 
two surgeons who had been in service 
among the buccaneers. He added the 
duties of a minister to those of a physi- 
cian, and became the pastor of a Baptist 
society in Leicester, which under his 
care became large and flourishing. His 
son, his grandson, and great-grandson 
were eminent physicians. The latter, 
the late Dr. John Green, gained a wide 
reputation in his profession and was 
the founder of the Free Public Library 
of Worcester. 



DAVID PARSONS AND JOSEPH EMERSON. 475 

years still remain. 10 That town had voted as early as November 
28, 1720, "that Mr. David Parsons be our Gospel Minister." 
Two days later Thomas Newhall and five of his brethren 
addressed a letter to the Maiden pastor, extending him a call, 
" if God in his providence should remove you from your uneasi- 
ness and difficulty." This letter and those which followed show 
to excess " the style, the cant and abject servility that, in those 
days, were felt and used towards a minister." 

We cant but see we are utterly unworthy of so great a Blessing ; but 
if you have such a Blessing to bestow on us, as we hope you will be, 
We desire forever to praise his name for his Goodness to us ward. 

He was offered forty acres of land, sixty pounds as a settle- 
ment and a yearly salary of sixty pounds ; but he " hesitated or 
declined giving a decisive answer." If he was haggling with his 
new admirers, he showed himself to be a good judge of the situ- 
ation ; for they advanced the offer to a settlement of one hun- 
dred pounds and a salary of seventy-five pounds, which the 
town confirmed by a vote, March 30, 1721. He was installed 
September 15 following. 

The people of Leicester were probably more unable than un- 
willing to pay the salary of their pastor promptly; and their 
historian says, " they found they had caught a tartar." They 
began to enjoy, in all its fulness, the " Blessing" which they had 
craved, and the fourteen years of the pastorate of Mr. Parsons 
were a period of bitter strife. The feeling of the inhabitants 
was well indicated in a vote which was passed in January, 1726X, 
— "That the town be willing that Mr. Parsons should remove 
and remain out of this town." In January, 1 728/9, it was voted, 
" That we are willing he should leave the town, but shall not 

15 The removal from Maiden to Lei- text, individuals of the families of Call, 
cester was quite an extensive one for Hasey, Mower, Nichols, Richardson, 
those days, especially for the little com- Sargeant, Sprague, Stowers, Upham, 
inanity from which it took a number of Waite, and Whittemore became inhabi- 
young and enterprising men and women, tants of Leicester. Most of them had 
It continued nearly a quarter of a cen- large families, whose descendants in 
tury, as from time to time a Leicester many cases still occupy the lands of 
man would find a wife among his rela- their fathers. Others, like the Sargeants 
tives and friends in Maiden or a Maiden and Whittemores, became successful 
youth would be attracted by a Leicester manufacturers and carried their enter- 
maiden. ISesides those named in the prises abroad into other states. 



476 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

raise [that is, pay] his salary." They voted him out, but he 
remained. He would not be driven nor coaxed. In short, he 
took the reins into his own hands, and sought to drive the town 
as he would. Lawsuit followed after lawsuit. The people were 
divided; and the scandalous quarrel was maintained for nearly 
eight years, when an ecclesiastical council cut the knot and the 
contentious minister was dismissed. 16 

The deposed pastor carried the desire for strife into his retire- 
ment, commencing two actions against his former parishioners 
in 1737; and the curse which went with him through life might 
almost be said to have followed him to an unhonored grave. 
He died in Leicester in 1743, bearing, even unto death, his 
hatred of those who once prayed for his coming. He directed 
that his body should be buried in the centre of a field upon his 
own land, " unwilling that his ashes should repose by the side 
of those with whom he had broken the consecrated bread." 
The mound beneath which he was laid to rest was long since 
broken by the plough and obliterated ; and the stone which 
alone remained, as his dishonored memorial, was used as the 
cover of a chimney ashpit. Fortunately, it was placed with the 
inscription downward, so that with difficulty it was afterwards 
found to read, with sarcastic grace, as follows: — 

In memory of 

Rev. Mr. David Parsons 

who after many years of 

Hard Labour and Suffering 

was laid here 

Oct. 12. 1743 

aged sixty-three. 17 

1B Cf. Draper, History of Spencer, and Israel, b. December 28, 1715, who may 

Washburn, Historical Sketches of the have been that Israel Parsons of Lei- 

Town of Leicester. From these works, cester who m. Hannah Waite of Maiden, 

which are my authorities in relation to January 9, I75V»- 

the connection of Mr. Parsons with Lei- Widow Sarah Parsons died at Lei- 
cester, I have made liberal quotations. cester, June 17, 1759, aged seventy- 

17 Mr. Parsons m. Sarah Stebbins, and three, 

had the following family in Maiden :— Their eldest son, David, was gradu- 

Sarah, d. June 8, 1709. ated at Harvard College, 1729, and was 

Sarah, b. July 25, 1710. ordained as the first pastor of the church 

David, b. March 24, 171%. at Amherst, November 7, 1739. He 

Israel, b. April 8, 1714 ; d. soon. inclined to Toryism; and his townsmen 



DAVID PARSONS AND JOSEPH EMERSON. 477 

The church and town were not long in filling the place made 
vacant by the departure of Mr. Parsons. They very soon con- 
curred, on the same day, in the choice of one who, like Michael 
Wigglesworth, was to remain with them during a long life. 
Useful and benignant was that life from its beginning to its 
close, and filled with gentle influences. 

At a meting of y e brethren of y e church jn maiden on y e 20: of June 
1 721: jn order To chuse a minister: The vote run thus 
Jf jt be y c minds of y e brethren of y e church: that Ther shal be a min- 
ister chose at This Time jn order To setlement, bring jn your vots for 
The man you would haue. And m r Joseph Emerson was chose by a 
cieer vote to be our minister jn order To setlement. 

And The jnhabitants of y e Town did Giue There concurance jn \ e 
churches choice jn a Town-meting on y e same day They being warn) 
To mete for y' end : 

A settlement of sixty pounds was granted ; and a yearly salary 
of one hundred pounds was voted, with the use of the parsonage 
and ministry lands " so long as m r Emerson continues Jn y e work 
of The ministrey amongst us jn This Town." 

Joseph Emerson, the son of Edward Emerson, 18 was born at 
Chelmsford, April 20, 1700. He was a grandson of the Rev. 
Joseph Emerson, the first f. . ^— v 

settled minister of Men- TjCrfdlfrhs K^trU^T-^J ^/ 
don, and his wife, Eliza- 
beth, a daughter of the Rev. Edward Bulkley, and a grand- 
daughter of the Rev. Peter Bulkley, the second and first min- 

in 1777 voted that the conduct of Mr. con Cornelius Waldo of Ipswich and 

Parsons was offensive. However, they Chelmsford. Me removed from Chelms- 

paid his salary until his death, January 1, ford soon after the birth of his son, 

1781. He was spoken of with respjct Joseph, and was of Charlestown in 1704, 

by those who knew him. His son, the where he was a justice of the peace and 

Rev. David Parsons, D. D., succeeded a merchant. He is supposed to have 

him in the ministry. Cf. Holland, His- left Charlestown about the year 1707; 

tory of Western Massachusetts, ii. 166; and he is next found at Newbury, where 

Boltwood, History of Hadley, 415 ; Amer- he was a deacon of the Fourth Church. 

icon Quarterly Register, x. 265 ; and Pate in life he appears to have removed 

Dickennan and others in Anniversary to Maiden, where he died " very sud- 

of First Church in Amherst. denly," May 9, 1743- His widow died 

18 Edward Emerson was a grandson April 23, 1752, at the age of ninety 

of Thomas Emerson, the baker of Ips- years; and both lie buried in the field 

wich ; was born about 1670, and married at Sandy Bank. 
Rebecca Waldo, a daughter of Dea- The good qualities and abilities of 



47 8 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

isters of Concord. His record presents few or no points to 
interest the careless reader ; but they who love to hear of the 
simple, earnest, and faithful lives of the clergy of the provincial 
period will find much that will refresh them therein. He appears 
to have been nurtured in the midst of the strictest Puritanism 
and to have taken it in at every mental pore, until his whole life 
was tempered by it. Said his son, speaking after his father's 
death : — 

It pleased the sovereign spirit of God early, very early, to sow the 
seeds of grace in his heart. By a blessing upon the endeavours of his 
pious parents, he might be said to fear the Lord from his childhood, 
and to be acquainted with the holy scriptures from his youth. If I do 
not misremember, he was able to pray in the family, in the absence of 
my grandfather, before he was eight years of age, to the edification and 
astonishment of those who attended on the exercises of the family. As 
he grew in years and stature, he grew in favor with God and man. He 
was admitted into college when he had but little more than finished his 
thirteenth year, out of which he came with an unspotted character. He 
early devoted himself to the gospel-ministry, and directed his studies 
this way ; and began to preach before he was eighteen, to general accept- 
ance. It was not long before he had a unanimous call to settle at 
Wenham, which call he tho't it his duty to negative ; and took up with 
the invitation of the people in this town, to give himself to the service 
of their souls, and was solemnly set apart to this work Oct. 31"'. 1721, 
in great love, peace, and unanimity, while he was yet not twenty-two 
rears of age. 19 

He was graduated at Harvard College in 1 71 7, standing the 
ninth in a class of seventeen, and spent the four years pre- 

the Emersons came as well from the tion was published with the following 

maternal Bulkleys as from the paternal title-page : — 

Emersons. The patience of Edward " An | Extract | from a late | Sermon 

Emerson is remembered in a family | on the Death of the Reverend | Mr. 

tradition ; and, by inference, he pos- Joseph Emerson, | Pastor of the First 

sessed the virtue of self-control. A Church in Maiden, | Who Died very 

story of the one time when he failed is suddenly, | On Monday Evening July 

given in Holmes, Ralph Waldo Enter- 13th, 1767. | In the 68th Year of his 

son, 8. Age. | Delivered at Maiden, | By Joseph 

19 I quote here and in other places Emerson, A.M. | Pastor of the Church 

from the sermon preached by the Rev. at Pepperrell. | Zech. i 5. Your Fathers 

Joseph Emerson of Pepperell, at Mai- where are they? [etc.] Boston: 

den, after the death of his father, which Printed by Edes & Gill, for Bulke- 

is my sole authority for the character ley Emerson, | Of Newbury-Port, | 

and early life of Mr. Emerson. A por- MDCCLXVII." 



DAVID PARSONS AND JOSEPH EMERSON. 479 

ceding his ordination in preaching and teaching at various 
places. 20 Unlike his predecessor, Michael Wigglesvvorth, he was 
blessed with a body which was unusually free from infirmities, 
so that, during a pastorate of nearly forty-six years, he was 
absent from the pulpit but two Sabbaths. He would have been 
grieved at some modern innovations in relation to Sunday ser- 
vices, or would have mourned over the decadence of the clergy, 
who grow faint at the expenditure of one sermon a week. He 
was a diligent student. " Never was [he] more in his element 
than when in his study ; and [he] gave himself incessantly to read- 
ing and meditation. He studied to suit his discourses to the 
particular circumstances of his people; " and he "was much in 
the study of the sacred oracles, was uncommonly diligent in his 
preparations for the public ; did not bring you that which cost 
him nothing." 21 He was a follower of Calvin, to whose teach- 



21 McClure, Bi-Centennial Book of 
Maiden, 161, says : " He graduated in 
17 1 7, and preached for the first time at a 
private meeting in Haverhill. The next 
year he spent in teaching a school in 
York, Me., occasionally preaching. 
The next year he kept a school at 
Newbury, and spent the winter after in 
preaching at Kingston. In July, 17 19, 
he desisted from teaching, and went to 
reside with his uncle Waldo, at Boston. 
Here he continued, preaching in differ- 
ent places till March, 1721, when he was 
invited to Maiden." 

The authority of Dr. McClure in 
these statements appears to have been 
the diary of Mr. Emerson, from which 
he quotes in several places. The diary 
of one like Mr. Emerson, who for nearly 
a half-century observed and took part in 
the affairs of the town, promised to be 
a rich mine of material for the local 
historian. It appears to have been 
placed in the hands of the compilers of 
the Bi-Centennial Book by the late 
Ralph Waldo Emerson, in 1S49, and 
has since disappeared. Earnest in- 
quiries and a careful search, by the 
family of Mr. Emerson in Concord, 
and inquiries elsewhere have failed to 
bring it from its hiding place, if it be 
still in existence. It is feared that it 



was destroyed in the partial burning of 
Mr. Emerson's house in 1S72. 

21 Mr. Emerson's sermons were care- 
fully written out. An amusing story is 
told of his father-in-law, the eccentric 
Samuel Moody. 

" When he [Mr. Emerson] took his 
wife to see her father, he usually spent 
the Sabbath, and preached for him. He 
wrote his sermons out accurately, pretty 
much in full, before delivering them. 
Numbers of Mr. Moody's hearers were 
very much taken up with Mr. Emerson's 
sermons, and ever ready to say, ' Oh ! 
what instructive sermons ! — we can 
learn something from them.' Father 
Moody found it out, and thought with 
himself, ' If I should sometimes write a 
sermon in full, it may be that I shall do 
good to these people, that I cannot 
benefit in my rambling way of preach- 
ing;' for he wrote but little, and often 
nothing, for his pulpit preparations. 
So, for a variety, he wrote a sermon out 
in full, and began his meeting on the 
Sabbath, calculating to read it to his 
people. He proceeded on a while, and 
then stopped and looked around upon 
his hearers, and said, ' Emerson must 
be Emerson, and Moody must be 
Moody. I feel as if my head was in 
a bag. You call Moody a rambling 



480 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

ings he was strongly attached ; and he strove to " fetch all his 
doctrines from the Word of God." On the testimony of his 
son, 

He was a Boanerges, a son of thunder, to the workers of iniquity ; a 
Barnabas, a son of consolation, to the mourners in Zion. He bore his 
testimony against the prevailing sins of the times and place, left no sin 
unreproved in public : those who did sin were rebuked before all, nor 
did he fear the face of any man. 

In church government he was tender, unswerving, and impar- 
tial, dealing justly and with mercy in his office. A large portion 
of his pastorate was occupied by the dissensions which were 
introduced and continued by those who departed to a new 
church and parish; but his conduct was such as that " he was 
not reproached by any as being the cause." Aside from his 
pulpit ministrations, he was the pattern of a New England 
pastor, seeking out the erring or the troubled souls of his 
charge, going from house to house bearing the gospel and 
administering " reproofs, counsels, and warnings." 

Integrity and uprightness distinguished his private character. 
" He had," says his son, " a remarkable tenderness of conscience 
with respect to truth and righteousness between man and man ; 
and in some instances it seemed to border upon scrupulosity. 
He was very affable, pleasant and courteous in his whole be- 
havior, to all with whom he conversed. Where he had received 
injuries, he heartily forgave; nor would he suffer the least 
shadow of revenge." 22 He was known as a friendly and bene- 

preacher, and it is true enough ; but he opportunity to have a full & free Dis- 

is just fit to catch up rambling sinners, course ; we had it, but with too much 

You are all run away from the Lord.' heat & passion, y e Lord forgive my 

And on he went in his old way, resolved Rashness, & I beg that God would for- 

not to be trammeled at that rate. It give my Antagonist. Oh Let y' falling 

was like the coat of mail to David; he out, be but y e Renewing of Love & 

had not proved it." Moody, Biographi- y e perpetual Establishment of sincere 

cal Sketches of the Moody Family,?*). friendship. I would be humble before 

•-"- Samuel Dexter, afterwards the God & I pray y< God would make me 

revered pastor of Dedham, records in so, for any thing y< I have done or said 

his diary a "falling out" with Mr. Amiss & Unbecoming. 
Emerson. "6. I wrote to M r Emerson & he 

"[March 5, 17223.] I went to visit wrote to me, & we made up all past 

M r Emerson & upon something of Un- diffkultys." N. E. Hist, and Geneal. 

easiness y' had before happened I took Register, xiv. 35. 



DAVID PARSONS AND JOSEPH EMERSON. 48 1 

volent neighbor, fruitful in charity and alms-giving. To meet 
the demands of charity and religion he devoted a tenth part of 
his income ; and he " was very exact in keeping the account ; wise 
and prudent in the distribution of it." He was a man of prayer, 
setting apart "whole days for prayer with fasting; " and never 
entering upon affairs of importance without seeking the blessing 
and imploring the guidance of God. " But," adds his son, "was 
he without failings? No. He had them, he felt them, he la- 
mented them, he got a marvellous victory over them : was ready 
to confess his faults, and when unguarded words drop'd from 
him, would ask forgiveness, even of his children and servants." 
In the eyes of this writer, so often quoted, he bore " the charac- 
ter of the gospel bishop in Paul's epistles to Timothy and 
Titus, very evidently copied after it, and few came nearer the 
original." 

Mr. Emerson was married, December 27, 1721, to Mary 
Moody, whose father, the Rev. Samuel Moody of York, was 
equally celebrated for his eccentricities and his abilities as a 
clergyman. Before the marriage, a wedding sermon from the 
text, " In the day of prosperity be joyful," was preached by a 
relative. The other half of the verse was used on a less joyous 
occasion. The young couple occupied the " ministry house," 
which had been the home of Wigglesworth, and gathered around 
them the little substance which they possessed. It had been 
put in " Good Repaire " by the workmanship of Joshua Blanch- 
ard the housewright and Jabez Sargeant the joiner, at the charge 
of the town. The following quaint receipt is entered upon the 
town record : — 

These may jnform whom Jt may consarn That y e parsonage hous 
which J doe now dwell jn : jn maiden : And also y e fences That are 
aboute the parsonag land : Are sett jn Good Repaire Acording as This 
Town did promis me : when J did setle here jn y e work of y e ministrey 
— And J doe Resaiue Them so : As wittnes my hand This : 8 of march 
i7 22 -3 Joseph Emerson. 

Here misfortune found them on the night of July 31, 1724, 

when the house was burned with the greater part of the library 

and furniture. 23 Mr. Emerson wrote in his diary: — 

23 Mass. Hist. Coll., xi. 82. 
3i 



482 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

August 1. Last night, about 10 or 11 o'clock, our house and a great 
part of our substance was consumed by fire. The Lord help us suitably 
to lay to heart this awful providence ! The Lord affect our hearts with 
his great goodness in sparing our lives ! We have been as brands 
plucked out of the burning. 24 

On Sunday, August 2, the Rev. Joseph Sewall preached in the 
Maiden meeting house, and the verse which had furnished the 
wedding text furnished another for this occasion: " In the day 
of adversity consider." A week later Mr. Emerson wrote: — 

August 9. I preached all day from the latter end of the first chapter 
of Job. There was a public contribution of the town for us. Many 
were very kind and bountiful to us. The Lord reward them ! It is 
God that both enables and disposes our benefactors to minister to our 
necessity. 25 

The town moved with more earnestness and celerity than 
usual; and at a meeting held August 7 it was voted " That a 
new hous shall be beult for y e use of y e ministry jn this Town." 
Five days later it was voted that " the said hous shall be beult 
38 foots in Length : — and 19 foot wide — and 16 foot stud : and 
a Leanto on The back side of 12 foot wide." The sum of two 
hundred pounds was raised ; and John Wilson, John Tufts, 
Lieutenant Samuel Green, James Barrett, and Benjamin Hills 
" was chose by a vote : To be of y e comitie for To manig The 
afaire of beulding of y e parsonag hous for y e use of y e ministrey." 
Lieutenant Samuel Green was chosen treasurer of the fund. 

As has already been stated, the new house was placed eight 
or ten rods north of the site of the old house. The old cellar, 
in a mound or knoll overrun with wild grape vines and bushes, 
marked the early home of the Maiden pastors for many years,, 
and was finally removed by George W. Wilson, the later owner 
of the parsonage estate. 

There appears to have been a considerable interest felt in the 
new building, which may indicate the hold which Mr. Emerson 
was taking upon the hearts of his people. In September John 
Lynde, Joseph Lynde, and Samuel Newhall, " all farmars," 
bound themselves in the sum of fifty pounds to " find The stuff 

24 Bi-Ccntennial Book of Maiden, 191. 2& Ibid. 



DAVID PARSONS AND JOSEPH EMERSON. 483 

and suficently finish the Chaimbars both out side and jnside 
That are ouer The lento That Joineth To y e parsonag hous At 
our one cost and charg." 26 The frame was purchased of John 
Paine for thirty pounds. The mason work was performed by 
Benjamin Sweetser of Mystic Side, whose bill, amounting to 
seventeen pounds and six shillings, is still preserved. Among 
the items are found the following: — 

To making three mantell Trees and geting Chimny 

Stickes o. 1. 8 

To Laying a harth in y e bed rome o. 1. 6 

To plastering in y e Litell rome o. 5. 8 

5 hund Brick o. 10. 6 

10 Bushell of Lime o. 15. o 

To Bulding a Stack of Chimnyes 6. o. o 27 

The entire cost was three hundred and thirty-five pounds, 
eleven shillings, and fivepence. 28 There is extant a fragment 
of a report made by the committee. The charge of five pounds 
for " Raisen of the house" is suggestive. Lemons, sugar, and 
rum may have crept in to swell the cost under that item. 

Maiden June y e 15 th 1725 

To Y e Towne of maiden. & our charlstown naibours y' are anexed 
to us Gentelmen, these are to giue you sum acompt of y e two hundred 
pounds y' was granted towards y e bulding of y e ministry hous in maiden 
& how it is disposed of. 

Item to y e frame 30-00-00 

Item for Cler Bords 24-00-00 

Item for pich pine Bords 1 2 - 00 - 00 

Item to nails 16-02-00 

Item to y e carppenders 40-00-00 

Item to Brick 18-18-00 

Item to Lime 06-10-06 

Item to bulding of y e chimneys 06-00-00 

Item to glass 25—01-00 

Item to Clabords & Shingels 20-00-00 

Charge of Raisen of the house 05-00 — 00 

Transporten of bords and shingals and clabords 

and laths 07-11-06 

26 Original MS., in Green Family 2 " Ibid. 

Papers, - 8 Town Records, February 16, 172%. 



484 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

for Labor 17-15-4 

for Timber 04 - 1 1 - 6 

for paint & oyl 00 - 9 - 6 29 

The house was finished by January 5, 1724^, when Mr. 
Emerson, the town having recently added fifty pounds to his 
salary, moved into it with his young family. Here he continued 
to reside, and here he died. Here lived Mr. Thacher, and here 
was born the noble and celebrated Adoniram Judson, during the 
occupancy of his father. Here lived the succeeding pastors of 
the First Church and Parish, except the Rev. Eliakim Willis, 
who remained in the house which was deeded to him by the 
South Precinct, until the removal of the Rev. Sylvanus Cobb 
in 1837, when the parsonage and its lands were left by the parish 
to the disposal of its trustees, and a tenant took possession of 
the old home of the ministers. 

The property had come, in course of time and by the gradual 
separation of church and state, to be held by the First Parish. 
Outlays upon the buildings and fences equalled, if they did not 
exceed, any income which was realized, and its distance from 
the meeting house rendered it unfit for the purposes of a par- 
sonage. It was voted by the parish, January 13, 1845, " to 
petition to the Legislature for the right to sell the parsonage 
Farm belonging to [the] First Parish; " and Benjamin G. Hill, 
Uriah Chamberlain, and George Winslow were chosen to carry 
the vote into effect. The petition was granted ; and the farm, 
lying in two portions upon the east and west sides of the road, 
and including the site of the meeting house of Michael Wiggles- 
worth, was sold for fifty-five hundred dollars to the late George 
W. Wilson, whose family still occupies the house. 30 

29 Original MS. in Green Family The property conveyed comprised 

Papers. The following, which is pre- eighteen and three-quarters acres and 

served with it, may serve as an example twenty-nine poles. The parcel on the 

of an ancient dun : — east side of the road was bounded, N., 

"may 17 = 1727 Lau 1 Samauall green Edward Newhall ; e., Peter Tufts ; s., 

Sr be plesed not to forgeet what is Due Peter Tufts's Lane. This included the 

to me for frating of Shingals for the house. The other parcel, containing 

pasonag house which is on pound five about two and one-half acres, included 

Shilin^s — 01*- 05 - o the site of the meeting house, and was 

Thomas pratt " bounded, s.w. and N., Ezra Green; E., 

80 Midd. Co. Deeds, cccclxiii. 427. by the road. 



DAVID PARSONS AND JOSEPH EMERSON. 485 

The old house has been considerably changed from its orig- 
inal condition by additions and improvements, and shows few 
of the abasing marks of time, which are often brought by many 
years. It has fortunately fallen into the hands of those who 
value it above any modern structure which can be built. Its 
associations and the robe of age, which it wears with dignity, 
add charms to its possession, and it seems likely to remain for 
many years. 



CHAPTER XV. 

CHARLESTOWN NEIGHBORS AND TROUBLE. 

IT has been seen how the inhabitants at Mystic Side, or that 
part of the old town which remained east of the river after 
the separation of Maiden, held a double relation — an ecclesias- 
tical one with the new town, and a political one with Charles- 
town. Under the influence of the first, their social intercourse, 
and perhaps their daily business, such as it was, identified them 
more closely with the former than with the latter town. They 
received their proportion at the annual town meetings in the 
distribution of the minor offices of highway surveyors, fence 
viewers, constables, and tithingmen, and little else. Perhaps 
they neither desired nor needed more. So it came about that 
the information which the Charlestown records contain in rela- 
tion to them is extremely slight and disconnected. It shows 
a scanty and scattered population, who like their neighbors and 
brethren of Maiden, were working out in a humble way the 
great problem of human life. If they had little, it was their 
own; and the years passed over them leaving the second gen- 
eration as humble, quite as ignorant, and no richer than their 
fathers. 

One of the earliest entries in the Charlestown records relating 
to Mystic Side, after the division, is in connection with a piece 
of common land. 

28. i2 m0 . 1653. Tho: Pearce & W m Baker are apoint d & desired to 
veiw y e ground on Mistick side affore Goo: Barretts 1 doore, as y e peice 
of Comon & the Highway thereabouts, & any oth r ground thereabouts, 
they are to sett the bounds of the Highwaies, & each peice of Ground 
on every side & end & to bring report thereof to the Townsmen the 

1 Goodman Barrett, — James Barrett, ent corner of School and Main Streets, 
— whose house, standing near the pres- in Everett, is elsewhere noticed. 



CHARLESTOWN NEIGHBORS AND TROUBLE. 487 

next 7: day come seven night, & they are to desire Edvv^ Carrington 
to helpe them in what hee can Informe them, & they are to vie[\v] 
ground of the town at the upp r end of his Hay Lotts & to bring 
report. 2 

The first month & 31 : day 1654. 
Wee whose names are heereund r written, have ac- 
rd rd -*th e %8 ' cor d: to y e desire of yf 'Select Townsmen this yeare 
of the XII month nave veiwed some Comon ground on Mistickeside, 
last .... make & what wee have found & seene lyeth thus as fol- 
report of what loweth : one peice of Comon lyeth by James Barretts 
ofdandthev ground on the East, & on the West the Highway, on 

found at m the North Bro: Carringtons, on the South the High- 

mistick?* mare way to Winnisemitt, also A little peice of Comon at 
James Barretts t j ie U pp er enc \ f ^ ro: Hutchinson, ground, hee on the 
West yf Highway on the North & East, And A Try- 
angle point in y e . south ; also anoth r peice, of Comon lying thus to o r 
best memory at 0' first laying out, of the Meadows, on the South end 
M r Cullick, on the west Tho: Ewar, on y e North Geo: Hutchinson, on 
the East side y? Highway, some oth r Comon against James Barretts 
house wee saw there, it was but little, & A Highway was to goe through 
it, wee lett it alone 

Tho: Pearce, W m Baker. 3 

Although the lands west of the North River, comprising the 
farms of the Rev. John Wilson and Increase Nowell and the 
long range of common extending to Woburn and Reading, 
were left to Charlestown, the care or authority of that town over 
matters there seems for a long time to have been of little 
moment. It was principally exercised at Wilson's Point in 
quieting the disputes of the Blanchards and John Guppy, who 
had divided the Wilson farm which Thomas Blanchard pur- 
chased in 1650/1. 4 In 1661 the selectmen were called to settle 
the fences at the farm in the possession of George and Samuel 
Blanchard, and John Guppy, and again the next year. In 1664 
the three persons named, " all dwelling at p r sent on that farme 
sometime called m r Willsons farme . . . submit themselues as 
other inhabitants of the Towne vnto the towne orders &c." On 

2 Charlestown Records, ii. in loco. the north by Nowell's Creek, which now 

3 Ibid. separates Maiden from Medford at 

4 John Guppy had acquired the one- Edgeworth. The house was afterwards 
quarter right of Nathaniel Blanchard to in the possession of Thomas Shepard. 
the Wilson land, which was bounded on Guppy became a pauper. 



488 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

the same day, the selectmen " ordered the farm at Wilsons " 
and the highway near the house of George Blanchard. In 
1665 the quarrellous farmers again required the interposition 
of the townsmen, and the fences were again settled between the 
Blanchards and Guppy. Nor was the matter concluded by 
a readjustment made the next year; for it frequently came 
before the selectmen, until 1694, when a committee was ap- 
pointed to lay out a highway, or locate an old one, at Blanchard's 
farm, " from Tho s Shepherd 5 house (Alias nath 1 Blanchard) to 
the Covntry road." 5 

The constant disputes at Wilson's Point must have kept the 
selectmen of Charlestown busy, and the parties there seem to 
have had a taste for litigation, if we may judge by the frequent 
appearance of legal cases, as of Blanchard vs. Guppy, and 
others. There was a slight change in the proceedings in 1672, 
when the selectmen issued an order in relation to George 
Blancher, " in not providing for his family as also his neglect 
of Educating his children in the knowledge & feare of God." 6 

After the many settlements of their fences, and the laying 
out of the road there, the dwellers at Wilson's Point became 
as peaceable as their neighbors on the other side of the North 
River. 

In 1664 the selectmen made a division of some common 
land to the Mystic Side proprietors. The list which follows 
may be imperfect, as the names of two or three at least, who 
must have been landholders at that time, do not appear. 7 

5 Charlestown Records, iv. in loco " [j, October.] I' 1 ans r to the petition 
[June 25, 1694]. of the inhabitants of Misticke, the 

6 Ibid., iii. in loco [April 24, 1672]. Court, having heard what the inhabitants 

7 Perhaps they had already received of Charles Toune & Misticke could say, 
their portions. Early in 1658 Charles- doe determine that the inhabitants of 
town had made a division of the exten- Misticke shall haue halfe proportions 
sive commons which remained to that w th the rest of the inhabitants of Charls 
town in the territory now covered by Toune in the commons lately divided at 
Stoneham and the north-eastern portion Charls Toune, Misticke Riuer, except 
of Medford. In this division the inhabi- Charlstoune leaue the inhabitants of 
tants of Mystic Side, with the exception Misticke and theire lands to Mauklen, 
of EdwardCarringtonand the Blanchards, and Maulden accept them to such 
appear to have had no part. This was the libertjes of commonage w th them as 
occasion of the following order, and the other theire inhabitants haue " Mass. 
later division mentioned in the text was, Colony Records, iv. (1), 349. 

I think, in settlement of the grievance. 



CHARLESTOWN NEIGHBORS AND TROUBLE. 



489 



[November 5, 1664.] The Selectmen meeting with ou 
of Charlstown Dwelling on Mistick side mutually Agreed 
for them in thier severall lotts to be Devided as follows : 



N° 1 John Greenland heads & Estate vail 1 

2 William Bucknam head & Estate vail 1 

3 James Barrett heads & Estate vall a 

4 Edward Barlow heads & Estate vall a 

5 Walter Adams heads & Estate vall a 

6 Coock or Wheler 8 heads & Estate vall a 

7 Richard Dexter heads & Estate vall a 

8 George ffelch heads & Estate vall a 

9 Thomas Witemore head & Estate vall a 

10 George Knower heads & Estate vall a 

11 Phillip Attwood 9 heads & Estate vall a 



180 1 

009 1 

162 1 

60 1 

40 1 

46' 

200 1 

200 1 

200 1 

12 1 

80 1 



r Jnhabitants 
and ordered 

Akers comra. 
2 2 -04 

o|-oo 
20 -03^ 
07 -01 
04 -01 

05 -01 
24 -04 

24 —04 

24 -04 

01 -00 

09 -OI/4 



A little more than thirteen years later, a list of "ye severall 
famulies," which the* appointed tithingmen were to take in 
charge, gives an opportunity to ascertain the actual number of 
families seated at Mystic Side. Eighteen heads of families 
are named, and a few transient dwellers are implied, although 
not named. 



Stephen Paine 
and to minde 
any p r sons omitted 
in these p r emeses. 



Peter Tufts : Sen? 



8 Frances, widow of Isaac Wheeler 
of Charlestown, married Richard Cooke 
of Maiden, about 1655. 



Goodm Stowers 
Widdo Barrett 
Nich: Hookee 
Richd Dexter 
Thom s Wheler 
Ja Mellens house 
Widdo: Lee 
Edw d Barlow 
Widdow Bray 

George Blancher 
Sam" Blancher 
Thorn 5 Shepard 
Goodm Marrable 
Dan" Whittamoar 
Walter Addams 
Thom s Michell cV w' 
other p r sons dice/I in 
their p' ernes 's. 10 

9 Charlestown Records, iii. in loco. 

10 Ibid. [April 9, 1678]. 



490 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

An account of the highways at Mystic Side has been given; 
and it has been seen that several parcels of common land re- 
mained for a number of years. They finally disappeared as 
commons or were granted to various persons, one by one. Of 
these tracts was that known as the Bull Lots, on the westerly 
side of Main Street near the present crossing of the Eastern 
Railroad in Everett. In March, i679/s , a committee, assisted 
by Philip Atwood and Stephen Paine, bounded these lots as 
follows : — 

on y e West End Vpon Rand 5 Creeke on y e East end by afore sd Pain s 
ffence. he allowing a Sufficient Cart high way, of two pole wide, through 
his pasture. & so a long y e South side of his Orchard, and so a Long y e 
Road. y c ledeth to peny fferry. 11 

This land was rented to Philip Atwood that year ; and in 
1689 it was granted to Philip Atwood, Jr., for seven years from 
July 3, 1688, at a yearly rental of sixteen shillings to be paid in 
provisions, " as it Can then be bovght for ready money or other 
wise in Cvrran 1 money." These lots were granted or sold and 
passed out of the possession of the town. As Philip Atwood, 
Jr., owned land bounded on the west by Rand's Creek, which 
he conveyed in 169^9, n ^ s leasehold may have been changed to 
real ownership. 

Another small piece of common land lay on the southerly 
side of the country road at the South Spring, a portion of which, 
containing about twenty-six rods, was sold to Joseph Lamson in 
1682, 12 and finally became the property of Samuel Stowers, who 

11 Charlcstown Records, iv. in loco which bounded his property. At that 
[March i, iG^/so] The cartway through time the firm land on the bank of the 
Stephen Paine's pasture may well have Mystic River, where the works of the 
been a portion of the present Main Cochrane Chemical Company now 
Street, north of School Street, in stand, was woodland. There are other 
Everett. Rand's Creek still flows, a islands in the marsh similar to Sandy 
tiny stream, from the vicinity of the rail- Island, one of which, probably that on 
road crossing westward to the North the bank of the Mystic below the mouth 
River. Sandy Island, which it passes of the North River, was known as 
on the northerly side just before it George Hepburne's Island in 169S. 
reaches North River, and which in 1898 Ferry Island, still distinguishable, fur- 
is a small piece of upland covered with nished a convenient landing place for 
bushes and low trees and surrounded by Penny Ferry; and Call's Island was 
the salt marsh, was in 1638 a part of the farther east upon the marsh, 
possessions of Robert Rand, whose 12 Ibid. [April 26, 16S2]. 
name is perpetuated by the little creek 



CHARLESTOWN NEIGHBORS AND TROUBLE. 49 1 

lived on the spot, if not in the house, afterwards owned and 
occupied by Captain Daniel Waters at the westerly corner of 
the present Chelsea and Ferry Streets. The remainder of the 
common land at that place, except that around the spring, was 
leased in two lots, in 171 3, to John Brintnall and Samuel Stowers 
for twenty years. 

This Indenture the twenty eight day of may, Anno Domini 17 13 
and in the Twelfth year of her maj ties reigne, Between Jn° Brintnall of 
Charlestown, in the County of Midd* in New England, Tanner of the 
one part : and Nathaniel Dows, Treasur r of the said Town in the name 
and by order of the selectmen of the said Town on the other part, Wit- 
neseth : That Whereas their is a Small slip of Land belonging to the 
said Town partly inclosed in and with the lands of the said Brintnall, at 
or near to a place called South Spring at Mistick side, extending forty 
foot in the front at the high-way and so running Down towards the 
marsh ten poles & a half to a stake and so to a point ; the line between 
the said Brintnall's Land and the said slip of Towns land to run parrelell 
and strait with the said Brintnals land or house lott over the way : and 
the said slip of land being Convenient for the said John Brintnall. Now 
therfore for and in consideration of the yearly rent and acknowledge- 
ment of two Shillings yearly and each year to be paid by the said Brint- 
nall, his heires, &c, unto Nathaniel Dows, Town treas r , or his successors 
in his said office, for the use of the said Towne, The said Nathaniel 
Dows, treas r as aforesaid, and by order of the select men of said Town 
as aforesaid, Doth by these presence lett and Grant to the said John 
Brintnall, his heires, &c, the said slip of Land : and also the Libberty 
or privilidge of the vvatter wch shall run through the said slip of Towns- 
land from south Spring : for and During the Term of Twenty yeares 
from hence next ensuing to be Compleat and Ended. And I, the said 
Jn° Brintnall, Do by these presents for myself, my heires, execut rs , and 
Adm rs , promise and engage to pay the said yearly rent and Acknowledge- 
ments of Two shillings to the said Nathaniel Dows, Treas er or his suc- 
cessors in said office for the use of the Town yearly and each year 
during the said Term, and at the end of the said Term to yield up and 
surrend r the said slip of Land to the possession of the said town. In 
witness wherof the said Jn° Brintnall and Nath. Dows, Treas r have 
herunto Interchangeably sett our hands and seales the day and year 
above written. 

Signed, Sealed, & Deliv d in p s ence 

of us John Brintnall, 

Edw d Larkin, & seal. 

Eleaz r Dows. 



492 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

This Indenture made the Twenty eight day of May, Anno Dom: 
1 713, and in the twelfth year of her maj ties reigne, between Samuel 
Stower of Charlestovvn, in the County of Midd sx in Newengland, yeoman 
on the one part, and Nathaniel Dows, Treas r of the s d Town on the 
other part, Witneseth That Wheras there is a small piece or corner of 
land : belonging to the said Town Enclosed in and with the land of the 
said Stowers at or near a place Called South Spring at mistick side Ex- 
tending Sixty and three foot in the front at the highway : and running 
Down aboute ten poles and a half on a line to Brintnals and Mellowes 
lowermost stake : and there to run across the meadow in Spring gutter 
twenty four foot to an other stake against the said Stowers land : and 
thence up to a stake by the said Stowers upland and Orchard : and so 
up to a stake in Spring Gutter at the ffront in the fence Lying between 
a slip of the Towns land Lett to M r Jn° Brintnall and the said Stower's 
own land : and the said small corner of the Towns land lying and being 
Convenient for the said Stowers : Now therefore, for and in Considera- 
tion of the yearly rent and Acknowledgement of three shillings and six 
pence yearly and each year to be paid by the said Stowers, his heires, 
&c, unto Nathaniel Dows, Treas er , or his successors in this said office, 
for the use of the said Town : The said Nathaniel Dows, Treas r as afore- 
said and by order of the selectmen of said Town as aforesaid, Doth by 
these presents grant and Lett to the said Samuel Stowers, his heires, 
&c, the said Corner or piece of Land for and During the term of 
twenty yeares from hence next Ensuing to be Compleated and Ended, 
and the said Stowers shall not stop the passage of the Watter in the said 
land Coming out of South Spring : nor alter or turn it out of the Nat- 
turall course : And I, the said Samuel Stowers, do by these presents, 
for myself, my heires, execut rs , & Adm rs , promise and engage to pay 
said yearly rent and Acknowledgements of three shillings & six pence 
to the said Nathaniel Dows, Treas r , or his successors in said office for 
the use of the Town yearly : and each year during the said term : and at 
the end of the said to yeild and surrender the peice and Corner of land 
to the possession of the said Town. In Witnes wherof we, the said 
Samuel Stowers and Nath" Dows, treasurer, have herunto Interchangably 
sett their hands and seals the day and year above written. 

Signed, Sealed, & Deliver' 1 in the 

presence of us Samuel Stowers 

Joseph Lampson, & seal. 13 

Joseph Whittemore. 

The triangular piece which was leased to Brintnall could still 
be seen in 1893. It was long known as Blaner's tan-yard, and 

18 Charlestown Archives, xxxiv. 225, 226. 



CHARLESTOWN NEIGHBORS AND TROUBLE. 493 

later as Joanna Oliver's close. Brintnall was a tanner and used 
the premises in his business, as did Benjamin Blaney, who pur- 
chased both lots of the town of Charlestown in \y2}i. u 

"White Island and the sedge bank by it," — that island in 
the Mystic which is now crossed by the Eastern Railroad, was 
leased to John Sprague in 1697 f° r seven years, at the rate 
of twelve shillings yearly; 15 and about the same time, Ferry 
Island, or that piece of firm land, surrounded by salt marsh, on 
which the landing-way and other appurtenances of Penny Ferry 
were situated was granted to Benjamin Sweetser, Jr., for four 
years, at an annual rental of six shillings. 16 This land, import- 
ant from its position in regard to the ferry, remained to Charles- 
town after the annexation of Mystic Side to Maiden, and is now 
the narrow strip by which Boston has a foothold upon the 
eastern bank of the Mystic. 

It does not appear that Charlestown exercised any great care 
over its dependents across the river, beyond the ordering of 
roads and fences and common lands, or that much of the com- 
mon fund was expended for their benefit. Their religious needs 
were supplied by the Maiden church, of which they were a 
component part; but no provision appears to have been made 
for the education of their children. If any were made, it must 
have been slight indeed to have left no indication of its exist- 
ence. 17 At length, in 172 1, it is recorded that " M r John Tufts 
made Request of £4 Raised for y e School mistick side Left 
to Consid 1 ";" and, after consideration, perhaps, "John Tufts, 
Samuel Sweetser & Stower Sprague for Mistick Side" were 
appointed to agree with a schoolmaster. 18 They agreed with 
Nathan Bucknam, a son of Joses Bucknam, who had just been 
graduated at Harvard College, and who taught not only at 
Mystic Side, but also in Maiden under the change which was 
about to take place. 

14 Midd. Co. Deeds, xxix. 250. Vide was voted for a school on Mystic side, 
chap. xi. note 25. and eight pounds for one in the precinct 

15 Charlestown Records, vi. in loco [Stoneham] near Reading." Frothing- 
[July 6, 1697], ham, History of Charlcstcrwu, 249. 

16 Ibid. [April 6, 1697]. 18 Charlestown Records, vii. in loco 

17 U \M\^\ The sum of three pounds Quly 3, 1721]. 



494 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

The allowance by Charlestown of a school at Mystic Side, 
and money for its support appears to have been made under 
the pressure of an attempt which the inhabitants of the north 
side, weary of their long continued deprivations, were making 
for the transfer of their persons and estates to the town of 
Maiden. This movement commenced as early as June 2, 1720, 
when at a town meeting in Maiden, 

Jt was putt To vote to se wher This Town will Joine with our 
Charlestown naightbours jn petitioning To y e Generall court for Ther 
coming of from Charlestown to be one Town-ship with maiden acording 
To y e warrant: And y e vote past on the affirmitiue : And That js all 
y l dwell on y e north side of mistick Riuer up To maiden line : and 
from boston line To medford line. 

In consequence of the opposition of Charlestown, and perhaps 
for some other considerations, the application was not imme- 
diately successful; but at the session in September, 1723, the 
petitioners were granted their request in part, and were set off 
to Maiden for specific purposes. In all other respects they still 
remained a part of Charlestown. 

[September 5, 1723.] Penn Townsend Esq r from the Committee 
appointed to Consider the Petition of the North Inhabitants of Charles- 
town made y e following Report viz' 

The Committee are of Opinion that all y e Lands & Estates lying & 
being on the north Side of Mistick River to the South Bonds of Maiden 
& between the bounds of Boston & Medford be Intirely free & ex- 
empted from paying Province, County & Town Charges in Charles- 
town (the Annual Maintainance & Support of the Poor only excepted) 
& that the said Inhabitants Lands, & Estates be wholly annexd and 
Joyned to y e Town of Maiden, & to pay their Proportion of all Pro- 
vince, County & Town Charges in that Town (the Annual Support & 
maintainance of y e Poor excepted) & Shall be accordingly warned & 
Summon'd to Maiden Town meetings & act as the other Inhabitants of 
Maiden may or Can do, any other or former practice to the Contrary 
Notwithstanding. 

In Council Read and not Accepted And 

Ordered That the Inhabitants & their lands & Estates belonging to 
Charlestown lying and being on the North Side of Mistick River to the 
South bounds of Maiden & between the bounds of Boston & Medford, 
be sett off from the Town of Charlestown and annexd to Maiden, As to 
the Charge of Supporting y e Ministry Meeting House, Schools, & School 



CHARLESTOWN NEIGHBORS AND TROUBLE. 495 

Houses and the Privileclge of Voting in all matters Relating to the Same. 
In the House of Represent 3 Read and Concur'd 

Consented to, W M Dummer. 19 

The people of Maiden proceeded with unusual alacrity to 
accommodate themselves to the needs of their " Charlestown 
naightbours; " and, at a town meeting held November 15, 1723, 
a school was established at Mystic Side, it being voted " That 
y e school shall be kept at Eben r Sargeants or att Joses buck- 
nams from This Time untill y e first of march following." At 
a later meeting John Tufts, Joses Bucknam, Sen., and Samuel 
Sweetser, inhabitants of Mystic Side, were chosen assessors for 
" y e jnhabitants of Charlestown y l are anexed ; " and the select- 
men, at a meeting held December 26, adjusted rates with " our 
charlestown naighbours y l are latly anexed to maiden for y e su- 
port of The ministrey and school." 

The inhabitants of Mystic Side now owned divided duties and 
responsibilities, — ecclesiastical and educational in the town of 
Maiden, and political in that of Charlestown. On questions 
relating to the former, they acted in the meetings of the 
younger town ; and in elections, in matters relating to the 
care of the poor, and in other municipal affairs, their votes 
were cast, if at all, on the farther bank of the river. Assessors 
chosen from their own number adjusted the taxes which they 
paid for the support of religion and the school. 

There seems, naturally, to have been many inconveniences in 
such a condition; and the wish for a final and total disunion 
with Charlestown gained ground. In 1725 William Paine and 
seventeen others petitioned for a separation, which Charlestown 
refused. 20 The petitioners, however, carried the matter beyond 
the jurisdiction of the town, and appealed to the General 
Court. The town of Maiden joined in their behalf and took 
action as follows : — 

Att a publick Town meating in Maiden December y e : 10 th 1725 
Voted, William Sargeant Moderrator. Voted, that A Committy shall be 
Chosen to join with our Charlestown neighbors in y e prefering apetion 
to ye Generall Court to se if that part of Charlestown that hath bin 

19 General Court Records, xii. 38. 20 Frothingham, History of Charlestown, 251. 



496 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Lately sett of or anexed to maiden by y e sd Court for y e suport of the 
minnistry & Schoole, may now be wholey sett of to be as one with 
Maiden, both they & all y e Lands that Ly within y e bounds mentioned 
in a Late Act of y e Generall Court Refering to those our Charlestown 
neighbors. 

Jacob Wilson and Jonathan Barrett were chosen, who, joining 
with Joses Bucknam, of Mystic Side, pressed the application 
before the Court with the result indicated in the following 
extracts. 

[December 23, 1725.] A Petition of Joses Bucknam of Charlestown 
& Jacob Wilson & Jonathan Barret of Maiden in Behalf of the Inhabi- 
tants of Maiden & of Charlestown living on the North Side of Mistick 
River bordering upon the Town of Maiden between the Towns of 
Boston & Medford, Praying that the Lands & Estates of the Charles- 
town Jnhabitants within the Bounds aforesaid may be annex'd to the 
Town of Maiden in all Respects. 

Jn the House of Represent' 1 : 5 Read eV Referred to the next May 
Session for further Consideration, And that in the mean Time the 
Petitioners Serve the Towns of Charlestown & Stonham with a Copy of 
this Petition That they Shew Cause, if any they have on the Second 
Tuesday of the said Session Why the Prayer of this Petition should not 
be granted : 

Jn Council ; Read & Concur'd ; Consented to, W* 1 Dummer. 21 

[June 7. 1726.] On the Petition of loses Bucknam Iacob Wilson 
and Ionathan Barrett on Behalf of the Town of Maiden and that Part 
of the Town of Charls: Town on the North Side of Mistick River, 
praying as Entered Dec' 23? 1725. 

In Council Read again Together with the Answer of the Town of 
Charlestown, And the Same being duly Considered. 

Ordered that the Inhabitants of Charles Town within y e . Limits de- 
scribed in this Petition with their Estates, and the Lands belonging 
to the Inhabitants of Maiden within the Same Limits be Sett off 
from the Said Town of Charlestown and joyned to the Town of Maiden 
to all Intents and purposes Whatsoever, Provided that the Ferry called 
Penny Ferry with the profits thereof remain to the Said Town of 
Charlestown, and that the way on the North Side lately purchased by 
Charlestown ly open for the Use of the Said Ferry. 

In the House of Represent ves : Read and Concur'd. 

Consented to, W M Dummer. 22 

21 General Court Records, xiii. 95. "Shewing that there are certain 

22 Ibid., 145. In 1730 a committee Lands within the Limits of that Part of 
of the town petitioned, Charlestown that was set off to Maiden 



CHARLESTOWN NEIGHBORS AND TROUBLE. 



497 



Thirty-four years later the ground thus taken from Charles- 
town was viewed, its northern line described, and its inhabitants 
named. 

[September 13, 1760] I, John Townsend of Charlestown in the 
County of Middlesex Sadler of full age Testifie & Say That the Divid- 
ing line between the Towns of Maiden & Charlestown, before part of 
Charlestown was Annex ed to Maiden, Began at a marked Tree which 
Stood in an old wall in the Esterly Side of Joseph Sargents Land, by 
the line of the Present Town of Chelsea, & from thence run Westerly 
near a Strait Line to a tree at the north End of Deacon lames Hoveys 
Lott & from Thence Westerly to a Rock marked. M : C. near Phinehas 
Sargeants old House & from thence Northerly unto an old Stump in 
the Corner of Mf Benj a Bucknams pasture & from thence westerly near 
a Strait line to Sandy Bank River So call ed . And upon Viewing the 
Line afores d . J find the two Trees afores d are gone and That the Familys 
Following Live on that part of Maiden which was Charlestown Viz : 
The heads of the Familys are 



Wid? Abigail Barritt 
Eben r Barritt 
Dea: Joses Bucknam 
Wid° Phebe Bucknam 
Aron Bucknam 
Moses Bucknam 
Iohn Bucknam 
Zaccheus Banks 
Nehemiah Blany 
Wid? Abigail Blany 
Iohn Bechum 
Deacon Caswell 
Moses Collins 
Iohn Nicholls 
Iohn Oliver 
Iohn Paine 



Benj. Sprague 
Thos. Sargeant 
Joseph Sargeant 
Iohn Sargeant 
Wid Wheeller 
Daniel Whittemore 
Ioseph Whittemore 
Wid? Mudge 
Amos Stowers 



And upon y e Best Iudg- 
ment I haue been able to 
make upon Viewing y e Sec- 
ond Parrish in Maiden I 
am well Sattisfied that 



in the year 1725, the Owners whereof 
live in other Towns, & therefore refuse 
to pay Rates for those Lands to Maiden, 
pretending they are not included in that 
Order, Praying this Court to explain the 
Order above refer'd to, & to signify 
their Pleasure, whether the Lands afore 
refer'd to are included therein." 
In answer to this petition it was 
" Ordered that all the Lands within 
the Limits described in the Petition of 



Joses Bucknam & others in behalf of 
the Town of Maiden &c presented to 
this Court Anno 1725, be & hereby are 
declared to belong to the said Town of 
Maiden to all Jntents & Purposes what- 
soever, Except the white Jsland so 
called. & the Lands belonging to Peny 
Ferry, & the Lands belonging to Charles- 
town School ; w cl ' are to remain to the 
Town of Charlestown." General Court 
Records, xiv. 434. 



32 



498 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Ebtf Pratt Deducting The Real Estates 

Wid? Richerdson which was Excepted Out 

David Sargent of that Parrish by the Gen" 

Sam 1 ! Sweetser Court About half the Re- 

Dea. John Mudge. mander of y e Real Estates 

in that Parish was Charlestown Untill it was annexed to Maiden About 
Thirty four years ago. 

John Townsend 

I Iohn Green of Stoneham in y e County of Middlesix yeoman of full 
age Testifie That I haue been with y e afores d . Iohn Townsend & Viewed 
y e Dividing Line Afores d . by him mentioned and know that the 
Familys aforesd in y e parrish afores d . Live on the Southerly Side of 
y e Line afores d . And upon Viewing y e Parrish I am also well Sattesfied 
That Exclusive of y e Real Estates Excepted Out of that Parrish by the 
Gen 1 ! Court About half y e Real Estates in the Parrish afores d is on the 
Southerly Side of y e Line aforesl and in That part of Maiden which I 
well Remember was formerly Charlestown. 

Iohn Green. 23 

The town of Maiden was now at its greatest territorial ex- 
tent. Its northern boundary was near the northerly shore of 
Smith's Pond in Reading; and with the exception of the small 
reservation at Penny Ferry, which still remains to Charlestown 
[Boston], it embraced all the country between the bounds of 
Boston on the east and Medford, Charlestown Commons, and 
the new town of Stoneham on the west. 21 Wilson's farm, a 

23 Original MS. in the possession of labour under great Difficulties by their 
Artemas Barrett of Melrose. This testi- Remoteness from the Place of publick 
mony was obtained for use " in an action Worship, And the Said Northerly Part 
of Ejectment to be tried by Review at have thereupon made their Application 
the Superiour Court of Judicature to be to the Said Town & have likewise 
holden at Worcester" in September, address'd this Court that they may be 
1760, "wherein the Rev d m r Eliakim Set off a distinct & Separate Town," 
Willis is Plaintiff & the Rev d m r Joseph enacted, December 17, 1725: — 
Emerson Defendant." This was a suit " That the northerly part of the said 
brought by the South Precinct for the town of Charlestown ; that is to say, all 
purpose of obtaining a portion of the the lands lying on the east side of Wo- 
ministerial lands at Shrewsbury, which, burn, the south side of Reading, the west 
failing, left the contentious parish at its side of Maiden, and the north side of 
lowest estate. the fifth range of the first division of 

24 The General Court, with the assent Charlestown wood-lots, be, and hereby 
of Charlestown, considering that "the is, set off and constituted a separate 
Town of Charlestown within the County township, by the name of Stoneham." 
of Middlesex is of great Extent & Length General Court Records, xiii. 49 ; Province 
& lies commocliously for two Townships, Laws, 1725-26. 

And the Northerly Part thereof being The Charlestown wood-lots, the 

competently filled with Inhabitants, who southerly line of which began at a point 



CHARLESTOWN NEIGHBORS AND TROUBLE. 499 

large portion of which is now within the limits of Medford, 
formed its southwestern corner. Its western line ran straight 
to Reading near Smith's Pond, that tract of land comprising the 
Green farms, and now known as Melrose Highlands, not being 
set off to Stoneham until eight years later. Its extreme length, 
from north to south, was hardly short of seven miles; and it 
was a little over three miles in its widest part. Altogether it 
contained not less than nine thousand acres of land, the rough 
and unpromising character of a large proportion of which has 
been noticed. That which had just been acquired from Charles- 
town was of the best which the town afforded; but its acquisi- 
tion was unfavorable to peace and prosperity. The quarrel 
which it introduced raged fiercely many years, rending the town 
and dividing the church, and scattering enmities and law suits 
broadcast upon the little community. Its brands were hardly 
extinguished at the beginning of a new century. 

We shall not underestimate the population of the territory 
then comprised in the town of Maiden if we fix it at six hun- 
dred souls. Out of this territory, with its scattered farms and 
scanty population, has come in the space of a little more than 
a century and a half two growing cities and a thriving town, 
with a population of about sixty-seven thousand souls, without 
including the villages of Greenwood and Wellington, which 
are now joined to the neighboring towns of Wakefield and 
Medford. 

There was at this time, at the northern extremity of the 
town, a little community of farmers, who, living from four to 
five miles from the meeting house at Bell Rock, became attend- 
ants on religious services in the nearer house at Reading; and 
some of them enjoyed church privileges there. Of these, seven 
were numbered by the Reading church in 172°; as "members 
of our Church in our Maulden neighborhood." 25 At a meeting, 
held May 15, 1722, it was recorded that: — 

near the Medford Road at the Maiden 28 In "a catalogue of the brethren 

line and ran in a northwesterly direction, and sisters in full communion in the 

separated the towns of Medford and first church in Reading, Jan. 3, 172%," 

Stoneham many years. Most of this may be found the names oi the follow- 

territory is now embraced within the ing "members of our Church in our 

limits of Medford. Maulden neighborhood : Thomas Up- 



500 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

John Green Att y e farms Sam'- 1 Green Jonathan barritt And seueral 
othars y l petision d with Them : doe desier : Abatement on Ther minis- 
tars Reates : by Reson as they say They doe liue more conuenant To 
Go [to] Reding meting Then To maiden meting : 

It was putt To vote To see whethar y e Town will abate Those peti- 
tionars The one half of There ministars Reates 
And jt past on y e negitiue : 

Whatever uneasiness may have been felt by the brethren at 
the north end, who certainly had some reason for dissatisfaction, 
they apparently remained quiet until the winter of 1726, when, 
with the approbation of the town of Reading, the heads of ten 
families, living north of the line between the fourth and fifth 
ranges of the first division of the allotment of 1695, petitioned 
the General Court for a separation. Some attempt appears to 
have been made to obtain such an action of the town as would 
reconcile them, but the voters refused to act in accordance. At 
a meeting, March 10, 1726/7, 

it was put to vote whether the Town will have two meating houses 
in this Town and y e vote was past in y e negetive. it was put to vote 
whether y e Town will Alow y e people in y e north Eand of this Town 
some money to help them to provid themselve with preaching in y e 
winter sesons and it past in y e negetive 

voted that this Town will Build A new meetinghouse upon the Towns 
land neare y e place whear the Old meetinghouse now Stands. A vote 
was caled for to Chose A Committy to Act in y e Towns behalf with 
Refferrance to : to : of y e inhabitants of this Town that desier to be sett 
of to y e Town of Reeding, and it past in y e negetive. 

It was seemingly the wish of a portion of the townsfolk to 
give the new house a more northerly location, which was not 
acceptable to the recently annexed " Charlestown neighbors," 
although it would remove it nearer to the centre of the town. 
If placed on the spot proposed, a little north of Lewis's Bridge 
where the house of the First Parish now stands, it would still be 
far south of the centre of a line connecting the extremities of 
the town, which would fall near the southern boundary of the 
present town of Melrose. It is not improbable that the wish 

ham and his wife, Elizabeth Upham, y Q and his wife, y e wife of James Taylor." 
wife of Richard Upham, Thomas Green Eaton, History of Reading, 140. 



CHARLESTOWN NEIGHBORS AND TROUBLE. 50 1 

to retain the meeting house on its southern location induced the 
favorable action which was soon after taken in reference to the 
inhabitants at the north end. At a meeting, held March 27, 
1727, it was voted 

that the new meeting nous shall be set upon the knole on y e north- 
west of m r Emersons Orchard. 

voted that John willson, John Hutchenson, Richard Dexter, Thomas 
burdit, juner, Thomas parker & mosses hill be A Committy to treat 
with those men of this Town that Desier to be set of to the Town of 
Reeding Conserning y l mater and to know y e bounds by which they 
desier to be sett off. 

At a later meeting, May 22, it was voted " that y e tenn fame- 
lys y l have petioned to be Laid off from this Town, unto y e 
Town of Reding, have Liberty to goe to Reding with there 
Estates Acording to their petion." The application of the 
petitioners, and the action taken by the General Court appear 
in the following extract: — 

A Petition of Thomas Bancroft & Timothy Goodwin in Behalf of the 
Town of Reading, & William Green for him self & Thomas Upham, 
Richard Upham, Nathaniel Evans, David Green, John Walton, Samuel 
Evans, John Evans, Samuel Howard & Thomas Green, all of Maiden, 
Shewing that the said ten Persons of Maiden with their Families live 
so remote from the Middle of the Town, that they are under great Jn- 
conveniences & Difficulties to attend the publick Worship there, & their 
Civil & Military Duties in the Said Town & that they ly much nearer 
to Reading ; And therefore Praying that they may be set off from 
Maiden & annexed to the Town of Reading, & that they may have & 
enjoy equal Privileges & Jmmunities with the present Jnhabitants of the 
said Town ; The Line by which they would be set off to be as follows ; 
viz, Easterly on Boston & Reading Bounds, Southerly upon the fifth 
Range Line between the fourth & fifth Division Lots in the first Divi- 
sion, Westerly upon the Town of Stoneham & Northerly on Reading 
within Haifa Mile or less of Reading Meeting House. 26 



26 I hardly think that Maiden ever ably over half a mile from the Reading 

included the whole eastern shore of meeting house. If the text is correct, 

Smith's Pond; although if the north- the whole of the pond was in Maiden- 

eastern line of the town was extended but all the land evidences which I have 

without deviation it must have touched seen tend to disprove it. The petitioners 

the pond at or near its northern end. may have been anxious to help their 

Even then it would have been consider- case by shortening the distance. 



502 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Jn the House of Represent 1 ": 5 Decem r 23. 1726, Read & 

Ordered that this Petition be refer'd to the next May Session for 
further Consideration, & that in the mean Time the Petitioners of the 
Town of Maiden serve the said Town with a Copy of this Petition that 
they may then shew Cause, if they have any, why the Prayer thereof 
should not be granted 

Jn the House of Represent"? 3 June 3. 1727 ; Read together with the 
Answer of the Town of Maiden thereto, who have signified their Willing- 
ness to part with the said ten Families : And in Answer thereto, 

Resolved that the Prayer of the Petition be granted, & that the said 
ten Families & their Estates be annexed to & accounted as Part of the 
Town of Reading for the future, according to the Line set forth in the 
Petition ; Any Law, Usage or Custom to the Contrary Notwithstanding. 

Jn Council ; Read & Concur'd 
Consented to, W M Dummer. 27 

The section thus lost to Maiden shortened the town more 
than a mile, and carried with it some of the wealthiest inhabi- 
tants. It is to this addition to the limits of the old town of 
Reading that the town of Wakefield owes the peculiar configur- 
ation of its southerly portion embracing the present village of 
Greenwood. 28 

27 General Court Records, xiii. 322. and Stoneham petitioned the General 

28 It is possible that a controversy Court " that no other lands or estate be 
between Reading and Maiden was set off or annexed to the Town of Read- 
caused by a portion of the ministry ing than those belonging to the Ten 
land, which had been reserved in the Petitioners living within the Bounds 
allotment of 1695, being included in the mentioned in the Petition, that were 
territory which was annexed to the set off by the Great and General Court 
former town. The order of the Court in the year 1727." A committee reported 
which made the fifth range line a divid- in favor of the petitioners, " Upon which 
ing line would seem to be sufficiently divers Votes were pass'd by each House, 
definite; but in 1744 it appears that but no Agreement of both Houses 
Maiden had " refused to run their Line thereon." Ibid., xvii. (5), 496. The 
with Reading" and had claimed " more matter remained, a bone of contention, 
than their due." Reading petitioned for until January 15, 1754, when Joseph 
an order defining the line ; and a com- Lynde and Ezra Green, in behalf of 
mittee of both houses having reported, Maiden, and a committee of Reading 
" That the Line between the fourth and "a Greed and seteled the Line Le- 
fifth ranges of Lots in the first Division twene sd towns in the foloing maner 
is and ought to be the Dividing Line," Begening att a Black oake tree Standing 
the boundary was confirmed by the By the Road Leding from Reading to 
General Court, January 5, i74 4 /s- Ibid., Maldin a Bout twelve Poals northerd 
xvii. (4), 536, 619-620. of Jonas Greens Barn marked with R 

This settlement, however, interfered and M then Roning Esterly with a 

in some way with the rights of the Straight Line to a heepe of stons Round 

Greens, who had been set off to Stone- a petch Pine still Esterly the same Corse 

ham in 1734 ; and a committee of Maiden to a Stale and heepe of Stons in Chelcea 



CHARLESTOIVN NEIGHBORS AND TROUBLE. 503 

la the meantime the townspeople had again changed their 
minds in relation to the site of the new meeting house. The 
meeting of March 27 had been held upon " an excessive Stormy- 
Day ; " and when 

it was objected by Some of both Parties of the Town that the 
■meeting was very Slender, the business of the Meeting important 
(there was but 35 Voters, & but 20 for having it on the Knowl) by 
Reason of this Vote a number of the Southerly Jnhabitants petitioned 
the Selectmen to call a Town meeting to reconsider s d Vote & about 
the Same Time Some of the north side desired that all the Votes 
might be reconsidered, and then a Town meeting was called.- 9 

In this uncertainty a meeting was held, May 22, at which 
the town refused to fix the dimensions of the new house ; and 
" A Vote was called for to see if y e Town would Rais money 
for y e building y e new meeting hous & it past in y e negetive." 
Eleven days later it was 

Voted That y e Town will reconsider all the votes that were past at 
both y e Town meetings in maiden last march Refering to y e placeing 
the new meeting house. 

& a vote was Called for to see where y e new meetinghous shall stand 
& the modderrator Declared y l in his Opinnion there was A vote for 
the sd meeting hous being sett between y e old meetinghous and the 
Bell Rock. 

Voted that the new meeting hous shall be built fifty-five feet in length 
and forty fouer feet wide. 

Void that the Town will Rais five hundred pounds money towards 
y e building y e new meeting hous. 

So far, those who favored a southerly location appear to 
have been in the majority; but at a meeting held June 28, 
it was 

Voted that y e Town have reconsidered y e former votes that have been 
passed in this Town Referring to the placeing the new meeting house. 
Voted that the new meetinghouse shall be sett between Leweses bridge 
and the pound, on the west side of the Contry Roade upon A pece 
of Land now Steaked out. 

Line sd Stak Being marked with R M rose and Wakefield, east of Main 

and C." Mass. Archives, cxvi. 573. Street. 

This line was confirmed by the Court, -° MS. in the possession of Artemas 

and still marks the boundaries of Mel- Barrett, 1866. 



504 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Voted Jonathan Barrett, Benjemin Hills, Cap' Samuell Wayte, Samuell 
Bucknam, Thomas Oakes, Thomas Lynds, & Daniell floyd, were 
chosen A committee to treete, and Agree with a workman for the 
building and Compleat furnishing of y e sd meetinghouse in time and 
manner as may be voted and Agreed upon by this Town. 

This was the beginning of the " Wearing and fatiguing 
Difficulties" — the "Tossing and Shakings" and "the un- 
happy Divisions by which this poor Town and Church were 
rent and wounded withal." 30 Thirty-four dissentients at once 
appeared and the following paper was entered upon the 
record. 

Maiden June 28 th 1727 : the persons whose names are here under 
written Did openly protest Against the Reconsidering any votes that 
have been passed relateing to the placeing y e new meeting house in 
maiden, and Espechally against y e Reconsidering the vote that was 
passed y e 2 d of June 1727 and did Acordingly enter their desent 
against the pasing of any vote concerning the placeing the new 
meetinghouse and did then desire that their decent might be Re- 
corded, and did Resolve to Stand by y e vote that was passed y e 2 d of 
June instant, Relateing to the placeing the meetinghouse. 

Josses Bucknam, James Barrett, 

Thomas Burditt, John Marrable, 

Daniell Whittemore, Thomas Wayte, 

Samuell Sweetser, William Pain, 

James hovey, Jsac Wheler, 

John Whittemore, Ebenezer pratt, 

Daniel Whittemore, Jun r , Stephen paine, 

Richard Dexter, Samuell Stower, 

James upham, John paine, 

Ebenezer upham, Samuell Blanchard, 

Josses Bucknam, Jun r , Joseph Sargeant, 

Thomas Burditt, Jun r , Benjemin Sweetser, 

Stower Sprague, William Paine, Juner, 

James moulton, John Shute, 

John mudge, Jun r , Nathanell nickols, 

James Whittemore, Nathanel upham, 

Samuell Bucknam, Thomas pratt. 

It must be said that, throughout the contest which had 
now begun, the people of the north side showed a spirit of 

30 Emerson, Meat out of the Eater, 7, et sea. 



CHARLESTOWN NEIGHBORS AND TROUBLE. 505 

fairness which was far from being imitated by those of the 
other section. Although at this time they were apparently 
in the majority upon the vexing question of the location 
of the meeting house and had passed a vote which the other 
side seems not to have been able to reconsider, they allowed 
the matter to be submitted to arbitration, thinking, no doubt, 
that the south side would quietly acquiesce in the decision 
of arbiters whom they had, themselves, joined in choosing. 
A committee of the town afterwards said : — 

In our Intercourses with one another the Southerly Inhabitants were 
Something uneasy, and said, they thought as the matter was weighty, 
and the Vote not So unanimous : they Said if they could have a 
Committee of wise indifferent men to determine the matter they 
should be intirely easy : and at last a number of both Parts of the 
Town went to the Select men and desired the Town might be called 
to See whether they would leave it to a Committee, Whether the 
meeting House Should Stand upon a Knowl in M r Emerson's Orchard, 
or between Bell Rock & the old meeting House, or between Lewis's 
Bridge & the Pound, which the north side notwithstanding the former 
Vote readily consented to, accordingly the Town met & there was a 
peaceable meeting, and a General Agreement. 31 

At this meeting, which was held November 17, 1727, the 
town passed the following votes : — 

Voted that the Town will chuse A committee for to place y e 
new meetinghouse in Maiden, Either upon y e Land between y e bell- 
rock & y e Old meeting-hous, Or on y e Knowel on y e Northwest End 
of m r Emersons orchard, Or on y e Land between Leweses bridg & 
y pound on y e westside of y e Roade. 

/ "oted y' y e Town will chuse five men for y e sd Committee. 

Voted that their shall be 10: men chosen by y e Town: 5 on y e 
north side & 5 : on y e south side of y e Town, to Nomminate y e sd : 
5 gentle men To y e Town, &r Jonathan Sprague, Samuel Sprague, Tuner, 
Jonathan barrett, Capt wayte, & Samuel Newhall, were chosen for y e 
north side, And Joses bucknam, James barrett, Samuel Sweetser, 
Samuell Green & Richard Dexter, wear chosen for y e south side to 
nomminte y e sd Committe, and they Did nomminate & y Town 
Did — vote and Chuse y e Hon rhIe Docter Cook, Judg Lynds, Judg 
Davenport, Judg Quinsey, & Col. Turner, Esq rs , to be a committe to 
place y e new meeting house in Maiden, Either on y e Land between 

31 MS. in the possession of Artemas Barrett, 1866. 



506 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



y e bell Rock and y e Old meetinghouse Or on y e knowel on y e north- 
west End of mf Emersons orchard, Or on y e Land between Leweses 
bridg & y e pound on y e west side of y e Roade. 

Voted that Jonathan Sprague, Jonathan Barrett, John Willson, Josses 
Bucknam, James Barrett, & Samuell Green, be A Committe to goe & 
invite y e Abouesd Gentlemen to Com, & to treete with them, when 
they shall com, that are chosen to be A committe to Detirmine which 
of the three places that the Town have voted for y e setting y e new 
meeting hous upon Shall be y e place for y e setting y e sd hous upon. 

While these things were in progress, on the night of Sunday, 
October 29, 1727, New England was visited by an earthquake 
which carried terror to the hearts of the guilty and nearly 
convinced the righteous that the great Day of Doom, whose 
coming Michael Wigglesworth had sung, was at hand. 32 The 



82 This was known as the Great 
Earthquake. The Rev. Benjamin Col- 
man of the Brattle Square Church in 
Boston looked upon it as "a loud call 
to y e whole land to repent, fear, and 
give glory to God." He and his family 
arose from their beds " and sat up till 
two in y e morning, spending y e time in 
humble cries to God for our selves and 
our neibours, and in fervent praises to 
him for our singular preservations." 

The Rev. Samuel Dexter, son of 
Deacon John Dexter of Maiden, who 
was then settled at Dedham, thus de- 
scribes it in his diary : — 

" Oct br 29 th 1727. Sabbath Day 
Evening — a Night never to be forgot- 
ten — att y e hour of Ten — y e L d arose 
& shook terribly y e Earth — y r was a 
Mighty Earthquake for y parts of y e 
world — I suppose beyound w l was ever 
known in y s Land. It shook y e houses 
as if y e v w d have fell down for y e space, 
I suppose, of a Minute or two, & then 
y c shaking ceased, & it seem'd to pass 
away with a great Noise, & y r was re- 
peated Rumblings & lesser shakes y< 
night, some say 8 times. I think I heard 
hue or six, & severall times since, persons 
have Affirmed y< y e v have heard it, .\: I 
think I was once very sensible of it 
y l I did, on y e fryday following, a little 
before Night, as I sat in my study, to 
y' Degree y' it Jarr'd the Windows. 
People were put into a very great sur- 



prize by it, both in Boston & in y e 
Country. — Upon y e Monday Morning 
after, y e People met at y e old North, 
in Boston. In y e Evening y e y met at 
y e old South and y e old Brick, — y e 
next Thursday was a Fast kept thro' 
y e Town upon y 1 Account, & severall 
were kept in Country Towns, & y e stroke 
of prayer is still going on. Oh y l y e Im- 
pressions of y' Terrible shake may not 
presently wear of." N. E. Hist, and 
Geneal. Register, xiv. 202. 

The Rev. Thomas Prince of the Old 
South Church in Boston, says : — 

" On the Night after the Lord's Day, 
Octob. 29, about 40 Minutes past X, in 
a calm & serene Hour, the Town of 
Boston was on a sudden extreamly sur- 
priz'd with the most violent Shock of 
an Earthquake that has been known 
among us. It came on with a loud 
hollow Noise like the Roaring of a 
Great fired Chimney, but incomparably 
more fierce & terrible. In about half a 
Minute the Earth began to heave and 
tremble : The Shock increasing, rose to 
the Hight in about a Minute more, when 
the Moveables, Doors, Windows, Walls, 
especially in the upper Chambers, made 
a very fearful Clattering, and the Houses 
rock'd & crackl'd, as if they were all 
dissolving and falling to pieces." Prince, 
Earthquakes the Works of God, etc. 

The Rev. Mr. Colman, just mentioned, 
said : — " Sixty-five years are now passing 



CHARLESTOWN NEIGHBORS AND TROUBLE. S°7 

church of Maiden, as many others in the Province, received 
it as a rebuke for past sins and a warning against those of 
the future. " On a Day of Publick Fasting and Prayer," 
December 21, they acknowledged themselves "many ways 
guilty of breaking Covenant with GOD and with one another, 
and that we have not Walked ansvverably to our Profession 
and Engagement; for which we desire to take Shame to our 
selves, and Repent as in Dust and Ashes." Setting them- 
selves " in the Awful Presence of the Holy Lord, the All- 
seeing and Heart-searching GOD," they solemnly renewed 
their " Covenant with God, and one another." Nor did they 
forget their shortcomings in the past nor their strivings in 
that present time. They promised : — 

That we will endeavour faithfully to perform the Duties of our 
several Relations. That we will endeavour to love our Neighbour as 
our selves : That we will be tender of his Life, Chastity, Interest, 
Reputation. — That we will endeavour to keep our Hearts with all 
Diligence, and be very Prayerful that we enter not into Temptation. 
That we will Watch over one another (and be Watched over by one 
another) with a Spirit of Meekness, Love, and Tenderness ; and walk 
together as Members of the same Body in the holy and diligent Ob- 
servance of, and humble Submission to the Ordinances, and Discipline 
He hath appointed in His Church. 

Because a Spirit of Division and Contention has to a Criminal 
Degree prevail'd in one Place and in another in the Land, and in 
Times past in this Place, we desire to be humbled before God and 

since the Land was shook much as it fallen away as quickly as it began, 

was now: The pewter fell off the shelves, Hutchinson, History of Massachusetts- 

the joke wro't in and out of the mortices Bay, ii. 327, says : — " There was a 

as the houses rock'd, the lids of warm- general apprehension of danger of de- 

ing-pans were flung up; passengers on struction and death, and many, who had 

the way were unable to keep their feet very little sense of religion before, ap- 

and sat down while the ground heav'd peared to be very serious and devout 

them ; Something also of the like noise penitents, but, too generally, as the fears 

and rare of the earth accompanied that of another earthquake went off, the reli- 

shake." Colman, The Judgments of gious impressions went with them and 

Providence in the hand of Christ. they, who had been the subjects of both, 

Sailors along the coast, feeling the returned to their former course of life." 
shock, supposed their vessels had struck The Bi-Centennial Book of Maiden, 

upon shoals. It extended to the West 161, on the authority, probably, of the 

Indies, where it did great damage, espe- lost diary of Mr. Emerson, says that 

daily in the island of Martinique. It forty persons were admitted to full com 

produced a sudden religious awakening munion in the Maiden church within 

in New England, which is said to have two months. 



508 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

to be more Watchful for the future, that we may live in Peace ; and 
so have the God of Love & Peace to dwell with us. 83 

How sincere were a part, at least, of those who subscribed 
this solemn Confession and Covenant may soon be seen. Hardly 
were the sheets which contained their professions dry from the 
press before they had broken their voluntary engagements with 
their brethren and townsmen. Six days after the Fast, the 
committee, that had been chosen by mutual agreement, made 
its report. Its members had been to Maiden, where " a full 
Hearing was had of the matter from the 6 men that were chosen 
to Speak in Behalf of each Part of the Town, at which Time the 
Town seemed to be generally Satisfied." The decision was as 
follows : — 

We the within named Committee have unanimously agreed that the 
new meeting house shall be set or placed between Lewiss bridge & the 
pound on the west side of the Countrey road on a peice of land lately 
staked out in Maiden. Witness our hands the 27 th December 1727 
Benj a Lynde Addington Davenport 

Edmund Quincy Elisha Cooke 

John Turner 34 

This decision, being sent to Maiden, fell into the hands of 
those of the selectmen who were of the south side, 35 who 
refused to allow it to be entered upon the record of the town, 
upon which a petition was preferred by the inhabitants of the 
other section to " the Great & General Court to redress them in 
this affair." After hearing the petition and the accompanying 
papers, the Court passed the following order : — 

Jn Council Feb r y 21 st 1727 
Ordered That the Determination of the Committee therein men- 
tioned respecting the place for erecting a new Meeting house in Maiden 
dated the 27th of December last, directed and delivered to the Select- 
men, or some of them, or another of the same tenour signed and 

83 An imperfect print in the posses- 34 MS. in the possession of Artemas 

sion of Artemas Barrett, with the fol- Barrett, 1866. 

lowing heading : — On a Day of Publick 35 The selectmen this year were Joses 

Fasting and Prayer {December 21, 1727) Bucknam, James Barrett, Samuel Buck- 

Occasioned by a Terrible Earthquake on nam, Samuel Sprague, Jr., and Samuel 

Lord's- Day- Night, October 20 th . 1727. Waite. The first three were south 

This fragment may be unique. I know side men. 
of no other copy. 



CHARLESTOWN NEIGHBORS AND TROUBLE. 509 

attested by the same committee January 12 th 1727 be received and 
recorded in the Town Book of the s d Town of Maiden, and be to [all] 
Intents and purposes obligatory on the s d Town pursuant to their Vote 
bearing date the 17 th of Novr last. 

Sent down for Concurrence 

J. Willard Sec y . 
In th House of Representatives Feb r y 2 1 1727 Read & Concurrd 

W M Dudley Spr 
Consented to. 

W* DUMMER. 36 

The southern factionists were so obstinately intent on their 
purpose that they had no mind to obey the mandate of the 
Court, although by their former action they were fully bound in 
honor to record and recognize the decision of the committee. 
At the annual meeting, in March, 1728, they recovered the 
ascendency; and the moderator, Jonathan Sargeant, three at 
least of the five selectmen, the town clerk, and the treasurer 
were of their party. The report of the committee being still 
unrecorded, the selectmen now proceeded to call " a Town 
meeting to See if s d Result Should be put on Record, the Pro- 
posal whereof the north side thought to be a manifest Contempt 
of Authority." 37 At this meeting sixty voters entered the 
following protest and refrained from participation in any action 
relating to the meeting house: — 

Maiden Aprill y e third: 1728: we y e Jnhabitants in Maiden on y e 
north side of y e River being warned to meet at y e meetinghouse y e third 
day of Aprill instant to see if the Town will Except of y e Report or 
Result of the Honerable commite, conserning placeing of y e new meet- 
inghous in Maiden, by pasing of A vote for y e Triall of it, we hold it 
very improper so to Do it being allreddy Established by the Great and 
Generall Court and athourity of the same that it shall be Received and 
Recorded in the Town Book in Maiden that it may stand good and 
firm to all intents and purposes as has bin all Ready by the Town 
Agreed upon, and therefore we shall not proseed to pass a farther vote 
upon it but do Expect that it be entered in the Town Book Acording 
to y e order of y e Great and Generall Court : we y e subscribers Dezir 
that for y e Resons abovementioned our desents may be Recorded 
Against y e vote that has bin past for not Recording y e Report Refering 

36 MS. in the possession of Artemas 87 MS. in the possession of Artemas 

Barrett, 1866. Barrett, 1866. 



5io 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



to y e placeing [y e ] new meeting [house] in maiden, as by y e honerable 
committy chosen for that servis. 



Jonathan barrett, 
Samuell Sprague, 

Thomas pratt, 
John upham, 
Samuell Wayte, 
Lemuell Jenkins, 
Jonathan howard, Juner, 
Ebenezer harden 2, 
Ezekiel Jenkins, 
John Willson, 
John Lynds, 
Samuell Newhall, 
Samuell Tufts, 
John Barrett, 
Samuell Green, Jun r , 
Samuell mower, 
Joseph Lynds, 
William Sprague, 
Benjemin Wayte, 
Daniel fioyd, Juner, 
David upham, 
Jonathan howard y e 2, 
Nathaniel Jenkins, 
Nathan ell Wayte, 
Daniell newhall, 
John pratt, 
Richard pratt, 
Abraham hill, 
Timothy Sprague, 
Joseph Green, Juner, 



Joseph Wayte, 
Ebenezer harnden, 
Sam" Sprague, Juner, 
William pratt, 
Samuell howard, 
Danill fioyd, 
Benf Hills, 

Jonathan Howard ye 3, 
John Sprague, 
Jonathan Sprague, 
Thomas Lynds, 
Edward Wayte, 
Isac Green, 
John Green, 
Samuell Green, 
John pratt, 
Jabez Wayte, 
Joseph Chadwick, 
Thomas Wayte, 
Joseph Lynds, Juner, 
Samuell Grove r, 
Samuell upham, 
Joseph Jenkins, 
Timothy Wayte, 
John Coll man, 
Phinehes Sprague, 
Phinehes Sprague, Juner, 
Richard pratt, Juner, 
Joseph Green, 
Thomas Tufts. 



The faction, which must have been a minority of the voters 
of the town, proceeded, however, to the transaction of business; 
and 

a vote was called for to see whether y e Town would so farr Accept of 
y e Report or Result of y e Hon rble Committe, Refering to y e placeing y e 
new meetinghous in maiden, as to order y e same to be Recorded in y e 
Townbook, and y e vote did pass unanimusly Against y e Recording y e same. 

" Our Charlestown neighbours," who seem to have been the 
impelling force in these " unhappy Things," appear now to 



CHARLESTOWN NEIGHBORS AND TROUBLE. 51 1 

have ordered everything to their own satisfaction ; and at a 
meeting held April 17, all votes passed in the preceding year 
relating to the meeting house were reconsidered, " so as to 
make them all utterly null, and void to all intents and purposes 
as if they never had been voted." A committee was chosen to 
lay out a piece of land " upon y e Towns Land in Maiden near 
y e old meetinghous, to Build A new meeting hous upon." At 
the same time, a vote was passed in favor of the inhabitants at 
the farms in the north-western part of the town. 

voted: that y e inhabitants of y e north Eand of this Town shall have 
tenn pounds ayear Alowed them to help them to have preching among 
them in y e wintter sesons after a new meetinghous shall be built and 
furnished upon y e Towns Land near y e old meetinghous. 

This looks very much like a price paid by the south side 
men, at the expense of the town, for the assistance or forbear- 
ance of their more distant townsmen. Sixty-one inhabitants 
entered a protest against the holding of this meeting and the 
consideration of the several articles in the warrant, 

Which things we y e subscribers do think to be very presumtuous in 
any man to dezier, or y e selectmen to Grant knowing that y e Town Did 
vote and Chuse a committee to place y e new meeting hous in maiden 
and they have don it Acordingly, and the General Court has confirmed 
y e Reportt or Result of y e sd committee and made it obligatory to all 
intents and purposes. 

It has been stated that most of the leading officers of the 
town were south side men ; and it is worthy of note that their 
party seems by some means to have had an almost complete 
control of affairs at this time. Jonathan Sargeant, one of the 
most influential of their number and a leading citizen of the 
town, was representative to the General Court, 1 724-1 728, and 
moderator of most of the meetings while the question which 
divided the town was being considered. 

There seems to have been no intention on the part of the 
now apparently dominant party to regard the behests of author- 
ity any more than they had heeded their own honor in the 
matter of the committee and its decision ; for they not only 
neglected to enter the report upon the record, but they pro- 



512 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

ceeded towards the erection of the new house upon the Bell 
Rock land. The committee, which had been recently chosen, 
now made the following report : — 

Maiden Aprill y e 24 th : 1728 : wee y e Subscribers being Chosen A Com- 
mittee By this Town, to Stake out a peace of Land upon y e Towns 
Land near y e old meetinghous, to Buld a new meetinghous upon, we 
have this Day bin upon the sd Land, and have Staked out apeace of 
land, on y e Towns Lands Northwest of y e old meetinghous and near 
unto the same of 56 feet square for y e Above said Service: Returned 
to y e Town Clerk to be Recocorded : in y e Town Book on y e Day 
abouesaid by us. 

Thomas oakes Thomas wayte 

Lef t Samull Green Richard Dexter 

James upham. 

At a meeting held May 15 John Green, Jr., Richard Dexter, 
Ebenezer Pratt, Thomas Burditt, Jr., Ebenezer Upham, Samuel 
Waite, Thomas Lynde, Samuel Newhall, and Samuel Blanchard 
were chosen " for A Committee to treete and Agree with A 
workman, or men, for y e Building and Compleate finnishing a 
new meeting hous in this Town." Of this committee but three, 
Waite, Lynde, and Newhall, were north side men. Thirty-seven 
voters entered their dissent against this action and they appear 
to have been as persistent as their opponents in their endeavors. 
A few days later William Sprague and Dorothy, his wife, con- 
veyed to the town by a deed of gift, dated May 21, 1728, the 
land which had been designated by the arbiters. It was 
described as 

a Certain peice of land purely and intirely for the building and plac- 
ing a new meeting house upon the said Land lying in the Town of 
Maiden and County abovesaid between Luises Bridge and the Pound 
on the West side of y e Road staked out which the Hon b ! e Committee 
chose by the Town of Maiden for the ordering the place for the new 
meeting house to stand have unanimously agreed on the said ground 
given by the abovesaid William Sprague to the Town of Maiden if they 
build a new meeting house on it this s d Land is fifteen Rods long and 
six rod wide the length northerly and southerly and bounded as fol- 
loweth Easterly on the Road Westerly on the Land of William Sprague 
northerly and southerly on William Spragues Land with all the Rights 



CHARLESTOWN NEIGHBORS AND TROUBLE. 513 

Profits and Priviledges thereunto belonging unto the Town of Maiden 
forever if they will build a new meeting house on the said Land. 38 

About the same time, " Cpt. Samuel Wayt, John Sprague & 
a great number of others " invoked the interposition of the 
General Court, 

Complaining against the Select men, Town Clerk and Moderator of 
Some of the late Meetings of the Town of Maiden for not only neglect- 
ing to see that the Result of the Committee referring to the Place for 
building their Meeting house on (confirmed by the General Court) be 
recorded, but also for their obstructing the Putting the same on Record, 
& acting in Disobedience to the Authority of this Court, And Praying 
that they may have the benefit of the said Report ; & that this Court 
would grant them such Relief herein as to their Wisdom & Justice 
shall seem fit. 39 

In this petition the Council and House of Representatives, 
who were not at this time in the best accord, found matter for 
a difference of opinion. The Council, after due notice and con- 
sideration of the answer of the selectmen and other officers, 

And it fully appearing that as well the Select men as Town Clerk of 
Maiden, together with Jonathan Sergeant Moderator of a late Meeting 
held in said Town have not complied with an Order of this Court 
pass'd the 21 s ? of Febry. last, Ratifying, & enforcing the Result of a 
Committee for placing a new Meeting house in Maiden & recording 
said Result, but have acted contrary thereto & in great Contempt 
thereof; 

Ordered that Joses Bucknam, Phineas Upham, James Barret, Samuel 
Sweetsir & Thomas Parker, Select men of Maiden together with William 
Sergeant Town Clerk be committed to the common Goal in Middlesex 
until they find Sureties for their Good Behaviour & their Appearance at 
the next General Sessions of the Peace to be holden at Concord for 
the said County ; 

Jt is further Ordered that the Attorney General (or such Person as 
the said Sessions shall appoint) bring forward an Information at the 
said Court, as well against the Select men & Town Clerk above named, 
as against Jonathan Sergeant, Moderator of the late Meeting there 

(more especially in April last) accordingly; And Jt is likewise 

Ordered that the Town Clerk above named on his Peril forthwith record 
the Result of the said Committee for placing the Meeting house in the 
Town Book of Maiden; and that the Jnhabitants of the said Town 

88 Midd. Co. Deeds, xxviii. 275. 39 General Court Records, xiv. 62 [June 5, 1728]. 

33 



514 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

proceed to erect & build their new Meeting house in the Place agreed 
to and confirmed by this Court. 40 

When this order was brought into the House, that body 
promptly non-concurred, taking 'the action indicated in the 
following extract, which would probably have satisfied the pe- 
titioners had it not been in its turn rendered of no effect by the 
action of the Council. 

[June 1 8, 1728.] On the Vote of the Council on Maiden Affair, as 
enter'd last Saturday ; 

Jn the House of Represents 5 Read & Unanimously Non Concur'd ; & 

Voted that the Town Clerk of Maiden be & hereby is ordered & 
directed to record the Result of the Committee mentioned in the 
within Petition for placing the Meeting house in the Town Book of 
Maiden And that the Inhabitants of the said Town proceed to erect & 
build their new Meeting house in the Place agreed on by the said Com- 
mittee, Unless the Town of Maiden shall agree among them selves upon 
some other Place, between that reported by the Committee, as above, 
& Bell Rock so called ; & lay their Votes and Agreement, before this 
Court at their next Session for Confirmation, & the same be accepted 
& confirmed by the Court. 

Jn Council ; Read & Non Concur'd, And the Board adherd to their 

Vote with their own Amendments. Jn the House of Represent" 5 

Read & Non Conr t! , & the House insist on their own Vote. & 
Ordered that the further Consideration of this Petition be refer'd that 
so the Town of Maiden may have an Opportunity of accomodating 
their Differences in the mean time. 

Jn Council ; Read & Non Concur'd. 41 

And so the matter seemed to rest for a while. It appears, 
however, that the north side soon returned to the field and pre- 
ferred another petition to the General Court in August; for at 
a meeting, October 29, the selectmen were instructed by the 
town " to make Answer to y e 63 : north side petetioners to y e 
Generall Court, last August Rcfering to y e placeingy e new meet- 
ing hous in maiden." I can find no trace of any other action 
at this time; and if any were begun or intended, it was probably 
stifled in the quarrel which prevailed between Governor Burnet 
and the General Court. 

43 General Court Records, xiv. 85. [June 15, 1728.] 41 Ibid., 89 



CHARLESTOWN NEIGHBORS AND TROUBLE. 515 

Meanwhile the southern faction persisted in its purpose ; and 
the committee that had been chosen in May made a contract 
with Lieutenant Aaron Cleaveland of Charlestown to build the 
new house, which the town accepted, January 14, 172%. Fifty- 
one north side men protested against any action, saying that 
" y e meetinghouse has been placet Elswhere by an Hon 1 " Com- 
mitty Chosen by y e Town for that purpose." At the same 
time " a vote was cald for to see if theyr should be a steple to 
y e s d hous and it passed in y e negetive." Thirteen days later, 
although fifty-four inhabitants entered a dissent against the 
meeting, it was voted " that y e Town will have A tarrett upon 
y e new meetinghouse to hangg y e Bell in ; " and " that the 
Town will Raise money to Defray y e Charges of Building 
y e newmeetinghouse Acording as y e Committy have Agreed." 

The work of building, which had been delayed, was now 
begun, and materials were collected upon the proposed site; 
but during the spring there was a. change in affairs, and the 
party of the north side cither became strengthened in members, 
or began to work with more vigor. At the meeting in May 
the town not only superseded Jonathan Sargeant by the choice 
of Samuel Bucknam, but refused to raise money for his services 
in 1728, as well as for town expenses. 

Soon after the action of the town officers in ignoring the 
order of the General Court was brought to the notice of the 
Justices of the Superior Court of Judicature, three of whom, 
including the Chief Justice, Benjamin Lynde, had been mem- 
bers of the committee of arbitration, who 

On the 27 th day of June directed his Majestys Writ of Mandamus 
to the aforesaid Committee [of the town], requiring them to desist 
from erecting a Meeting house in the Town of Maiden at any other 
Place than that agreed upon & directed to by the General Court at 
their utmost Peril, & to remove the Materials for building the said 
Meeting house to the aforesaid Place assigned by the General Court, 
& Commanded William Sergeant Town Clerk to record the said De- 
termination respecting the Situation of the said Meeting house in the 
Town Book of Maiden, Which was to be done without delay ; or 
signify their Reason to the contrary at the next Superior Court of 
Judicature, Court of Assize & General Goal Delivery to be holden at 



516 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Cambridge within & for the County of Middlesex on the last Tuesday 
of July. 42 

At the appointed time both parties appeared before the 
Court, and, after they were heard, 

The Temporary Writ of Mandamus was made final & peremptory, 
& the aforesaid Committee required to erect a Meeting house without 
delay at the Place aforesaid, Pursuant to the Order of the General 
Court, the Materials to be removed, & the Determination respecting 
the situation of the Meeting house to be recorded as above. 43 

This order was issued August 4, and no time was lost in 
removing the materials to the new site north of Lewis's Bridge. 
Here, upon the spot now occupied by the First Parish for 
nearly one hundred and seventy years, the frame of the new 
house was raised, August 28, 1729, no doubt with liberal 
compotations and a prayer by Mr. Emerson, to the utmost 
satisfaction of the inhabitants of the north side. 

Finding the Courts in favor of their opponents, the south 
side men were now willing to compromise ; and at a meeting, 
held August 15, the town voted to "Agree to place y e new 
meeting house Half way between y e old meeting house & y e 
place Reported by y e Hon rb,e Committee." It was further 

Voted that y e Town will preferr apetetion to y e Generall Court that 
the order of y e sd Court, may be seet aside, Refering to y e placing y e 
new meeting house, & that y e Town of maiden may order y e setting 
y e sd House by amajor vote, Or that y e Generall Court will send a 
Committe of Both Houses to state y e plac of y e s d House to stand 
upon : 

Voted that mesurs : Josses Bucknam, Sam 1 . 1 Sweetser & Jonathan 
Sargeant are Chosen A Committe to Act as Agents for y e Town at 
y e Generall Court with Referrance to y e petetion above mentioned. 

Sixty-three " inhabitants on y e north side of y e River " pro- 
tested against the consideration of the articles contained in 
the warrant for this meeting, " which Artckles," said they, " are 
very unjust & unreasonable for y l y e inhabitants of this Town 
on y e north side of y e River, & y e inhabitants on y e South side 
of y e River being Two partys Did agree to Chuse an Hon rble 
Committee to place y e new meeting house in maiden." 

42 General Court Records, xiv. 29S. 4:3 Ibid 



CHARLESTOWN NEIGHBORS AND TROUBLE. 517 

Nothing came from the appointment of this committee of 
south side men ; but at the next session of the General Court, 
Samuel Blanchard and Ebenezer Upham, acting as a com- 
mittee of the town, complained of the action of the Superior 
Court, " for as much as the Major Part of the said Town are 
averse to the Meeting house being placed there, Therefore 
Praying for Redress from this Court." The lower branch of 
the General Court, having considered the petition, reviewed the 
action of the Justices of the Superior Court, which they de- 
clared " to be very extraordinary & not warranted by Law," 
and not to " be supported by any Law of this Province." 
" We therefore," said the Representatives, 

think it incumbent on this Court to signify their Disapprobation of 
such a Practice, or being any ways countenanced, lest in a short time 
the Courts established here assume to them selves Powers in Prejudice 
to the Rights, Properties & Estates of his Maj tys good Subjects within 
this Jurisdi[ct]ion & the known & well approved Trials by Verdicts 
of Jurors in a great measure [be] rendered useless : For prevention 
whereof, 

The afore Writ of Madamus & all the Proceedings of the Justices 
had thereon be by the Authorty of this Great & General Court & 
hereby are declared to be set aside & made null & void to all Jntents 
& Purposes whatsoever. 

The Council, being composed of better lawyers than the 
other House, saw clearly through the sophistry which the 
Representatives had thrown around the subject and quickly 
cleared it of difficulties by a unanimous non-concurrence. " The 
Board," said they, 

having enter'd into the Consideration of the Petition of the Com- 
mittee of Maiden referring to the Mandamus granted by the Judges 
of the Superior Court & the Vote of the Hon ble House thereon, & 
having Unanimously Non Concur'd the said Vote think it proper to 
inform the House thereof, that so the People of Maiden may not be 
kept longer in suspence, but go on to build or finish the Meeting house 
in the Place where it is now ordered according to the Order of the 
General Court. 44 

This ended the matter so far as Maiden was concerned and 
the meeting house was finished on the spot where it had been 

44 General Court Records, xiv. 298-299. 



5 18 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

begun; 45 but the dignity of the House of Representatives had 
been wounded and its wisdom impeached, and for seven days, 
a wordy passage at arms prevailed between the upper and 
lower branches of the Great and General Court. 

The House looked upon " the Reasons given by the Hon ble 
Board " as " very surprizing," and declared that " the House 
suppose the Maiden Committee or any other Persons are no 
ways obliged to observe the Orders & Determinations of the 
Superior Court in the aforesaid Writ of Mandamus." The 
Council in return regarded 

it as an extraordinary & unwarrantable Proceeding & of dangerous 
Consequence for the House to declare their Opinion that the Maiden 
Committee or any other Persons are not obliged to follow the Orders 

6 Determinations of the Justices of the Superior Court in the afore- 
said Writ of Mandamus : And it seems very strange to the Board that 
when the Writ of Mandamus was designed only to enforce Obedience 
to an Order of the General Court that the House should suggest that 
the Persons were at their Liberty, & thereby encourage their Dis- 
obedience to an Order of the Great & General Court or Assembly of 
this Province. 

The House was " constrained shortly to reply," and affirmed 
" that the Pains taken by the Board to prevent the sincere 
good Design of the House in acting as they did in that Affair, 
cannot be accounted for," and that the " Jnsinuation that the 
House had encouraged Disobedience to an Order of the 
General Court is extreamly injurious & bears hard upon the 
Jntegrity of the House." The Council retorted that 

The Board had very good reason to hope from the Message they 
sent down to the Hon b ! e House the twentieth currant [September] 
referring to Maiden new Meeting house & the Mandamus of the 
Judges thereupon, & in answer to the Message of the House dated 
the day before, to have heard no more of that affair, And what it is 
that has constrained the House to send up their Reply they know best 
themselves. 

They insisted firmly upon the maintenance of the authority 

of the Superior Court, and arraigned the House for its inter- 

45 Although the committee was macious to the last; and the report of 

forced to proceed with the building of the committee was never entered upon 

the house on the spot approved by the the town record. 
Court, the town clerk remained contu- 



CHARLESTOWN NEIGHBORS AND TROUBLE. 519 

ference. In conclusion they went directly to the heart of the 
whole matter in a manner which showed that they understood 
the condition of Maiden as well as the constitutional bearings 
of the question under consideration. 

The House indeed seem very jealous of the Liberty & Property 
<of the Subject so far as to protect them from Writs issuing out of the 
Superior Court ; but then in the same Breath they draw the Jurisdic- 
tion to themselves, when certainly it is most agreeable to the Con- 
stitution of the English Governm! so it is best upon all accounts for 
Matters of Liberty & Property to be determined by the Courts of 
Justice & not by the General Court. Nor can the Board think it 
proper for this Court upon this Occasion especially to inquire into 
the Power of the Superior Court as to Writs of Mandamus Prohibi- 
tions &c ; Jt may be time enough to do that when there may be just 
matter of Complaint, & not when the Mandamus in question was 
founded on & designed to inforce an Order of this Court, & not in 
any Affair of private or personal Liberty or Property that might be 
proper for a Jury to try, but a Matter of great Concern to the Jnterests 
of Religion and the Peace of the Town of Maiden. 46 

The House made no reply; and as other quarrels were 
available this one was tacitly abandoned and the town of 
Maiden was left in the care of the Superior Court and its writ 
of Mandamus, now "made final & peremptory." 

The south side men, although defeated, were still defiant 
and factious. At a meeting held May 11, 1730, they influ- 
enced and passed a vote by which the committee in charge of 
the building of the new house was authorized " to stand a 
tryall in y e Law against Aaron Cleveland of Charlestown who 
hath sued y e s d committee for money to pay for a house which 
he has sit up in this Town, which y e s d Committe think is not 
sit to y e satisfaction of y e Town, they have therefore Deziered 
that this might be put in this warrant." Sixty-four " inhabi- 
tants of Maiden on y e north side of y e River quallified to vote 
in Town affairs," protested against this vote, 

which artickel, [said they,] we think to be very unresonable to set 
a man to work and not to pay him his wages but bring him under a 

46 General Court Records, xiv. 300-308. 



520 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

nessety to sue for his money which y e sd Committee did agree to give 
him for building & furnishing a new meeting house in maiden. . . . we 
are willing to pay our proportion. 

No intermediate vote appears in relation to this matter; 
but the selectmen made a rate, June 30, of six hundred and 
seventy-one pounds, nine shillings, and fivepence, " for y e 
Defraying the charges of building a new meetinghouse in and 
for this Town." The committee was cast in the suit; and at 
a meeting, August 7, it was voted "That the Town will pay 
unto m r Aaron Cleveland all the money that he hath Re- 
covered against y e Committe by a judgment of Court and to 
meet in the new meetinghouse to Carry on y e worship of God 
for the futuer." Ten days later the selectmen laid a rate of 
two hundred and twenty-six pounds and one shilling for the 
balance required to carry out the vote of the town. It ap- 
pears that the town officers, being mostly south side men, 
were in no haste to pay the builder with the money which 
the town had raised for that purpose ; and in December the 
committee was obliged to settle the claim, as appears by 
the following receipt, which was afterwards entered upon the 
town record : — 

A Coppe off a Receit from Aaron Cleveland of Charlstow?i 
Charlstown December y e 21 : 1730 : then Received of mf John Green 
& of the Rest of the Committy for y e Building maldin meting house 
y e Sum of Eight hundred and Eighty two pounds in full for a Judgment 
obtained Per me 

Aaron Cleveland. 



Judgment for 


£ 

870 


: 00 : 00 


Bill Cost 


12 : 


: 00 : 00 



Entered by order 
of f Selectmen. 
£882 

But the end was not yet, for the town, either sullen because 
of the enforced payment or willing to punish them for their 
evident leaning to the party of the south side, or perhaps from 
a combination of both reasons, refused to reimburse the com- 
mittee either for the sum which had been recovered from them 
or for their expenses. At a town meeting held April 14, 173 1, 
the following votes were passed : — 



CHARLESTOWN NEIGHBORS AND TROUBLE. 52 1 

uoated y e Town dont alow or except y e bills granted to y e Committy 
that went in to y e Law with m r Aaron Cleveland. 

voat. wather y e Town wont Rais money to pay y e sd Committy and 
thay would not. 

In May a committee, composed of the following north side 
men, John Wilson, Captain Samuel Waite, Daniel Floyd, Ensign 
Joseph Lynde, and Samuel Mower, was chosen to " stand a 
triall or trialls in y e Law "with the unfortunate building com- 
mittee, " for money which thay say is due to them from y e town 
at y e next enferiour court to be holden at Cambridge." It was 
not until the payment was forced that the town did what should 
have been done at the outset, and the claim of the committee 
was satisfied. 17 They received, March 3, 173^2, the sum which 
Cleaveland had recovered and forty-nine pounds for their 
trouble. 

The last sermon was preached in the old house, Sunday, 
August 9, 1730, by Mr. Emerson from Revelation iii. 3 — 
" Remember how thou hast received and heard." 48 During the 
sermon, the house of John Hutchinson was set on fire and 
burned to the ground. 49 An effort was made to preserve the 

47 "At apublick Town meeting in drey times the Votes ware Swept off the 

maiden January y e 21 day 1731' 2 Cap! Table. & much disturbance & disorder 

wait was chosen modorator of sd was ocasioned thereby so that the 

meeting. Worke and buisness of the day was 

" voted, ca\>\ Sam" wait John willson Lef Retarded and Wholy Preuented . . . 

Sam" Bucknam ware chosen Agents in and we can see no likelyhood to obtain 

behalf of y e Town to make afinall Jssue a regular meeting (vnder our Present 

of y e wholl matter between y committy Circumstances) to carry on our affairs 

and y e Town thay haueing sued y e town Without help or direction from some 

for money which thay say is due to Superior Power." 

them from y e Town voted wather y e town 48 Bi-Centeimial Book of Maiden, 1 28. 

would forgiue Ambros Blaneys Rates 49 " We are informed, That on Wed- 

jn Sam" Stowerses Lists and it past in nesday, July 30, a desireable Youth and 

y e negitiue." the only Son of his Parents at Malden, 

There is no record of another meeting being sent with an Horse, was found 

until March 23; but in the Middlesex Dead by the side of a Rock close by 

Court Files [March, 173^] is a petition the Road; It being concluded the Horse 

of the selectmen referring to a stormy threw him against it and beat the Breath 

attempt to hold a meeting, February 21. out of his Body and kill'd him imme- 

In it they say that, while voting for a diately." New England Weekly Journal, 

moderator, August iS, 1729. 

" So it was y' sundry persons brought This was the son of John Hutchinson. 

in Votes y' ware not qualified = Which I was informed by the late Benjamin A. 

occasioned some disquiet & contreuarsy Tufts that the horse was purposely 

amongst the people assembl c ! and sun- frightened by a negro slave, who was 



522 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

old house for religious purposes. At a meeting held Novem- 
ber 2/, 

A vote was Called for to see if y e Town will have preching in y e old 
meeting house for this wintte seson and it past on y e negetive. 

voted that y e Town will sell y e old meetinghouse unto him that will 
Give most mony for it within Twenty days from this meeting. 

The house was soon after sold for fifty pounds and the pro- 
ceeds supplied the means for the payment of the salary of Mr. 
Emerson for six months. It does not appear whether it was 
demolished or removed, and the sacred edifice may still exist 
in the walls of a building now standing. 

On Sunday, August 16, the church and congregation, remov- 
ing from their old home, worshipped with apparent unanimity 
for the first time in the house which had cost them too much of 
perplexity and ill temper and had evoked a quarrel which 
lasted many years with little diminution of its bitterness. 

The new building, standing on the site of the present house 
of the First Parish on the land given by William and Dorothy 
Sprague, sheltered the worshippers of the North Parish for 
nearly three-quarters of a century, until it was demolished in 
1802. Of its outward appearance there is little known. If the 
vote of June 2, 1727, was followed, it was not large; but though 
its dimensions of forty-four feet by fifty-five feet seem strait and 
mean, it was probably commodious for the congregation which 
occupied it. It had a turret, or at least a small belfry, for it 
was " Voted — that y e Towns Bell shall be Hanged up in y e new 
meeting house." 50 Clapboarded it doubtless was, but it was 

afterwards sold by Hutchinson and a frame; and a new house was built on 

carried to Salem. Some time after he the site of the old one and occupied 

returned to Maiden on a Sunday, when within six weeks after the fire. This was 

the people were likely to be at the the house which was long known as 

meeting house, expecting to find con- the Peter Tufts house and stood on the 

siderable money in the house. He found northerly side of Cross Street, on the 

only about a shilling and departed, after brow of the hill east of High Street, 

setting fire to the house, which was When it was demolished in 18S3. the 

destroyed. He had been seen skulking immense chimney, which was that of 

in a corn-field by some one at the Parker the first house and showed marks of the 

house, who had remained at home; was fire, was an object of much interest, 
arrested; confessed the crime ; and was 50 March 1, 173 °/,. There is a tra- 

hanged at Cambridge. clition that the bell was hidden for a 

Hutchinson cut trees on the land for time in the parsonage well, for fear that 



CHARLESTOWN NEIGHBORS AND TROUBLE. 523 

unpainted both outside and inside, and such was its condition 
to the last. 

A rude ground plan was made a number of years ago by one 
who had known it in its later years. 51 The pulpit stood on the 

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north side opposite the great south door, which was the prin- 
cipal entrance. A smaller door on the easterly side gave addi- 
tional facilities for ingress and egress. It was built at first with 
one row of galleries on three sides, but others were afterwards 
built above them. These were furnished with plank seats and 
railings. The galleries were divided by a partition, or railing, 
in the middle of the south gallery ; and the easterly portion was 
appropriated to the use of the women, while the remainder, or 

the south side men would remove it. years. To his Genealogy of the Pratt 

Its subsequent history is related in Family in MS-, I am indebted for several 

chap, vii., note 37. interesting facts connected with my 

51 The late John Pratt, who died subject. 
October 13, 1S63, at the age of eighty 



524 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

the westerly side, was occupied by the men. Middle-aged men 
usually sat in the front seats and young men and boys in the 
back seats, while the old men sat in the front of the south gal- 
lery, opposite the minister. In two corners of the house, stair- 
ways gave access to the galleries; and the description quaintly 
adds, " The east stair was for women and the west stair for men, 
and they could not get together in the gallery without getting 
over the railing." 52 

The floor was occupied by pews, except a limited space be- 
fore the pulpit where there were a few plank seats or benches, 
which were formerly used by old men and women on their 
respective sides. At a later day some of the seats of the old 
men, on the westerly side of the large aisle, were taken away 
and a place made for the singers, who sat around a slanting 
table or rack. When they sung, those of the front rank turned 
their backs to the pulpit and faced their fellows on the other 
side of the table. The women or treble singers sat next to the 
aisle and the men at the farther end. 

Most of the pews were nearly square and a few, perhaps from 
the necessities of their position, were smaller than the others ; 
but all were wide enough to allow chairs being placed in front, 
in which the women sat. The men sat on a seat or bench at 
the back of the pew, the younger men being nearest the door. 
The small children frequently sat on stools, literally at the feet 
of their elders ; and as the walls of the pews were high, they 
had little exercise of aught but the sense of hearing. The 
singers' seats and those in the pews were made to raise during 
prayers, when the people stood in their places. At the end 
the amen was drowned in a clatter as the seats fell down. 
" There was a great clapping through the house," says my 
honest authority. 

When the length of the services, stretching sometimes to two 
hours or even more, is considered, and the absence of all that 
makes our modern places of worship comfortable, it may be 

62 In its earlier years one or more appears from a vote, passed in 1763, to 
stairways gave access to the galleries take down "the mens and womens 
from the north side of the house. This north Stair." 



CHARLESTOWN NEIGHBORS AND TROUBLE. 525 

realized that there were great possibilities of discomfort in the 
meeting houses of the old time. " The house had no cush- 
ions," says our informant, " nor fire-place or stove for any fire; 
and it was just as good for worship as any house that we have 
now — if it had been warmed." In cold weather women car- 
ried to the meeting house foot-stoves filled with hardwood coals, 
which they who came from a distance and remained all day re- 
plenished before the afternoon service at the tavern or at a 
neighboring house. 

Much has been written and said of the discomforts and bodily 
pains which our fathers and mothers sustained or enjoyed, with 
a grim sense of a duty performed, in the old New England 
meeting houses. It may be questioned how much the approba- 
tion of their sincere hearts and the joys of the spiritual man 
mitigated the disquiet of their material frames; and yet they 
could sing with spirit, and doubtless with the understanding, 
such inspiriting words as these, from their rude version of the 
Psalms : — 

I joy'd in them that said to me, 

let r s at the Lord's house meet. 
O thou Jerusalem within 

thy gates shall stand our feet 
Jerusalem is builded up 

into a city frame : 
In 't self together uniform, 

compacted is the same. 



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CHAPTER XVI. 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT. 



\\ 7HILE the people of the south side freely acquiesced in 
» » the unanimous vote by which the town agreed "to meet 
in the new meetinghouse to Carry on y e worship of God for the 
futuer," their pacification was far from being real ; and they 
were secretly working to divide the town. 1 The first sermon, 
as we have seen, was preached in the new house by Mr. Emer- 
son, August 1 6, 1730. The dissatisfied members of the church 
and congregation had made arrangements for a meeting of their 
own at the same time, but by some means they were disap- 
pointed. Four Sabbaths later they were more successful and 



1 Twenty-five years later the south 
side men said of this vote: — "We say 
that the s d vote was not so freely come 
into as represented, but obtained in 
conjunction with another [in favor of 
Aaron Cleaveland, the builder] ye rea- 
son of which as we have been inform'd 



was this : y e southwardly part of y e 
Town were concern'd for their neigh- 
bours of y e s d Com tee , & y e northwardly 
equally so to worship in s'. 1 House ; we 
were affraid that they would not raise y e 
money, & therefore y e vote was put as 
represented." Mass. Archives, xiii. 692. 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT 527 

held their first service by themselves. 2 The place of their 
meeting is now unknown. It was probably in the house of 
some one of their number. After this their meetings were 
frequent, and attempts to maintain stated preaching appear to 
have been made ; but an organization was not effected for sev- 
eral years. Matters were rapidly tending towards the separ- 
ation for which they were earnestly striving. As early as July 
6, 1 73 1, a petition was presented to the General Court asking 
its interference in view of the threatened rupture. 

A Petition of Samuel Wait & a great number of Others Inhabitants 
of the Town of Maiden Shewing that after long Contention among the 
Inhabitants of the s d Town about placing their new Meeting House the 
Contending parties agreed to leave the decision thereof to five Gentle- 
men m the Governm' Who unanimously determined upon the most 
proper Place for setting the Meeting House & their determination was 
Confirmed by the Order of the General Court, notwithstanding which 
a party in the said Town did a long Time oppose the Meeting House 
being set up in that place & Joses Bucknam & others are about Build- 
ing another Meeting House within a Mile of that already built, which 
will make such a Division in the Town as will be ruinous to it & There- 
fore praying an Order of this Court to forbid their proceeding in the 
said Affair. 

In Council Read & Ordered that the Petitioners serve Joses Buck- 
nam James Barret & Jonathan Sergeant with a Copy of this Petition, 
that so they may shew cause if any they have, on Fryday the ninth In- 
stant, why the Prayer thereof should not be granted & that no further 
proceedings be had as to the Building a new Meeting House in Maiden 
in the mean Time. 

In the House of Representatives Read & non concur'd, & the Ques- 
tion put whether the prayer of the petition be granted? & it pass'd in 
the negative. In Council read & unanimously non Concur'd. 3 

From the intimation contained in this petition and from 
other indications, it seems probable that they began about 
this time to build a meeting house upon the hill in Everett 
known at various times as Sargeant's, Nelson's, or Belmont 
Hill. Here, on a spot near the present easterly corner of High 
Street and Broadway, Jonathan Sargeant had set apart a piece 
of land near the centre of the farm which had descended from. 

- Bi-Ccntcnnial Book of Maiden, 128. 8 General Court Records, xv. 121, 



528 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

his grandfather, William Sargeant, the " godly Christian " who 
first preached the word to the infant church of Maiden. His 
deed of gift, bearing date August 6, 1731, is not without 
interest. 

To all People to whome these presents shall come Jonathan Sargeant 
of Maiden in the County of Middlesex in New England Yeoman send- 
eth Greeting &c. Know ye that I the said Jonathan Sargeant for and 
in Consideration of the Love good will and affection that I have for 
and do bear towards all the Christian People that Inhabit In the South- 
erly part of Maiden and for the propagation of the Gospel among them 
have given and granted and do by these presents fully freely clearly 
and absolutely Give and grant unto Stower Sprague Ebenezer Upham 
John Mudge Jun' and John Green Jun r all of the Town of Maiden 
Yeoman and to their associates heirs and assigns for ever a certain 
Tract or parcel of Land Situate lying and being in the Southerly part 
of Maiden aforesaid containing one Quarter of Acre being part of my 
homestead or home-dwelling whereon now I dwell for the erecting of 
a new Meeting House on in order to the Worshiping of God in the 
Congregational way which quarter of an Acre is bounded as followeth 
beginning at the Corner where the Stone Wall meeteth with Ebenezer 
Seargeants Land at a heap of Stones in the Corner and from thence 
running about Southwest as the Wall now stands Six Poles and an half 
to an heap of Stones and from thence running about South East Six 
poles and an half to a heap of stones and from thence running about 
North East Six Poles and an half to a heap of Stones by the Wall side 
and then bounded by the Stone Wall about Northwest Six Pole and an 
half to the bound first mentioned . . . together with a Road from 
said Land Twenty and six feet wide where or nigh where it is now 
trodden down to the Gate and then from the Gate the same weadth 
that it is already Laid out down to the highway they fencing said high- 
way if they would have it an open road. 4 

For a while both parties remained quiet, although the meet- 
ings in the southern district were continued and there was 
apparently no intention on the part of the seceders to return. 
There was presented to the General Court, in December, 1732, 
" A Petition of loses Bucknam & sundry others Inhabitants of 
the Southerly part of the Town of Maiden, Praying that they 
with their Estates may be set off a Separate Precinct." 5 This 
petition was referred to the session beginning in the following 

4 Midd. Co. Deeds, xxxvii. 227. & General Court Records, xv. 349. 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT 529 

May, when the parties were heard and the answer of the town 
considered. The town was represented by Jonathan Barrett, 
John Wilson, and Samuel Bucknam ; but as the latter was 
a south side man, his name was not affixed to the answer of the 
agents, which was a strong and straightforward statement of the 
case. 

To His Excellency Jonathan Belcher Esq and to the Hono bt f His 
majesty's Council &> honoured House of Represents in General Court 
now Sitting the 6"l June 1JJJ 

The Answer of Jonathan Barrett, John Wilson and Samuel Bucknam 
(agents chosen by & for the Town of Maklon) to a Petition of the 
Inhabitants of the southerly Part of Maklon. 
Humbly Sheweth, 

Inasmuch as Sundry Inhabitants on the Southerly Part of our Town 
have Set forth in their Petition that there hath been for many Years 
past an uncomfortable Difference among us, which after all Endeavours 
for Peace still remains, We humbly crave leave to Say & doubt not 
to make it clear & evident to this Great & General Court, That the 
Sole Reason of our Difference hath principally arose from their own 
unreasonable Contrariety to the Votes of the Town, the Result of a 
wise and hono ble Committee, and to the Order of the Great and 
General Court, relating to the Situation of our new Meeting House, 
and We humbly beg Leave to remonstrate our Proceedings from time 
to time with the Reasons thereof. 6 

And whereas said Petitioners have addressed the Great and General 
Court to set them off into a distinct Township or Precinct by certain 
Bounds described in their Petition, and have served the Town with 
a Copy of their Petition according to order of Court to Shew Cause 
why their Prayer should not be granted, We humbly beg leave in 
behalf of the Town to declare the same, Viz' : 

1 : The Towns meeting House was by Vote of the Town agreed on 
to accommodate the whole Town. 

2 : Where the meeting House now Stands was determined on by a 
wise & Hono ble Com 1 ': 6 mutually chosen by both Parts of the Town. 
3'y It is Seated much nearer the Southerly part of the Town & is 
much more convenient for the Jnhabitants thereof than those on the 
north Side, both by Reason of the nearness of the House & Goodness 
of the Roads. 

6 Here follows in the document an beginning, which has been used in the 
account of the controversy from its preparation of the preceding chapter. 

34 



530 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

4 : As it now Stands, it is by reason of a Road that leads to the South 
east Part of the Town as accomodable for near half the south Part 
of the Town within 40 Roods as the old meeting House was. 

5. The meeting House as it now Stands is not 30 Roods from Lewis's 
Bridge, and the Creek by which they propose the Town to be divided, 7 
So that there will not be one House on the north Side of Said Bounds 
to the Southward of the meeting House. 

6. After the Town voted they would not have 2 meeting Houses 
Sundry Jnhabitants on the northside (about 10 Families and some 
of the wealthiest) petitioned the Great and General Court to be set 
off to Reading and were accordingly, which hath Shortened the Town 
a mile. Here we would observe said Families were uneasy, & living 
at the remotest Part of the Town were desirous of having preaching 
in the Winter Season, or to be Set off to Reading, and the Town chose 
rather to Set them off. 

7. The Common Wood Lots belonging to both Parts of the Town 
lies on y e N: Side, & a great Part being mountanous & Rocks must 
for the most Part lye for Woods, and a great Part fit for nothing 
else. 

8. The greatest Part of the marish & Some upland belonging to the 
north Side Inhabitants lies within the Bounds mentioned in their 
Petition. 

9 : Near 30 Families of the South side constantly attend the publick 
Worship in the Towns meeting House, and some of them included in 
the Petition, and Some of them live near as far from the Towns meet- 
ing House as the greatest Part of the South Side do. 
10: Some Families within the Limits described in their Petition 8 as 
they are cut off by a River must come by the Towns meeting House 
unless in Winter Seasons when the River is froze & even then they 
are nearer to the Towns meeting House than to the other. 

11. There are many of the Petit? that pay little or nothing to the 
Tax except their Polls, and Some of them have left the Town Since 
their Petition was preferred. 

12. Our Rev? Pastor hath many Times set forth the great Difficulties 
he hath been under by Reason of the Value of the money, and that 
he hath been hardly put to it, to Support his Family, but considering 
the Circumstances of the Town at the present Iuncture he hath Sat 
easy & wav'd any further motions for a addition to his Salary, 9 the 

7 Pemberton's, or Harvell's Brook 8 The families at Wilson's, or Blanch- 
was the northern line proposed by the ard's Point [Wellington], 
petitioners. This was certainly taking 9 The settled salary of Mr. Emerson 
a liberal division of the town; but it was, as has been stated, one hundred 
failed, and the line of the new precinct pounds. In 1734 the town added to 
was fixed as stated in note 19. it fifty pounds, "passable monny yearly 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT. 53 1 

Consideration whereof hath moved particular Persons willingly to 
contribute every Sabbath Day towards his Relief, which must needs 
be an Jncrease of Charge to the north Side mostly, Here we beg 
leave to observe how hard it will prove for the north Side, who live 
at so much greater Distance than the South to have a double Charge 
fall on them neccessarily on Dividing the Town. 

If our Town be divided, We beg leave to query, Whether it will be 
for the Peace of the Town in General, or whether it will not occasion 
great & lasting contentions in the Town especially in the north Part, 
for then the meeting House will Stand on the extreamest Part of the 
north side Southward whereas now it Stands pretty near the Centre of 
the Town. 

We humbly pray this Hono? Court to take our Case into their 
Serious Consideration & compassionate our Sad & distressed Circum- 
stances, and for the above mentioned Reasons, which we are able to 
attest to the Truth of and many more of Weight (too tedious to be 
inserted) we are ready to offer, if this great & Hon 1 ' Court See cause 
in their Wisdom to admit us personally to speak to, which we don't 
doubt will Set things in so clear & manifest Light as that this Hon d 
Court will be induced to Iudge that the dividing our Town will 
neccessarily tend to the impoverishing the Town (especially the north 
Part) and bring them into the utmost Difficulty, Confusion, and Laying 
Such Burdens as will be grievous to us & our Posterity. From the 
consideration whereof we hope & intreat this Hon'. 1 Court will in their 
great Wisdom See cause to dismiss their Petition which will engage 

us, as in Duty bound ever to pray &c. 

Jonathan Barratt, 

John Wilson. 10 

The petition came before the Court, June 12, when it was 
dismissed by the concurrent action of both branches. 11 

Failing in their efforts to divide the town, sixteen male 
members of the old church withdrew from Mr. Emerson's 
communion the next spring, and called a council of three 
churches by which they were constituted a separate body 
under the name of the South Church, April 18, 1734. At a 
meeting of the new church, September 4, Jonathan Sargeant 

for the term of three years." The parish Salerry." The addition in 1752 was 

voted an additional one hundred pounds, fifty-two pounds, lawful money. 
O. T., in 1745 ; and in 1747, and again 10 Official copy in the possession of 

in 1749, "The Parish added three hun- Artemas Barrett, 1S66. The original is 

dred Pounds old tennor for this Present not to be found in the Mass. Archives. 
Year to the Rev mi M' Ioseph Emerson n General Court Records, xv. 400,401. 



532 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

and Ebenezer Upham were chosen ruling elders, and John 
Mudge, deacon. 12 

Although their former petition had failed, the malcontents 
doubtless felt strengthened, for they had succeeded in obtain- 
ing a church organization ; and after a little respite they re- 
newed their endeavors for a separation. At the General Court, 
December 3, 1734, there was presented 

A Petition of Jonathan Sergent and loses Bucknam in behalf of the 
Inhabitants of the Southerly part of the Town of Maiden Shewing 
That in the Year 1732 they preferr'd their petition to be set off a 
seperate precinct which the Court were pleased to Dismiss and for 
as much as the Pet", still Labour under the Difficultys they then 
Represented Therefore praying that they may be made a seperate 
precinct or that a Com' 1 : 6 may be appointed to view them and 
Consider their Circumstances and Report their Opinion thereon to 
this Court. 13 

With this prayer the representatives sympathized and ordered 
a committee, with such as the Council might add, to proceed to 
Maiden and consider the circumstances of the town. In this 
order the Council, however, non-concurred and the business 
was ended for that session. The petitioners were, nevertheless, 
far from being discouraged and preferred a third petition in 
April, 1735, which met the fate of its predecessors. 

Maldon Southerly Petition & Order. April, 1735. 

To His Excellency Jonathan Belcher, Esq. Captain General 6° Com- 
mander in Chief in 6° over His majesty's Province of the massa- 
chusetts Bay in New England, and to the Hono bc ' His majesty's 
Council 6° Honol House of Represent™ in General Court assembled 
April Q : 1735. 

The Petition of the South Church with the Inhabitants of the South 
Part of maiden 

Humbly sheweth, 

That Whereas they have been at the charge of building a meeting 
House for the publick Worship of God and for Several Years past 
maintained a Gospel Minister amongst them for the Comfort and Con- 
veniency of them and their Families and at the Same Time paid their 
proportionate Part towards the Maintenance of the minister of the 

12 Bi-Centennial Book of Maiden, 129. 13 General Court Records, xvi. 73. 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT. 533 



north Part of the Town, notwithstanding those of the north Part are 
as able to Support the ministry of themselves without our Help as we 
are without their Help ; and the whole Town being, as we humbly con- 
ceive (either together or apart if actually divided) Sufficiently qualified 
honourably to maintain two ministers, and their having been in the 
year past a Church embodied according to the order of the Gospel, 
and agreeable to the Platform of Church Discipline and being desirous 
that we may have a Gospel minister Settled with us, that so the Ordin- 
ances of the Gospel may be administered among 54 us, our humble 
Request to this Great & Hono bIe Court is that in your great Wisdom 
and Goodness you would compassionate our Circumstances, and exert 
your Legislative Power, and form us into a distinct Township, Parish 
or Precinct (with our Perquisites and proportionable Part of all the 
Rights of the ministerial Lands belonging to the Town) according to the 
Bounds mentioned in our former Petition, or as in your great Wisdom 
you Shall think best ; that So we may be capacitated to call & Settle 
an orthodox minister and afford him a Suitable maintenance ; or if in 
your great Wisdom you should think best that you would first Send 
a Committee to view the Situation of the Town at our Cost ; and in 
answer to the Reasons exhibited to the Hono ble Court by the Town 
against our being Set off from them, 14 we would beg leave to reply in 
General that a Great Part of your humble Petitioners were formerly be- 
longing to Charlestown, and the great motive which inclined them to 
be set off to Maiden was the greater Conveniency of attending that 
meeting, at which Time we were encouraged the meeting House should 
not be carried further from us, whereas now it is removed from us 
almost half a mile in a bad Road, and altho' to Some few it may not be 
much further than the old meeting House was, yet most of those find- 
ing the great Conveniency of Having the meeting House near them, 
and being Sensible by the Blessing of God they Shall be able to Sup- 
port the ministry to their & their Families greater Comfort and Con- 
veniency and at the Same time leave their neighbours of the north 
Part of the Town under as good Circumstances to Support the ministry 
as themselves on the South Part of the Town we therefore pray this 
Hono b . Ie Court to take our Case into your wise Consideration, and 
retrieve us from our Difficulties, and your humble Petitioners as in 
Duty bound Shall ever pray. 

Joses Bucknam Jun r : William Pain 

John marable Joses Bucknam 

John Pain James Barret 

Phinehas Sargeant Jonathan Sargeant 

Joseph Sargeant John Mudge 

14 This refers to the town's answer to the former petition. 



534 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Phillip Sweetser Eben r Upham 

Thomas Pratt John Burditt 

Solomon Townsend Jabez Sargeant 

Thomas Wheeler John Sargeant 

Richard Dexter James Moulton 

Joseph Burditt Jon a Oakes 

Peletiah Whittemore Joshua Whittemore 

Thomas Richardson Sam" Sweetser Jun r 

John Winslow John Warren 

James Barrett jun r Jacob Winslow 

John Green Jacob Burdett 

John Nicholls Joseph Caswell 

Benj* Sweetser Thomas Burditt 

Nathaniel Upham John Green Jun r 

Simon Grover Stower Sprague 

Eben! Barrett Daniel Whittemore 

Elias Whittemore Eben r Pratt 

Adam Knox Daniel Whittemore Jun? 

Jabez Burdett Jonathan Whittemore 

In Council April 9 : 1735. Read & Ordered That the Petitioners 

Serve the Town of Maiden or the Congregation usually attending the 

Ministry of the Revl Ml; Emerson with a Copy of this Petition that so 

they give in their answer on the first Tuesday of the next May Session. 

Sent down for Concurrence. 

J: Willard Sec r - y 
Jn the House of Represent'' 6 . 5 April 18: 1 735. 
Read & Concurred 

J. Quincy Spk" ': 
Consented to J. Belcher. 15 

The determination of this prayer was made, June 4, 1735, 
when the answer of the north side was read before the Council, 
" as also the Petition of Thomas Wayt and Sixteen other Inhab- 
itants of the Southerly part of said Maiden Praying that this 
petition may not be Granted and the matter being fully Con- 
sidered," the question was passed in the negative and the peti- 
tion was dismissed by a concurrent vote of both the Council 
and the House. 36 

The south side people had pluck at least, if they lacked 
some of the more Christian qualities. Thrice rebuffed, they 

15 Official copy in the possession of Artemas Barrett, 1866. Also, General 
Court Records, xvi. 134. w General Court Records, xvi. 14S. 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT. 535 

lost nothing of their persistency. If they might not have a 
separate precinct, they already had a separate church. Stated 
preaching they might have; but it would be at a double cost, as 
they were taxed for the support of the town's ministry, which, 
under the existing state of affairs, was that of the church of 
their north side neighbors. It may have been argued that 
a ministry of their own would add strength to their position in 
the event of a future attempt for a separation. However this 
may have been, they proceeded to call a Council composed of 
" the Churches of the Old & New North in Boston, of Charles- 
town, the first Church in Maldon the 2 d Church in Brantry, the 
Churches of Scituate, Pembroke, & Hannover to Assist in the 
ordination of the Rev d Mr. Joseph Stimson to the Pastoral office 
over them." The proceedings of the Council were entered 
upon his own church records by the venerable Thomas Cheever 
of Rumney Marsh, the former pastor of the Maiden church. 

[September 24, 1735.] This day the Elders and Messengers of the 
Churches mett in Council at Maldon, and after their Covenant was 
read ; and the Result of the Council -of three Churches by whom they 
were imbodied into a distinct Church state was read, & after the Con- 
sideration & Debate upon what was Offered by the Rev d Mr. Emerson 
& a Committee of his Church in Objection to the Proceedings to ordi- 
nation, The Council Voted that they were a Church of Christ, & to 
be acknowledged as such, and that what had been Objected was not 
Sufficient to hinder the Proceeding to Ordination, Accordingly they 
immediately went to y e Meetinghouse, where y e Rev d Mr. Stimpson 
was Ordained after y e usual manner. 17 

Joseph Stimpson, the first pastor of the South Church, was a 
son of Andrew and Abigail (Sweetser) Stimpson of Charles- 

17 Rumny-marisk Church Book, in same time, are free to submit Matters 

loco. Mr. Emerson, in his sermon in Controversy to the Consideration of 

preached four days later, warned his a proper Council ; I say, such Men dis- 

hearers against " Party-Councils." It cover too much of a busy, forward, and 

is, he says, the business of the church party Disposition. . . . Party-Councils, 

to call ecclesiastical councils, "and not and Anti-Councils, tend to the confusion, 

the Business of a few particular Persons, and not to the peace and Edification of 

And such Men, as are at the Beck of Churches: And my Brethren, the less 

a disaffected Party, and are ready at you are concern'd with such Councils, 

the Invitation of such a Party to come the better. Emerson, Meat out of the 

and form themselves into an Ecclesias- Eater, 9, 10. 
tical Council, when the Church at the 



536 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

town, where he was born February 7, \§ t %%- His mother was 
a daughter of that Benjamin Sweetser, a prominent Baptist, 
whose wife Abigail is supposed to have been the only sister of 
Michael Wigglesworth. He was graduated at Harvard College 
in 1720, and taught school a few years in his native town. 
Maiden seems to have been his first and only place of settle- 
ment as a minister and he appears to have preached here some 
time before his ordination. Of his abilities as a preacher 
nothing is known. At college he appears nearly at the foot of 
his class. If his piety covered the paucity of his attainments, it 
was well. Even that, if the other were wanting, might have 
entitled him to some consideration at the hands of his quarrel- 
some parishioners. His salary was long in arrears; and if 
poverty were his portion, sickness seems to have been present 
with it. 

The course of Mr. Emerson during this time was one of 
steadiness and courage tempered by prudence and moderation. 
No part of the movement was occasioned by dissatisfaction with 
him; and he so lived " that he was not reproached by any as 
being the cause," although he keenly felt the division and was 
much distressed by the crooked ways of his former parishioners. 
His son says of him : — 

In his younger days, his courage, wisdom, prudence and steadiness 
were very much tried, and were very conspicuous, when so considerable 
a part of the church and congregation rent themselves off from him 
and their brethren. Tho' it was not from any disgust at, or uneasiness 
with him as their minister, yet it caused him no little trouble and un- 
easiness. He behaved with prudence, sobriety and patience, and 
managed the intricate and difficult affairs of that day, as far as he was 
concerned as the pastor of the church, with that impartiality, as to 
obtain the approbation of some of the wisest and best men in the coun- 
try, assembled in council ; and I doubt not, of God, and his own con- 
science. Some later trials which greatly exercised his patience, and 
made very deep impression upon him, I believe were found to praise, 
and honor and glory ; his ripening for heaven was very apparent. 18 

Mr. Stimpson was ordained on Wednesday. On the follow- 
ing Sunday, Mr. Emerson preached a sermon to his church 

18 Emerson, Extract from a late Sermon, etc., 9. 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT. 537 

and congregation, " the Design whereof," he said, " is to lead 
to such an Improvement of some unhappy Things that have 
been among us, as that God may be honour'd." This sermon 

Meat out of the Eater, 

AND 

Sweetnefs out of the Strong 



sermon 

Preach cl at MALT) EN, 

September 2%th. 1 7 3 y. 



By Joseph Emerson, A.M. 

Paftor of a Church in faid Town. 

Gen. 50. to •-- God meant it unto Good. 
rial. )6. 10. Surely the Wrath of Man foallprdifeTbee;- - 
ri&l. 1 19. 7 r. ft is good for we that 1 have been afflicted ; 
1 hat I might ham thy Statute!. 

Ph jL,'- rz ' ": ] wotjld that ye fiould underjland, that the 
Things which happened — have fallen oat rat/xrvnto 
the Furtherance of the Gcffel. 



BOSTON: 

Printed byS.KNZB l a n . &T.Gr e zxforD.HzN chmaw, 
ia Corn-hill. 1 7 3 j. 



53$ HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

was printed under the title of Meat out of the Eater, and Sweet- 
ness out of the Strong. In the dedication, the reverend author 
pays a compliment to his people, which may have covered a 
thrust at his southern brethren. " I cannot but rejoyce," says 
he, " in the remarkable Sobriety, Temperance, and Industry, 
that so generally prevails among you : That there are so few, 
idle, rude, extravagant, drinking Persons among us." The 
following extracts give a lively picture of the condition of the 
church and town during the long contention; and the author's 
reflections upon the course of the seceders, though severe, 
seem to have been just. 

You cannot be insensible, my Brethren & Neighbours, that in 
several of the Years past, there have been those unhappy Things among 
us, that have eaten and devour'd (in a great measure) our Time, our 
Interest, our Comfort, our Love and Charity, &c. It has been a long, 
long Day of Temptation with us, a long and a dark Day of Affliction. 
VVearisom and fatiguing Difficulties have we had to pass through, sore 
Temptations to conflict with. Our own and others Corruptions, what 
sorrowful Work have they made us ! How much Time, precious Time, 
has been consumed to no purpose, or to that which is worse than none 
in the Day of our unhappy Difficulties ! What Labour, what Difficulty, 
what Expence, what Grief and Vexation have our Divisions Occasion'd 
us ! And, which is worse than all, what Wounds have we given to our 
precious Souls ! How have we griev'd the good Spirit of God ! What 
Guilt have we contracted ! What spiritual Comfort have we depriv'd 
our selves of, by the Sin and Folly of Contention ! 

Meat will come forth out of the Eater, and Sweetness out of the 
Strong, if a well established Peace should he Consequent upon the 
Divisions and Confusions that have been among us. If after the 
Tossings and Shakings we have had, we should for the future be 
the more settled and composed. Oh that it might be so ! May the 
God of Peace give you Peace ! May we become a quiet Habitation, 
and no longer a Seat of Contention ! Let us pray, let us plead, that a 
long lasting Peace may be establish'd in the midst of us. Let us pray, 
let us plead, that our dear Children that are rising up, may never see in 
this Place such Disorders and Contentions as we their unhappy Fathers 
have seen. 

We have seen a Meeting- House built, some of our Members embodied, 
&c. And we are (some of us at least) ready to think that those Ends 
have not been gain'd by proper and regular Means. . . . People may 
for the present prosper in unlawful, irregular Ways ; but they must ex- 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT. 539 

pect, God will take a time to make them know and see, that He is not 
a God that hath Pleasure in Iniquity. 

And God forbid ! that we should cease to pray for our Brethren and 
Neighbours in the other part of the Town. Let us pray, that what they 
know not, God would teach them, and wherein they have done Iniquity, 
that He would make them sensible of it, and truly humble them for 
it; and so prepare them for the Smiles of His Countenance, and 
the Favours of His Providence. . . . Tho' Things have been bad 
among us, yet we have reason to bless God that they have not been 
worse. That there have not been more gross Disorders, more dismal 
Confusions among us, God has permitted just so much Wrath to break 
forth, as to get Himself Glory from it, and the Remainder He has 
restraified. 

At a town meeting held in May, 1736, the South Church and 
congregation made a movement to induce the town to assume 
the salary of Mr. Stimpson. It is evident from other indica- 
tions that they were not enjoying that ease in financial matters 
which they had assumed would attend them. The motion 
which they raised was artfully coupled with one in favor of the 
inhabitants of the extreme north end, but it failed to be accept- 
able to the town. 

[May 17, 1736,] It was put to vote to see if the town will pay the 
two ministers (viz)m r Emerson and m r Stimson there salleries Equelly 
alike by a town rate : and to see if the town will abate all the north 
side inhabitants that live more then two mills from the towns meeting- 
hous one quarter of the ministers rate and it past in the negetive. 

At the same time the town refused to grant the petition of 
Jonathan Sargeant and other south side inhabitants for a " Dis- 
tinct township or parrish." But the petitioners were far from 
being disheartened or inclined to rest with what they had 
gained, which, however, was of little real advantage, as they 
were still held for rates made in the support of Mr. Emerson 
and his ministry, and would be so held until a division of the 
town could be attained. Accordingly, at the winter session of 
the General Court, in 1737, they made a fourth attempt for a 
separation. 

[December 7, 1737,] A Petition of Nathaniel Upham, Joseph 
Wilson and other Inhabitants of the Southerly Part of Maiden Shewing 



540 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

that they have erected a Meeting House and by the advice of a Coun- 
cil of Churches they have settled a learned orthodox Minister among 
them, but can not obtain a Vote of the Town for their being set off 
from them ; and therefore Praying that this Court would set them off 
a separate Town or Precinct, by the following bounds viz* Beginning at 
a Stake and Heap of Stones in the Marsh by Moultons Island, which is 
the Station Line between Boston & Maiden and so as Boston Line 
runs to the Creek where Boston Line crosses the Creek in Cpt. Olivers 
Farm, and from thence on a strait Line to Pemberton's Brook at the 
Bridge, 19 and from the said Bridge South and Southwestwardly as the 
Lane runs to the end of Hutchinsons Lane and from the end of the said 
Lane to the corner of the Towns Pasture at the end of the said Lane 
due West to Sandy Bank River, and then as the said River runs to the 
Mouth of it, and from thence South Easterly as the great River runs to 
Wormwood Point formerly so called, and from thence as the River 
runs to the first Station ; and that the Petitioners may have their pro- 
portionable part of the ministerial Lands in Worcester, Shrewsbury, 
and else where. 20 

This petition was referred to December 16, and due notice 
was ordered to be given to the town. At the appointed time, 
not only the agents chosen by the town appeared, but also a 
remonstrating petition of Samuel Bucknam and others living 
within the limits of the proposed new parish. Upon further 
consideration, the Court appointed " a committee to repair to 
Maiden and view the Town, and hear the Parties to this 
Petition, as well as the abovementioned Petition of Samuel 
Bucknam and others, and upon the whole to consider and 
report what is proper for this Court to do thereon." 21 The 
committee performed its duties at once, and soon made the 
following report, which may be regarded as the charter of the 
South Precinct. 

The Committee appointed to repair to Ma/den, &c. do report, That 
they have thoroughly viewed said Town, and fully heard the several 
Parties, and it appears to the Committee that there has been a long 
Dissention in said Town, particularly about the Place of publick Worship ; 

19 This was the bridge over Harvell's 20 General Court Records, xvii. (i), 

Brook at Cross Street. Cross Street 61, 62. 

from the bridge to Main Street, as it ' J1 Journal House of Reps., December 

now runs, nearly represents the line 19, 1737. 
between the parishes. 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT. 54 1 

That about ten Years ago, a Meeting-House was built at the Charge of 
the Town, and placed so as to suit the northwardly Part of the Town, 
some Years after another Meeting-House was built by the southwardly 
Part of said Town, and in that Part of the Town a Minister has been 
settled and ordained, and there seems no Prospect that the Town will 
again unite in one Place of Worship. It likewise appears by the 
Consent of the Parties, that the Division of the Town by the Lines pro- 
posed by the Petitioners is an equal Division of said Town. It also 
appears by the Consent of Parties that the Town's Meeting-House (as 
'tis called) is so situate as best to accommodate the northern Part of 
the Town, and that the south Meeting-House is situate so as well to 
accommodate the People in the southern Part of the Town. 

The Committee do further represent, that the principal Objection 
made by the northern Part of the Town against their being divided 
into two Towns or Parishes, is their Inability to maintain two Ministers. 
The Committee to satisfy themselves examined some of their Tax-Bills, 
by which it appears that there are about two hundred and ten Polls in 
said Town, and that the Inhabitants of the Town generally pay to Mr. 
Emerson very small Rates, so that there seems no Reason to question 
the Ability of the Town to maintain two Ministers. 

Therefore the Committee are of Opinion, for the Promotion of 
Religion and the Peace of the Town, that the Town of Maiden be 
divided into two Precincts, and that the southern Precinct be bounded 
by the Lines described in their Petition, and that all the Polls on the 
southwardly Side of the divisional Line, together with their Estates 
lying and being in the Town of Maiden, be taxed in the south Precinct, 
saving that Samuel Bucknam, John Shute, James Hovey, James Green, 
Obadiah Jenkins, Isaac Wheeler, Isaac Wait, and Jonathan Knower, 
be allowed for the present to continue to the north Precinct, and that 
their Polls and Estates be taxed there, 22 so long as they with their 
Families shall generally attend the publick Worship of God in the 
northwardly Parish, and that the Polls on the northwardly side of the 
division Line with their Estates, lying and being in the Town of 
Maiden, shall be taxed in the northwardly Precinct. 

And whereas there is a considerable Estate (lying partly in the Town 
of Maiden and partly in other Towns) devoted to the Support of the 
Ministry in the Town of Maiden : The Committee are of Opinion that 
the Profits and Income of all such Estate shall be equally divided to 
the two Precincts, and applied to the Support of their respective 
Ministers ; saving that the Reverend Mr. Emerson have the Improve- 

22 The persons exempted were in- veil's Brook and a line drawn east to 
habitants of the northern and eastern Pines River, 
portions of the territory south of Har- 



542 HISTORY OF MALDEN 

ment and Profit of the Parsonage House and Land in Maiden, during 
his Life, or continuance in the Ministry there. All which is humbly 
submitted. 

In the Name and by Order of the Committee. 

John Stoddard. 
Boston, Decemb. 24"'- 1737 23 

This report was accepted by the Council, December 24, and 
by the Representatives, in concurrence, three days later ; and 
this action received the indorsement of Governor Belcher soon 
after. No other action appears to have been taken ; and 
although the acceptance of a report is not now an evidence of 
its adoption, it seems to have been otherwise in the days of the 
provincial Legislature ; and the South Precinct in Maiden was 
created without a further vote. 24 

The records of the precinct are extant from the beginning. 25 
The first meeting was held January 23, 173%, when Captain 
Samuel Green was moderator and Thomas Waite, 3rd, was 
clerk. A temporary committee of five was chosen " to call 
Prec*:' meetings for y e future." A regular meeting for the elec- 
tion of officers was held March 13, at which Elder Jonathan 
Sargeant was moderator, and the following officers were chosen: 
Thomas Waite, 3rd, Clerk; James Barrett, Captain Samuel 
Green, Nathaniel Upham, John Burditt, and Joseph Wilson, 
Precinct Committee ; Lieutenant Thomas Burditt, Thomas Waite, 
3rd, Stower Sprague, Benjamin Blaney, and John Winslow, 26 
"Assessors ; Joses Bucknam, Treasurer ; and Phineas Sargeant, 
Collector. 

At a meeting held a few days later, Captain Samuel Green, 
Benjamin Blaney, and Lieutenant Thomas Burditt were chosen 
" agents, to assert y e s4 Prec c . 1 rights of y e ministeriall Lands 

23 Journal House of Reps., December district system was abolished. It was 

-It 1 737- General Court Records, xvii. formerly in the possession of Charles 

(1), 1 1 2- r 14. D. Adams, the last clerk of the district, 

2i Ibid., 114. by whom it was presented to the town. 

25 The volume containing these rec- In writing of the South Precinct I shall 

ords, which are complete to the disso- frequently quote from its records without 

lution of the precinct, is now in the reference, when the authority is obvious, 
possession of the city of Everett. It 2ti John Winslow refused the office 

also contains the records of the South of assessor and Samuel Stower was 

School District from its formation in chosen in his stead at a meeting in 

1S00 to the year 1853, when the school March. 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT. 



543 



Lying in Reading, Maiden, and any other Lands belonging to 
y e Ministry in Maiden, Sett of to them by the Great and Gen- 
erall Court in Decemb r . 1737, as not yet Subdivded." The new 
precinct appears never to have enjoyed any portion of the in- 
come or principal of the ministerial lands, which remained in 
the possession of the old parish, although its right was often 
assailed. In the attempt to secure it the people of the south 
side wasted their energies and their money and were finally 
forced to forego the rights which they doubtless imagined they 
possessed. 

Three rates were laid during the year, of which two of 
seventy-five pounds each were for the support of the ministry 
and one of fifty pounds to meet precinct charges. The other 
public acts of the precinct in the first year of its existence were 
connected with its meeting house, which appears in an unfin- 
ished condition, a state out of which it never wholly passed. 27 



27 Many entries, characteristic of the 
times, appear in the precinct records in 
relation to the meeting house. 

The following votes were passed 
March 22, 173^: — "To grant y e re- 
quest of m r Benj? Brintnall and others 
to buld a sete behind y e forth Seat in 
y e mens side Gallery, and to have it for 
thear own, without any Disturbance." 

— "To grant y e request of m r John 
Burduitt and others to cutt up y e two 
hind Seats on y e mens Side below, and 
buld three pews in thear place, for y e 
price Sett forth in thear Petition, which 
was fifteen pounds in Bills of Credit, to 
be paid to s d . Prec ct ." — " To buld two 
Seats more in y e mens Side Gallery and 
one Seat in y e womens Side gallery." 

— " To grant. y e Desire of y e Rev"? m r . 
Io^ Stimson m r . Saraii Sweetcer Cap'. 
Sam 1 . 1 Green m T . Benj 1 ? Blaney, to buld 
Stables on y e line between y e gate and 
y e School hous." 

"[May 26, 1738] The Proprietors of 
y e Meeting hous in y e South Prec c f in 
Maiden, did then agree and voted y e 
s d house to be a Prec c . 1 Hous, they re- 
serving their rights allredy granted ; 
and also y e Prec 1 :' voted to pay m\ Tho": 
Richardson ten pounds for what he has 



done to y e meeting hous, besides what 
he has allready had." — "To finish y e 
front door of y e meeting hous, with the 
Steps belonging to it." — Elder Ebenezer 
Upham, Jabez Sargeant, and John 
Winslow were chosen " to trete with 
such Parsons belonging to s d Prec c ; as 
shall appear to buy pews Granted to be 
built." 

It was voted, July 3, 1738, " That there 
shall be Six Pillers Sett up to Support 
y e mens and womens Galleryes." At 
the same time a committee reported that 
Captain Samuel Green had bought the 
right to a pew, four feet and four inches 
long and five feet wide, " in womens 
hinder seets," for ten pounds ; and 
Phillips Sweetser was given leave to 
build a pew or pews " in y e wemons 
hinder part of y e front Gallery." 

March 30, i73 s / g , it was voted, "To 
finish y e Carpenters and masons work 
in y e Inside of the meeting house ; " 
and in the following May, " To finish y 
oute side of the Meeting house, namely 
y e pentis over the womens Door, and 
make and putt up the back side gutter, 
and make and put up y e Trunks, and 
Culler the trunks, and windows, and 
fore Door and gutters." At the same 



544 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

It is said that at this time the South Church was at the height 
of its prosperity, if prosperity that may be called which was 
only comparative and was still far short of that state of perfect 
comfort and ease, either in temporal or spiritual things, which 
attends true prosperity. There was still a lack of means for the 
support of the ministry and their house was unfinished. There 
was a lack of Christian harmony in the church, and there was a 
constant cause for disquiet from without. In the midst of their 
hardly acquired precinct were persons and estates which re- 
mained to the North Parish, and others, unwillingly set off, were 
ready to join them. 

The members of the new church and precinct had attained 
some measure of success; but it was conducive neither to com- 
fort nor to peace. As a body they had sinned ; and as they 
had sowed in deceit, bearing ill-will to their brethren, so they 
reaped, not a whirlwind, but a season of petty strife, of apathy 
and weakness, of spiritual decay and ruin. Before the first 
year was at an end, the authority of the General Court was in- 
voked to cancel the act of separation or to modify its terms. 

A Petition of Joseph Lynde and others Inhabitants of the Town of 
Maiden ; Shewing that altho' the General Court have been pleased to 
erect a new Precinct in the South Part of the said Town, yet the 
Inhabitants of the whole Town are not capable of supporting more than 
one Minister; and therefore Praying that they may be again united 
into one Precinct, or if that be thought not proper, that the first or 
Northern Precinct may enjoy the whole benefit of the Ministerial Lands 
belonging to said Town. 28 

This petition was doubtless made under the pressure of an 
attempt made by the committee of the South Precinct to ob- 
tain a portion of the income of the ministerial lands. It was 
unsuccessful, but was renewed in another form the next year. 
The struggle which then took place over the petition of Stephen 
Paine and that of the North Parish, although it produced no 
immediate results, showed the weakness of the new precinct 

time the precinct granted " To m* Stairs." He was to pay three pounds 

Nath 1 . 1 Paine liberty to build a pew in "for s<? Spoot." 

y e Corner of the Meeting house over- 28 Genera/ Court Records, xvii. (i), 

head going up y e womens Gallery 325, 326. December 13, 1738. 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT. 545 

and the dangers which beset it from the first. It began to 
decay at the beginning. The papers in the case are interesting 
as showing the condition of affairs and the authority by which 
the members of the North Parish withheld from their sister pre- 
cinct a portion of the ministerial lands, an authority which they 
steadily maintained until it was confirmed twenty years later. 
Stephen Paine, whose petition claims a place in this connection, 
had come into the possession of the Carrington farm by pur- 
chase, or otherwise, of his father William Paine. This land, 
since known as the Simon Tufts farm in Everett, lay but a short 
distance from the meeting house, and its loss, aside from its 
effect upon the rates, might have led to a speedy disintegration 
of the precinct. 

Province of the | To his Excellency Jonathan Belcher Esq r 
Massachusetts Bay J Captain General a?id Governer in Chief . . . 

. . . in General Court assembled at Boston 

December y j th iyjg. 

The petition of Stephen Pain of the Town of Maiden Most humbly 
Shcweth: That in the year 1737 This Honored Court in their great 
wisdom ware pleased (after repeated Petitions from a number of the 
Inhabitants of the Southerly part of Maiden) to lay them off and made 
them a Precinct by them selves, not only those who ware the petitioners 
but also Sundry others of y e Inhabitants of the Southerly part of said 
Town, who did not desier to belaid off with them : Your Petitioner in 
perticuler, who with Eight others of the Freeholders of the south part 
of s d Town Petitioned this Honored Court that neither they nor their 
Estats might be laid off with our neighbours but that we might be re- 
ferred to pay to the Reverend M r Emerson as formerly, the Prayer of 
s d Petition was so far granted by this Honoured Court that Eight of the 
petitioners were referred to pay boath for their Pools and Estats to 
y e north Parish so long as they with their families shall generaly attend 
said meeting, your Petitioner onely out of nine was then laid off, and 
have since ben Calld upon to pay where neither I my self nor famely 
do attend y e Publick worship, neither is it for my edifycation so to do ; 
and in as much as your Excelency and Hono rs being the only Resort 
for persons under the like dificulty for relief I would therefore most 
humbly pray that for the promoting of my spiritual and best good you 
would be pleased to take my Case & Circumstance into your most wise 
and serious Consideration and lay me with my Estate off back again to 
the north Parish, in asmuch as I can with my family attend the Publick 

35 



546 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



worship of God there with great Convenience. I submit my Case To 
your Excelencys and Honors most wise Consideration hoping that 
inasmuch as I am persvvaided that It is your great Concern to seek the 
promotion of Religon ; you will readily grant me my Request, which 
will oblige your Petitioner as in duty bound to ever pray, &c. 

Stephen Paine. 
We the subscribers would signify to your Exelency and Honors that 
it is our earnist desier that the Prayer of the within written Petition 
may be granted 



Samuel Bucknam 
Danel Newhall 
\\ illiam sprague 
John Dexter 

Samuel Waite Tuner. 

J j 



Commity 
of The 
North 
Parrish. 



Inhabitants 
of y c South 
Preceint. 



Thomas Waite 
William Pain 
Thomas Richardson 
John Paine 
Joseph Caswell 
Joseph Burditt iunr 
Stephen Sweetser 
Ebenezer vpham 
Thomas Waite y e 3. 



In the House of Rept ves Dec r 19 th 1739 Read, and Ordered that the 
Pet r serve the south Parish in Maiden with a Copy of this Pet" that 
they shew cause (if any they have) on thirsday the 27 th Instant if the 
Court be then sitting if not on the first thirsday of the next sitting of 
this Court why the prayer thereof should not be granted. 
Sent up for concurrence J Quincy Sp kr - 

In Council December 20, 1 739 

Read & Concur'd Simon Frost Dep y Sec™ 

2 1 : Consented to 

J Belcher 29 

To his Excellency Jonathan Belcher Esq r Captain General 6° Gov- 
ernour in Chief the honble the Council and house of representatives in 
Gen 1 Court assembled 18 Dec r 1739. 

The Petition of the North Parish of Maiden Humbly Sheweth 
That when the Honble the Great & Gen! Court in December 1737 
sent the honble Col Stoddard & others a Comittee to inspect the cir- 
cumstances of the Town of maiden & report what they thought proper 
to be done as to the creating of the Souih Parish, they among other 
things report, that whereas there is a considerable estate partly in 
maiden & partly in other Towns devoted to the support of the ministry 
in the Town of Maiden the Comittee are of opinion that the profits 
& incomes of all such estates shall be equally divided to the two pre- 



29 Mass. Archives, xii. 102. 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT. 547 

cincts & applied to the support of their respective ministers saving that 
the Rev d M r Emmerson have the improvement & profits of the parson- 
age house & Land in Maiden during his life or Continuance in the 
ministry there, which with the rest of their report was accepted by that 
honble Court. 

Now may it please y r Excellency touching this particular article we 
most humbly pray this honble Court reconsideration of it and that for 
these following reasons viz. 

1. Because the right to these ministerial lands the fee simple of the 
whole doth always in Law vest in the minister, was actually vested in 
m r Emerson before the making of the South Parish or ordination of 
any minister for it. therefore in such like cases the several ministers 
have brought the action from time to time & made the defence. So it 
was in that famous case of D r m c Sparan & M r Torrey in the Narraganset 
Countrey. 30 So the action was brought in the County of Plimouth by 
the ministers of the glebe lands in \_blank.~] So was it in the case of 
the Worcester & Shrewsbury lands belonging to the ministry of maiden. 
M r Emerson brought his action of Ejectmt against Wheler & Crosby 
& had final judgmt upon review for them at the Sup r Court: in Sept 
(?) 1737 & wa s then actually Seised of them when this report was 
made, and if the minister of the South Parish had thought he had right 
to any part of them & brought his action he must have lost in the 
Paralel case between m r James Bailey minister of the second Parish in 
Weymouth and William Smith minister of the first Parish. M r Bailey 
lost by verdict of y e Jury & Judgment of y e Sup r Court in august 1736 
as well as by the concurring Opinion of the whole barr. 

2. Jt is most equitable that the minister of the first Parish should 
hold that whole estate so lawfully vested in him. for the members of 
any new Parish generally come to be remote by their removing from 
the old Parish Ch h for their own Convenience, & in this Case are near 
about one half of them Originally of other Towns added to this Town 
for their own Convenience are as Conveniently Scituated to the old 
parish Ch h as the Parishioners of the old Parish themselves are, where- 
fore if they will seek to be created into a parish for their own Conveni- 
ence tis enough for the old Parish to lose the assistance of their taxes, 
but tis a plain Jnjury for them to carry off the glebe lands of the old 
Parish with them. 

30 The case of the Rev. James contest excited great interest for thirty 

McSparran, a missionary of the Society years. A voluminous account of the 

for Propagating the Gospel, who entered resulting suits may be found in Updike, 

upon certain glebe lands in Narragan- Narragatisett Church, 70-S2 ; and much 

sett, was a famous one in the provincial manuscript material relating to the same 

days. Dr. McSparran was ejected by case is preserved in the Prince Library 

the Rev. Joseph Torrey, a Presbyterian in the Boston Public Library, 
minister. In one form or another the 



548 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

3. The very matter of this article in the report afores d was given 
against them entirely upon a Surprise for they were never heard one 
word upon it, nor was there any reasons or arguments ever moved or 
given for it before the Comittee that the Comittee of y e north Parish 
ever heard of and therefore at least they humbly pray they may be 
heard upon this before this honble Court to answer all such reasons as the 
South Parish can possibly give for this article, that so they may not lose 
their plain right against reason & Equity & all upon a Surprise without 
being heard upon it, or at least they may be allowed to prove their 
right at y e Com Law against any persons that shall claim the same 
lands or any part of them the report afores d notwithstanding ; because 
we cannot Jmagine this honble Court intended by an Extrajudicial act 
to strip them of their rights & disinherit their minister without any 
trial or lawful Judgment at Law. 

Wherefore they humbly pray the Consideration of this honble Court 
upon the premises & that they may be relieved as the wisdom Justice 
& Goodness of this Court Shall best direct & y r pet rs as in duty bound 
shall ever pray &c. 

Samuel Bucknam Timothy Sprague 

Jonathan Barrett John Dexter 

Samuel Wait Juner 
Com*' for y North Parish of Maiden. 

In the House of Rep tvcs Dec r 19 th 1739 Read and Orde?-ed that the 
Pet rs serve the South Parish of Maiden with a Copy of this Petition 
that they Shew cause (if any they have) on Thursday the 27 th Currant 
if the Court be then sitting if not on the first thirsday of the next 
sitting of this Court why the prayer thereof should not be granted. 
Sent up for Concurrence. J. Quincy Spk r 

In Council Decern 1 : 20. 1739. 

Read & Concur'd 

Simon Frost Deft Sec ry 

21: Consented to 
J. Belcher. 31 

At a Publick Meeting of the South Prec .' in Maiden Dec! the 2 2 a 
1 739 : first voted Eld r Jon"? Sargeant moderator for said meeting. 
Voted. To Chuse a Com ttee of five men, to make answer to a petition 
of the north Parish of Maiden at y e great and Generall Court on 
Thursday y e 2 7 th Currant if the Court be then sitting, if not, on y e 
first Thursday of y e next Sitting of the Court. 

Voted. Eld r Jon'. 1 Sargeant, mf Benj'. 1 Hills, Lieu! Tho* Burditt, m? 
Benj? Blaney, my John Burditt, To be a Com". ee to make answer to y e 
afores d petition. 

31 Mass. Archives, xii. m. 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT. 549 

Voted, the afores d Com n f e to make answer to a petition of mf Stephen 
Paine at y e Great and Generall Court on Thursday y e 27 Currant, 
a true Coppy atesf 

Tho s Wayte y e 3 d : Free Clerk. s2 

To his Excellency Jonathan Belcher Esq Captain Generall 6° Gov- 
ernour in Chief in 6° over the province of the Massachusetts Bay 6° to 
the hono bu the Council & House of Representatives in general Court 
assembled 

The petition of the South parish of Maiden — Humbly Sheweth 

That the north parish of s d Maiden have exhibited their petition to 
this great & hono bIe Court pray g . the reconsideration of a former order 
& Determination of this Court respecting the Division of the s d Town 
of Maiden into two parishes & of the Ministerial lands of that Town 
and on the 21 s1 Jnstant the Jnhabf of the south parish were serv'd with 
a Copy of s d petition to make Answer thereto on the 27 th Jnstant the 
End of this petition is to Deprive the south parish of their share being 
the half part of the ministerial Lands belonging to the s d Town & 
which are of the Value of several Thousand pounds & to accomplish 
that End the petitioners have not only made an artfull & unfair repre- 
sentation of their Case but urged false facts as the present petitioners 
Doubt not they will make plainly to appear on sufB time being allowed 
them to prepare their Defence But may it please y r Excellency & this 
hono ble Court the time allowed for the South parish to give in their 
answer is so short that it is utterly impracticable for them to Do it 
by the time Appointed with Justice to themselves Jt is a very valuable 
Jnterest the p r sent petitioners have at Stake & the thing aimd at by 
the north parish is to revoke the order & Determination of this 
Hono bIe Court & that after they had faild on a petition w ch they made 
last year for the same purpose w c . h the p r sent pet r . s Conceive to be an 
Extraordinary attempt But to Defend the former order & Determina- 
tion of this Hono ble Court which is in Effect to Defend the Justice of 
the Court it is needfull to Gett & produce Copyes of Divers records 
& other Evidences which cannot be Had & an answer prepared by 
the time now sett by this hono b,e Court. 

Jt is therefore humbly pray'd that yr Excellency & this Court will 
be pleasd to appoint some further Day for the p r sent petitioners to 
give in their answer so that y r pet 1 ? may have reasonable & Sufficient 
Time to Defend their Cause w c . h they Doubt not will finally appear to 
be just — And y T . petitioners have been also on the 22 d Jnstant serv'd 
with a Copy of a petition of Stephen paine praying that he may be 
Sett off to the north parish with his Estate & as this very much De- 

82 Mass. Archives, xii. 122; also South Precinct Records, in loco. 



550 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

pends on the other petition or at least will be much better understood 
as y r pet? Conceive by the Consideration of that other it is pray'd that 
the same future Day may be Appointed for Answering this as the other 
or some other future Day as y r Ex * & this hono bI . e Court shall Judge 
meet — And your petitioners as in Duty Bound Shall ever pray &c. 

Jonathan Sargeant n 

Benjamin Hills Com'- for the 

THOMAS BURDIT \ ^ ^^^ 

Benjamin Blany | 

lOHN BURDITT J 

To his Excellency Jonathan Belcher Esq r Cap'. Gen 1 . 6° Gov r . in 
Chief the hon ble the Council & Representatives in Gen 1 . Court assembled 
26 Dec 1739 

The memorial of the Jnhabitants of the north Parish of Maiden 
Whereas y\ memorialists have a petition depending before this Great 
& Gen! Court Touching the parsonage lands of their parish and are 
deeply concerned about it as of a matter wherein they have Suffered 
beyond any precedent they have ever heard of Now therefore they 
humbly pray they may be publickly heard before the whole Court upon 
that matter by their Council that so the matter may be fully under- 
stood & they may obtain reasonable relief & y r pet 5 , as in duty bound 

Samuel Bucknam 
John Dexter 
Timothy Sprague 
Samuel Wait Juner 
Comnf 1 '. of the North 
Parish Jn Maiden. 
In Council Decern 1 " 26, 1739 

Read & Ordered that the Prayer of the Petition be granted, and 
that a Hearing be had before this Court on the Petition of the North 
Parish in Maiden on Fryday the fourth of January next at ten o'Clock 
in the Forenoon if the Court be then Sitting if not on the first Fryday 
of the next Sitting of the Court, and that the Petition? forthwith notify 
the South Parish in Maiden of this Order that so they may attend 
accordingly. Sent down for Concurrence. 

Simon Frost Dep' y . Sec r ? 
In the House of Rep ives Deer 27 th 1739. 

Read and Concur' d J Quincy Spk" 

Consented to. 
J Belcher 34 

33 Mass. Archives, xii. 123. 34 Ibid., 125. 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT. 55 I 

Pro. of y Massachusetts To his Excellency Jonathan Belcher 

Bay New-Eng* Esq r . Captain Gen r ? 6° Governour 

in Chief in 6° over his Majesties 
Province of the Massachusetts Bay To the Hon b ? his Majesties Council 
cV House of Representatives in General Court Assembled 27". 1 of 
December A.D. 1739. 

Whereas One Stephen Pain put in a Petition to your Excellency 
& Honours Praying that he with his Estate might be laid off to the 
North Parish in Maiden bearing Date the 5* of this Instant December 
And whereas we whose Names are here under written did Subscribe 
said Petition desiring the prayer thereof might be granted ; Now these 
are to Acquaint your Excellency & Honours That we since understand 
that the s d Stephen has got a Deed well Executed of all his Fathers 
Estate which then we knew or thought nothing of but only of his 
having about Six or Seven Acres of Land We therefore desire that 
our subscribing s d Petition may be looked upon in this View & No 
Other And as in Duty bound shall ever Pray &c. 
Thomas Wayte Ebenezer Upham 

Tho? Wayte y? 3? Thomas Richardson. 85 

Province of y 6 To his Excellency Jo?iathan Belcher 

Massachusetts Esq r . Cap'. General!, etc. . . in Gen- 

Bay in Netv eral Court assembled this Eighth day 

England S S. of January in the Thirteenth Year 

of his majesty s Reign Anno que Domini 1739. 

The Answer of the South Precinct in Maiden in the County of 
Middlesex to Stephen Pain of said Maiden his Petition to your Excel- 
lency & Honours bearing date the Fifth of December Last. Humbly 
Shews That your Respondents humbly Conceive the Prayer of the 
Petition of the said Stephen ought not to be granted for the Follow- 
ing Reasons. 

i l The welfare of the said South Precinct "much depends on the Peace- 
able Settlement thereof. In the year 1737; and the Respondents 
humbly Conceive, that if upon the accidental uneasiness of any of the 
Inhabitants of the said Precinct, this Honourable Court should upon 
their Request (tho. Gloss'd over with the Specious Pretence and 
Coulour of their greater Edification and best Spiritual Good) set 
such persons, and their Estates, off to the North Precinct of said 
Town, it wou'd have been much Better as the Respondents Conceive, 
that the South part had never been made a precinct, Considering the 
well known Disposition of the Generality of the Inhabitants of said 
Town to find matter of Offence. 

35 Mass. Archives, xii. 126. 



552 HISTORY OF MALDEN 

2 d ! y The petition of Stephen Pain seems to have much less Reason to 
Support it than a petition for the Same thing wou'd have from any 
other Inhabitants of our Precinct because when the Honour ble Col° 
Stoddard & others the Honourable Committee from this Honour able 
Court to Inspect and Report upon the State and Circumstances of 
the said Town to this Honourable Court on the petition of the South 
part of said Town to be a precinct then the petitioner by Said Com- 
mittee was fully heard on his desire to be sett off with some others 
belonging to the south part of said Town and that Honourable Com- 
mittee with good Reason as the Respondents Presume utterly Refus'd 
the same. 

3 d ! y The Petitioner sometime before the Rev d M r Stimpson was Or- 
dain'd over us left our assembly where he with his Family Had 
Formerly attended on the Lords days and For no other Reason that 
the Respondents can learn than a trifling difference which happen'd 
between him and one of his neighbours of the South Church upon 
which he Immediately left us without using as we know of any Christian 
measures of Reconciliation and with Submission we are well assured 
your Excellency & Honours will not give Countenance to such a Dis- 
position of mind which runs so Counter to the Generall good of the 
Town and of the Small South Precinct and of himself in particular. 
4 th . Iy Our Meeting is a mile nearer to the Petitioner than the meeting 
of the North Precinct and though as we understand Upon his be- 
comeing bound in large sums to his Father his Father has made hirn 
Deeds of his Estate ; Yet his Father as great a Friend as any to our 
Precinct is in the Joynt Possession thereof with his son the Petitioner 
and the Situation of said Estate as Long as our Precinct Remains will, 
Ceteris paribus, be best accomodated with our Meeting And whatever 
his said Father may have been persuaded into yet Considering how 
much he has done from first to Last for the said South Precinct & 
Church of which he is a Member we Cant think that he Really desires 
said Estate should be Transfer'd to the North Precinct in said Maiden. 

And the Respondents humbly beg leave to add that they are well 
Assured that nothing will have so great a Tendency to Ruin said Pre- 
cinct and to Raise the Hottest Contentions in said Town as the altera- 
tion and unsettling of the original Establishment of the said Precinct 
already made by Your Excellency & Honours with the assistance of so 
wise and prudent a Committee as that above mention'd who took so 
great pains to accomodate every thing to the mutual advantage and 
Conveniency of both parts of the Town in General and of every Indi- 
vidual in particular as far as possible. 

Lastly. The Petitioner obtained the Subscription of Four persons 
of very Considerable Estates in the South Precinct who have since Re- 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT. 553 

canted their said Subscription to his said Petition because he had 
Conceald from them the Purchase he had made of his Fathers Estate 
and the other Subscribers to his said Petition Excepting his aged 
Father have not Ten acres of Land amongst them all and unless their 
private Interest had been concern'd the Respondents presume they 
never would have been Concern'd at all in the Subscription. 

And with Submission this seems to Savour more of Craft &: Cunning 
than his best Spiritual Good, all which with what may be offer'd is 
humbly Submitted to the Wisdom and Iustice of your Excellency & 
Honours by the Respondents praying for the Reasons aforesaid that 
said Petition may be Dismis'd and your Respondents be allow'd their 
Costs 

Benjamin Hills "\ 
Benjamin BlanyI Com' ce for the 
Thomas Burdit I South Precinct.™ 
John Burditt J 

Province of the To His Excellency Jonathan Belcher. Esq r 

Massachusetts Bay. Gouerour, etc .... in Gencrall Court 

assembled. 

The Answer of the Inhabitants of the South Parish in maiden to the 
Petition of the Inhabitants of the north Parish in s d Town. 

Humbly sheweth. 

That the Hon'ble Col Stoddard, & others being appointed by the 
Great & General Court in Decemb r 1737 a Committee to Inspect the 
Circumstances of the said Town of Maiden, & Report what They 
Thought Proper to be Done as to the Erecting of the s d South Parish. 
They (among other Things) Reported it as Their Opinion for the 
Reasons by Them Renderd in Their Report. That the s d . Town 
Should be Divided into Two Precincts by Certain Lines making an 
Equall Division of s d Town, & That all the Estate devoted to the Sup- 
port of the ministry in That Town should be Equally Divided to the 
Two Precincts with Such Saving as the Petitioners mention. Which 
Report was afterwards in the Same month accepted, & Confirmed by 
the s d Great & Generall Court, and the Petitioners now Pray that what 
Relates to the Division of the Lands Devoted to the Support of the 
ministry be Reconsidered, & Reversd, And in Order to prevail Therein 
They have adventured to alledge that the Great & Generall Courts 
acceptance, & Confirmation of the s d Committees Report was an Extra- 
judicial act not Consonant to Justice, & Equity But obtained without 
due Hearing of the Parties. Which as your Respondents Conceive is 
a very Extraordinary Proceeding of the Peti rs Greatly derogatory to the 

36 Mass. Archives, xii. 12S. 



554 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Honour of the Great, and Generall Court which Judgd upon This 
matter, & made the Determination afores d . such a Proceeding that brot 
into Practice (& countenancing of it in any measure will Soon bring it 
into Practice) that will Cause the Orders & Determinations of Every 
Generall Court to be Complaind of, & the Justice Thereof Impeached 
before future assemblys to the Great Dishonour of Those Courts, the 
Disquiet of the Partys whose Interests are Judgd upon, & the Continu- 
ance of Every Controversy without having any Certain Limitation, than 
which your Respondents Conceive a Greater Evil can scarce happen to 
any People & The Petitioners Have taken large Steps towards begin- 
ning such a Fatal Practice 87 For instead of Submitting to the Deter- 
mination of the Generall Court in 1737. They the Last year Ehibited 
their Petition to the Generall Court praying that Both Parishes might 
be United again or (which was Their Principall aim) that That part of 
the Order which relates to the s d Precinct having one half of the Bene- 
fitt of the Estate Sequested for the support of the ministry might be 
Superseded, & Sett aside, & the northerly Precinct might Enjoy the 
whole Profits Thereof. The Present Respondents were Cited to an- 
swer That Petition. They gave in Their answer at Large & the Subject 
matter of the s d Petition being fully Considered it was ordered that 
the Same should be Dismissd as by the Records of This Honourable 
Court fully appears, & the Petitioners now again move This matter. 
& Labour to overthrow what was thus determind But to Barr Them 
herein your Respondents beg Leave to rest upon it that the Order, 
& Government, & the necessary Course of Proceedings in all such 
matters require an acquiescance of all Partys — Under such Deter- 
minations as have been already made in This Case, & will not permit 
Them again, & again to be Considered. For This your Respondents 
humbly Conceive must certainly work the overthrow of all Certainty, 
& order which are necessary in Every Court from the Highest to the 
Lowest (and will doubtless be Preservd by This Honble Court) & 
perpetuate Strife without End. And what the Petif 5 Urge for This 
purpose. Namely That They were never heard one Word before the 
Committee touching This matter But This article was given against 
Them Entirely upon a Surprize is very wonderfull. When the Inhabi- 
tants of the South Part of s d Town now made the South Parish in Their 
very Petition on which That Hon'ble Committee was appointed by the 
Great & Generall Court actually petitiond for Their Proportionable part 
of the ministeriall Lands, & without which a Great Part of Them would 
never have sought to have been made a Distinct Parish, and when in 
fact the Petitioners Were fully Heard before the Committee touching 

37 There is a notable contrast between time and the actions of the south side 
the sentiments of the committee at this people a few years earlier. 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT. 555 

Their Right in These Lands as will manifestly appear upon Examining 
the Gentlemen who were upon that Committee if this honable Court 
shall think fit to Examine them thereupon tho till there be an order of 
This Honourable Court for it your Respondents cannot but Think it 
would be a very uncommon Enquiry, & Contrary to all Rule. For the 
Generall Presumption of all Courts is That Every Court before They 
proceed to Judgment duly Hear the Partys Touching the Substance of 
the Controversy Judg'd upon the making This Enquiry your Respond- 
ents Conceive must proceed upon a Supposition no wise Consistent 
with the Honour of the Generall Court which passd upon This matter. 
But This your Respondents altogether Submit to the Wisdom of This 
Honourable Court. But Let This matter be Enquired into, or not, 
your Respondents Conceive the merits of This Petition ought not to be 
now Enquired into, & again passd upon the same having regularly 
pass'd into judgmt in manner afores 1 ? and Tho your Respondents are 
ready to Shew that the former Order & Determination of the Generall 
Court is altogether agreable to Justice, & Equity whenever This Hon'- 
ble Court shall Think fit to Enter into Consideration of the merits of 
the Petition, yet y r Respondents at present Waive the Same apprehend- 
ing it altogether needless, and for the Reasons abovementioned Pray 
the s d Petition may be Dismist with Costs. And your Respondents as 
in Duty Bound will Ever pray. 

Benj* Hills ) Committee 

Benjamin Blany \ °f the ? outh 
T -r, V Parish in 

John Burditt ) J7 „ s 
J Maiden™ 

Province of the Massachusetts Bay Jn 

New England. Suffolk. S s. 

To his Excellency Jonathan Belcher Esq r . Captain Generall and Gov- 

enour in Chief . . . in Generall Court assembled. 
The Answer of the Jnhabitants of the South Precinct of Maldron to 
the Petition of the Jnhabitants of the North Precinct. 
Humbly Shelve th. 

Your Respond' 5 were in great hopes the Long & expensive differ- 
ences between the northern and Southern parts of the Town of Maiden 
were by the just and wise Jnterposition of your Excellency and Hon- 
ours happily ended but now preceive such is the restless Spirit of Some 
that rather then the tranquillity and peace of their Neighbours should 
not be disturbed they will even presume to arraign the equal Justice 
and known Wisdom of this great and Generall Court for Establising so 
great a Blessing amongs them for the Petitioners in their said Petition 
Virtually Jnsinuate that the reports made to and accepted by the Great 

38 Mass. Archives, xii. 115. 



556 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

and Generall Court in 1737 whereby your Respond" are formed into 
a distinct precinct with the Enjoyment of one half of the Proffitts and 
Jncomes of such a real Estate formerly granted for y e support of the 
ministry in said Town is altogether unjust unequatable and Effected 
by surprize but your Respond 15 Humbly beg pardon when they in this 
their answer take upon themselves to vindicate the justice & Equaty 
of that Court in such their proceedings their own acts sufficiently de- 
claring the Same but as the Petitioners are striking at the rights & 
Priviledges of your Respond 15 they therefore defend the same in the 
following manner, and first — 

Jn Point of meer Right and Justice the Petitioners on this Head 
say that the Fee Simple of the Lands so granted Vests in the minister 
and the Same were actually Vested in M r Emerson before the making 
of the South Parish or ordination of any minister for it. herein the 
Petitioners are mistakin Jn Point of Law for the Grant was not made 
to M r Emerson and his successors but a Grant made Long before M r 
Emerson was born and as the Goverm' were y e Grantors the Town of 
Maldren were the Grantees for there must be Two partys to the Grant 
and the Grant was made to the Jnhabitants of maiding for the use of 
the ministry in the Town Jndifinatly and when the South Precinct was 
lawfully formed and the Reverend Mf Stimpson ordained according 
to Law the minister of it Can it be denied but that the Generall work 
of the ministry of that Town is as well carried on by the one as by the 
other and therefore the use of such Grant made to the Town for the 
ministry by Law results as much to the one as to the other Besides 
one principall design of that grant to maiden was in some messure to 
ease the Jnhabitans of the Charge of carrying on [the] work of the 
ministry in that Town wherein Every Jndividual of that Community 
has his Special right and when the work of the ministry is conducted 
by one alone the personall Charge of each Jnhabitant is lessened by 
the Proffitts that arise by such a Donation and consequently in Process 
of time when the Great and Generall Court discover in their wisdom 
that by the Increase of the Jnhabitants which necessarily begitts remote 
settlements that the work of the ministry can't well be carried on by 
one alone therefore make Two Parishes so that the Generall work of 
the ministry in that Town is thereby ordered to be Conducted by Two 
then ought the use of that Grant to result to both for by what Law 
without Exerting an absolute power ought the fountain of Justice to 
take from such an Jnhabitant the Ease or Right that he and his 
ancestors have been Seised off for 60 years & this the Generall Court 
would virtually do by first making Such Jnhabitants to be of another 
Parish & thereby charging them with the whole Burthen of carrying on 
the ministry as your Excels and Hon r . s can best expoun' 1 Your own 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT. 557 

private Donations & the true design and meaning of them Your Re- 
spond are well assurred you will never by an Act. Ex post, facto, take 
from them such their Lawfull Rights more especially since your Ex- 
cell 1 '. & Hon r f have already Enacted therein y' which is just & right. 
As to the Presidents used by the Petitioners your Respond dont pre- 
tend to be masters of y e state of them but apprehend the Dispute in 
the Case between D' M c Sparron and Torry was who of them Two in 
respect to orthodoxy should hold the Grant according to the Will of 
the Donors & it must be observed that was a Donation flowing from 
Private persons all Dead Jncapable of explaining their said Grant but 
this is a Grant made by y e Govorm! which is to be hoped will never 
Dye made to the Town of maiding for the use of the ministry Jn- 
difinatly in maiding and if ever it wanted Explination is by a Sub- 
sequent Act of the Legeslature who is the Power y! Granted that Same 
fully settled and that according to Law and Justice. Jt is Granted 
m r Emerson alone brought the action against Shrewsbury for at y e 
Commensing of that action y e work of the ministry in s d Town of 
Maiding was by him alone carried on your Respond ts not then formed 
into a distinct Parash, and it is Conceded in all such Grants made to 
Towns for the use of the ministry when Ever one is appointed and no 
other the right of action appertains to him but if there were two 
ministers Legally ordained in such Towns your Respond'. 5 deny that 
one only could maintain Such an action. Jt is true on the reveiw of 
y\ action there were two ministers in Maiding but that Writt being 
Grafted on the first the Parties still remained the same but it's very 
observable your Respond" as well as the Petitioners bore their pre- 
portionable part of the Charges of that Suit and as to the Case of 
Baily and Smith as your Respond'. 5 are altogether Strangers to it but 
are well Jnformed in its Creation is not a Simuler Case neither was y e 
Judg' ther-in on a Special Verdict & it's well known the Verdicts of 
Jurys are fluctuating and can't be imagined Equall to the Stability of 
the Great & Generall Court whereof also most of the Judges of y e Land 
are members And it is astonishing that the Petitioners should imagine 
a Verdict of a Jury in a Private action should so Influence the whole 
Legislature as to repeal their own Act which is of a Publick nature 

Then 2 d Y as to the Equaty of the Case the Peti rs apprehend that 
were a new parish is formed at y e request and perticular Convenience 
of many of y e Jnhabitants of the Town that they then drew half the 
Profhtts of such Grants is unequatable for it's Enough the old parish to 
Loose the assistance of their Taxes now as to this the Peti rs unfarely 
state the fact for it is the Act of the Legislature who regulates and 
makes all Towns and Parishes for the Jnterest of Religion & good of 
the People that formed your Respond' 5 into a Parish. Now much 



558 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

more in Equaty as well as in Law their Act ought not to work any- 
wrong and if your Excell 5 .' and Honou r f by forming your Respond 1 . 5 into a 
distinct Parish truly Jntended to advance Religion and the Jnterest and 
Ease of the Respond 1 . 5 as must with Great thanks [be] Granted should 
your Honours repeal your own act in part and apply the whole of those 
profhtts granted to the Town for the use of the ministry to one branch 
only of the ministry of the Town then are your Respond' 5 left in a worse 
Condition then they were before & where is the Jntended Benevolence 

Besides your Respond' 5 bore their proportionable part of the Charges 
with the Peti r f in the Case of those Lands & supporting their Grant of 
them thro the Law and now the Title is settled and some profhtts 
begin to be reaped where is the Equaty where is the justice they 
should be excluded from sharing the Same is beause the Generall 
Court in their Wisdom thro them a nother Precinct are they not Still 
of the same Town do they not still remain the Grantees for such use Jf 
both Churches were void & Trepasses committed must not the Action 
be maintained by the whole Town to whom y e Grant was made in Case 
both Churches were void But it is Jnsinuated that it is Enough for the 
Old Parish to lose the assistance of their Taxes Jn answer if the Old 
Parish conceives it Heavy to bare the Charge of supporting their min- 
ister with one Half of the Profhtts of such Lands how much heavier 
must they themselves imagin [it] to be on your Respond' 5 to support 
their minister without any part of the Profhts and where is the Equity 
and Equlity in this way of y e Peti r . 5 reasoning. But thro the blessing of 
God in the Jncrease of y e Town your Respond' s verily believe y e Pe- 
ti°' s have y e same ability if they have y e same Hearts to support their 
minister with one Half of said Profhts as y e whole Town had when such 
Grants were made Besides in Equaty & Justice y e Peti rs ought to con- 
sider y' your Respond' 5 but a few years agoe bore their proportionable 
Charges & were at great Cost in Erecting as it now turns out for y e Pe- 
ti rs a fine substantial meeting house & scarcely had your Respond' 5 
waded thro' so great a Charge but were oblidged without one farthing 
from the Peti r . 5 to Erect a nother & for y e Petitioners to Endeavour to 
take from your Respond' 5 their real right & what this Court has estab- 
lished to them to Enable them chearfully to go thro so religious & 
publick a Work is not treating your Respond' 5 as Brothers & with the 
Equaty & Equality they might reasonable expect. 

And lastly as to the pretended Surprise it appears by y r Respond' 5 
Petition & y e report of the Committee that there is no colour for such 
an Jnsinuation which carries such Jndecency with it that your Re- 
spond'. 5 submitts to your Excellency & Honours whether it deserves, 
a further answer. 39 

89 Mass. Archives, xii. 118. This document is unsigned. 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT. 559. 

Martis 8. Die January, A. D. 1739. 

Ezekiel Lewis, Esq; came down with a Message from the honour- 
able Board, to inform the House they are now ready to attend the 
Hearing appointed to be had this Day before the whole Court on the 
Affair of Maiden, and to move the House they would come up to the 
Council Chamber to attend the same. 

Mr. Speaker and the House went up accordingly, and being seated 
there, the Parties were admitted in, and being fully heard by their 
Council learned in the Law, to make their Pleas and Allegations for 
and against the Prayer of the Petition, they withdrew. After which, 
Mr. Speaker with the House returned to their own Chamber. 

Mercurij 9. Die January, A. D. 1739. 

John Jeffries, Esq; brought down the following Vote of Council upon 
the Petition of the Inhabitants of the North Parish in Ma/den, viz. 
In Council January 9th 1739. A Hearing having been had on this 
Petition yesterday before the whole Court, and the Matter being fully 
considered, the Question was put, Whether the Prayer of the Petition 
be granted ? 

It pass'd in the Negative. Nevertheless it is hereby Ordered, That 
nothing contained in any Votes or Orders of this Court relating to the 
ministerial Lands belonging to the Town of Maiden or for dividing the 
said Town into Precincts, shall be construed to affect any Right that 
the Rev. Mr. Emmerson may have by virtue of his Contract with the 
People there, or any Votes of the Town referring to his Support. 

Sent down for Concurrence. 

Read and Concur'd. 

Also a Vote of Council on the Petition of Stephen Paine, as entred 
the 19th December last, viz. In Council January 9th 1739. Read 
again, together with the Answer of the South Parish in Maiden, and the 
Matter being fully considered the Question was put, Whether the Prayer 
of the Petition be granted? And it passed in the Negative, and 
therefore Ordered, That the Petition be dismiss'd. Sent down for 
Concurrence. 

Read and Concur'd. 40 

Thus ended the struggle of the winter of i73 8 /9, which re- 
vived and perpetuated old animosities and widened the breach 
between the old parish and the new precinct. It must be owned 
that the position of the south side men was far from being 
creditable, whether their obsequiousness before the Court or 

40 Journal House of Reps., in loco. 



560 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

their distortion of facts be considered. Their solicitude for 
the honor of the Court and their interest in the " Equaty of the 
Case " are somewhat amusing and furnish a strong contrast to 
the stubbornness with which the same men refused to recognize 
the order of the Court in 1728. As to the matters in question, 
although the petitioners "of the North Parish were dismissed, 
they were practically victorious ; for the order of the Court, 
which protected the interest of Mr. Emerson during his life, 
gave them the aid of the entire profits of the ministerial lands, 
both in Maiden and elsewhere, during the term for which they 
had been granted to their pastor by the town at the time of his 
settlement. Before the death of Mr. Emerson, the right of the 
North Parish had been confirmed by the authority of the courts, 
and the South Precinct, exhausted in the struggle, had aban- 
doned its claim. Stephen Paine remained an uneasy and some- 
what troublesome member of the precinct about sixteen years, 
although he continued his connection with the congregation 
which met at the meeting house near Lewis's Bridge and re- 
fused to participate in the religious privileges of his neighbors. 
He was treasurer of the precinct in 1749; and, after several 
endeavors, he was finally annexed with his estate to the old 
parish. 



"7 "7 '.**%• •'<■}#£&.'■■ y..-jf~ 



■BEMttHnffi 



m 







ata 



CHAPTER XVII. 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT DECADENT. 



RESTING for a while in its quarrel with the North Parish, 
the South Precinct had now a little leisure to attend to 
its own internal affairs, which were far from being in a state 
of prosperity. It appears that in 1739 no settlement had been 
made with Mr. Stimpson for his services before the formation 
of the precinct. Nor were his claims fully understood ; for at 
a precinct meeting held March 30, in that year, it was voted 
"To pay unto the Rev"? m r . Ioseph Stimpson y? money due 
to him before we ware in a PreC: 1 ," and a committee was 
chosen " to see what his Demands are." Later the bodily 
infirmities of the pastor began to interfere with the performance 
of his duties and the following vote was passed : — 

[November 17, 1740.] voted To pay the Revl m r Io 1 ! Stimson the 
loose money that Comes into The Box a Sabbath Days, when he is 
able to carry on the work of the Ministry, But when he is not able to 
Carry on s'! work among us ; Then the said money Shall goe towards 
paying the Minister that Shall then Prech with us. 

36 



562 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Although it is evident that Mr. Stimpson's duties were not 
fully performed, he continued to be the pastor of the precinct, 
in which, despite its poverty, there was an ever-present spirit 
of disquiet. Its unsettled condition is fully illustrated in the 
record of a meeting held March 8, 174/4. 

It was put to vote to se if the PreC;' would Raise money and it 
pased in the Negitive. Voted — That the Com". ee agree with a man 
to take Care of the meeting house for the Ensuing year : — The Vote 
was put to See if the Prec c .' will put in a Petition to the General Court 
to be made a Town Ship, According to the Bounds Mentioned in the 
warrant and it pased in the Afirmitive — Put to vote, to See if the 
Prec^ will Choose a Com"" to put in a petision to the General Court 
and it pased in the negitive — Put to vote to See if the Prec c . 1 will 
fence the Road to the Meeting hous and it pased in the negitive — 
The Meeting is adjourned to fryday next at Six of 'Clock afternoon at 
the house of mf Benj* Blaneys. 

In the periods of Mr. Stimpson's disability such uncertain 
supplies were procured as offered from time to time until 
December 27, 1743, when an attempt was made to ensure a 
regular service and a committee was chosen " to Supley the 
Pullpit till the first of March next after this Date Provided the 
Rev? M r . Stimptson is not able to Preach himself." In the 
following March another committee was appointed " to reckon 
with y e Rev<? m r . Stimptson respecting his sallarye from the 
time that we ware set of into a Prec^" The impecunious pre- 
cinct soon found that reckoning was not settling; and seven 
months later still another committee was chosen " to treat 
with y e Rev? M r . Jos 1 ? Stimpson Concerning the Ballance due 
to him." The outcome of this treaty appeared in the following; 
vote : — 

[November 5, 1744.] Voted to except of the Settlement which m\ 
Seth Sweetcher of Charlstown & Mf Ioshua Blanchard of Boston have 
made between y e Rev d m r Io 1 ? Stimpson & his church & parish ; they 
being y e men Chosen by both parties for that porpos. 

The assessors soon after made a rate of two hundred and' 
twelve pounds, nine shillings, and fourpence, old tenor, "to 
nay the Ballance Due to y e Rev4 M r . Jo 1 ! Stimpson, untill the 
first of Novemb r . last past;" and an entry made in the pre- 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT DECADENT. 563 

cinct record about the same time shows that a portion of the 
award was settled by an interest-bearing bond, " that the Prec? c 
Can not pay down, untill theay are inabled to pay the whole," 
which it is to be hoped was taken up in time. 

Meanwhile the church was considering charges against the 
pastor, the character of which cannot be ascertained from any 
sources of information which are at present known to us. 1 At 
a meeting held, August 6, 1744, it was 

Voted that the Chh will enquire into the Truth of the Charge, which 
is brought to them against the Rev'! Mf Joseph Stimpson by Ml' Nath". 
Upham, and Mf Jabez Sargeant, Members of this Chh. — 

At the same time a committee was appointed to carry a 
copy of the charge to Mr. Stimpson and to request him to 
make an answer at an adjourned meeting. The pastor did not 
meet the church at the appointed time and the following vote 
was passed : — 

[Aug! 17,1 744.] Voted, That the Chh is Aggrieved at the Conduct 
of the Rev d . M r . Joseph Stimpson, their Rev 1 ! Pastor, in his not making 
any Satisfaction to the Chh concerning a Charge laid against him by 
Mess" Nath 1 ! Upham and Jabez Sargeant; and they also forbid him 
administring any of the Ordinances amongst them, until S d Chh is 
Satisfied by y e S d . Rev d M 1 . Stimpson — 

Voted That the Chh make the Rev d Mf Stimpson an offer of joyning 
with them in calling a Council to consult and advise upon the Charge 
brought against the S'! Rev'! M: Stimpson by Mess? Nath 1 ! Upham and 
Jabez Sargeant — 

Thereafter frequent meetings of the church were held; but 
although Mr. Stimpson wrote " signfying that he would make 

1 The MS. which is the source of my hands of one Daniel T. Upham in 1S05, 
information in relation to the troubles and was sent to the clerk of the First 
of the church and Mr. Stimpson, is now Church by the Rev. Louis H. Bahler of 
in the possession of the First Church, Maiden, N. Y., who received it from an 
and contains a record of the affairs of unknown source in 1S94. Mr. Bahler 
the South Church from August 6, 1744, wrote: "I presume it was sent by the 
to the installation of Mr. Cleaveland. minister or clerk of a Reformed Church 
It may have been a private record, as it in Cairo [Greene Co., N. Y.], or near 
was given, in 1753, by Elder Ebenezer there, who knew of only this church by 
Upham to his son, afterwards the Rev. the name of Maiden." 
Caleb Upham of Truro. Besides the Half of a leaf, which has been care- 
Maiden church matters, it contains fully torn from this book, may have 
records relating to the Upham family contained a statement of the charges 
and the church at Truro. It was in the against Mr. Stimpson. 



564 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

some Proposals of Agreement," his answer was withheld. After 
waiting three months the church proceeded to call a council 
of five churches; but appointed a committee to wait upon 
Mr. Stimpson 

and to acquaint him that if he will give from under his Hand unto 
this Chh that his Salary shall cease from the time of the Settlement 
made with him the S d Rev d . M. r Stimpson the Chh and Parish, by 
Mess r . s Seth Sweetsher and Joshua Blanchard to the last day of Oct r 
one Thousand Seven Hundred and forty four that this Chh will wait 
on him one two or three months if he thinks he is not able to wait on 
a Council sooner. — 

The latter part of this vote may imply that some bodily 
weakness still afflicted the pastor. Mr. Stimpson still remaining 
silent, nine days later the council was appointed to meet at 
the house of Deacon Joses Bucknam, December 19; but a few 
days before the time it was 

Voted that the Rev d Counsell that was desired to sit on the 19 of 
Desember aer desired to desist till a further desier 

At length the church received a letter from Mr. Stimpson, 
dated December 25, 1744, in which he wrote: — ■ 

Whereas by the Sovereign Providence of God, my bodily Health 
and Strength is so much impaired and weakened that I am utterly 
unable to carry on the publick Work of the Ministry among you ; and 
being desirous that you should enjoy all the Ordinances of the Gospel, 
I have thought it most for God's Glory and your good, which I sincerely 
desire and aim at, to ask a Dismission from you, as to my Relation as 
your Pastor. — I do therefore now in the Fear of God desire the Chh 
to vote me a Dismission, and give me a Letter of Recommendation, 
that so I may be received to Communion with such Chh's of our Lord, 
where the Providence of God shall place me. And I now humbly beg 
Pardon of Almighty God for the Sins I have been guilty of, & since I 
have been your Pastor in particular and desire your Christian Forgive- 
ness of the Failings you have seen in me, and beg your Prayers for 
me. — 

With the wish that he might " in the coming World shine 
among the Stars in Glory," and as his " affectionate Brethren," 
the church, by its ruling elder, Ebenezer Upham, gave their 
pastor a letter of dismission and recommended him to other 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT DECADENT. 565 

churches. In Christian charity one may be pardoned if in the 
letters of the pastor and the church he sees aught that has a 
color of devious ways and worldly insincerity. 

Mr. Stimpson appears to have remained in the precinct after 
he ceased to be its pastor; for in March, 174^, the abatement 
of his rates was refused, as it was again in March, 175/2. He 
died, March 28, 1752, and lies buried in Charlestown. 2 

There was now an opportunity for a union of the rival 
parishes, which it is said the people of the old parish would 
have welcomed and were the first to propose. So desirable 
seemed such a motion that it was brought before the town ; 
and at a meeting, held January 22, 17445, it was voted: — 

That Ens: Joseph Lynds Edward Wayte and En s John Dexter of 
y e north Parish Benjamin Hills Elder Upham and Thomas Wayte Ju r of 
the south Parish shall be a committee to discours together and to con- 
sider what may be don that might be thought to be a proper means to 
unight both parishes so as that they might be one again and carry on 
the publick worship of god together. 

The staying qualities of the south end men were strong, and 
they refused the proffered settlement. There is evidence that 
the financial affairs, if not the spiritual concerns, of the precinct 
were at a low mark. At a meeting held August 5, 1745, it was 
refused to raise money for precinct charges ; but at the same 
time it was voted " that y e Prec*. will Defend there Collecters 
Jn Distraining for there Raites as the Law Directes." The 
next year, the collector, Pelatiah Whittemore, or Pallintiah 
Whitemore, as he is elsewhere called, was engaged in a lawsuit 
with Isaac Waite ; and a committee was chosen to assist him. 
About the same time the restless Stephen Paine and others 
renewed their endeavors for separation. 

After the dismission of Mr. Stimpson preaching was main- 
tained by committees appointed for limited terms and the ap- 

2 It does not appear that Mr. Stimp- w ho was for some Years 

son was ever married. I am indebted a Pastor of the 2. Church in 

to Ethan N. Cobum of Charlestown for Maldon, but not being able by 

,1 c ,, r ., ... Weakness of Body to Preach ; 

the following copy of the inscription on , . , . . _ , \ 

' ' v he left his People bv agree- 

his gravestone : — ment> & Hv>d in Retirment ti]1 

Here lyes the Body of March 28 th Anno Domi 1752 when 

Joseph Stimpson, A. M. he departed this Life ./Etat 52 



566 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

propriation of small sums from time to time; and no move- 
ment towards the settlement of a pastor appears to have been 
made until a year had passed. 

Feb: 16: 1745/6. at a Chh meeting Voted that March 6. be observed 
by this Chh as a Day of Humiliation and Prayer to God for his Direc- 
tion in the weighty Affair of settling a minister 

March 16: 174^0. Voted that the Chh meet next Friday to advise 
with the Parish on such methods as they shall then think proper to be 
taken in Order to their choosing a minister : as also Voted to invite the 
Rev. M' Cheever of Lyn to come and administer the Lords Supper 
unto us as soon as he can coveniently attend it. 

Several candidates were now heard " upon probation ; " and 
negotiations were had in the summer and fall with Daniel Shute 
and Joseph Emerson, Jr., respectively. These young men, who 
were both natives of the North Parish, had been graduated 
together at Harvard College in the class of 1743. They had 
probably preached as supplies in the meeting house on Sar- 
geant's Hill ; and they may be supposed to have had some 
acquaintance with the people and their circumstances. 
Although both church and precinct concurred in the respective 
calls, the negotiations failed in each case; and the young men 
were reserved for long and honorable pastorates in other towns. 3 

At length, April 2, 1747, the precinct concurred with the 

3 Daniel Shute, son of John and 1767; the Election Sermon, 176S; and a 

Mary (Waite) Shute, was born in Mai- Sermon on the death of the Rev. Ebenezer 

den, July 19, 1722. He inherited good Gay, D. D., 17S7, all of which were 

Puritan blood of the stanchest strain ; printed. 

for his father was a grandson of Deacon He was zealous in the cause of free- 
John Greenland, and his mother a grand- dom, which he advocated with all his 
daughter of Captain John Wayte. He powers; and he took a leading part in 
was ordained to the pastoral charge of the convention which formed the consti- 
the church connected with the Second tution of Massachusetts, as well as in 
Parish in Hingham, now Cohasset, De- that which adopted the constitution of 
cember 10, 1746, where his ministrations the United States. In the latter his 
covered the long period of nearly fifty- argument on thei question of a religious 
six years. In 1758 he was commissioned test attracted attention. His attain- 
as chaplain of a regiment commanded ments and character were honored by 
by Colonel Joseph Williams, and took the degree of Doctor of Divinity, which 
part in the expedition which was de- was conferred by Harvard College in 
signed to accomplish the invasion of 1790. The failure of his sight caused 
Canada. His journal gives interesting him to cease from his public duties in 
details of the campaign, in which, for a 1799; but he retained his pastoral rela- 
while, he was sick at Schenectady. He tion, the emoluments of which he volun- 
preached the Artillery Election Sermon, tarily relinquished. He was visited 



THE SOUTH PRECIXCT DECADENT. 



567 



-church in the choice of the Rev. Aaron Cleaveland and voted 
him a settlement of three hundred pounds, old tenor. It was 
further voted that he should have the sum of three hundred 
and fifty pounds, old tenor, yearly, 

for a Support & maintenance so long as he shall Continue in the 
work of the ministry in the foresd south precinct, and that he shall 
have the Loose money that is poot in to the Boox so long as he Carries 
on the work of the Ministry in this prec ct . 

Soon after the sum of twelve hundred pounds, old tenor, was 
raised "for to buy a Parsonage for the use of this precinct; " 
and it was voted : — - 



with a paralytic shock and died August 
30, 1S02, when he was in his eighty-first 
-year. Of his talents and character as a 
minister it is said : — 

" By the great strength of mind and 
clearness of perception, with which the 
God of Nature had distinguished him, 
cultivated by study and improved by ac- 
curate scholarship, he became eminent in 
his profession for public performances, 
which combined good sense, sound judg- 
ment, and extent of thought, with perspi- 
cuity of style, and a correct taste. 

" A firm believer in the Gospel, he 
had talents to give it an able support ; 
and the same clearness of intellect, 
liberality of mind, and patience of 
investigation, which gave him a rational 
view of its doctrines and principles, 
enabled him also to explain them with 
clearness, and inculcate them with suc- 
cess. Nor was it only by his public 
labours he endeavoured to promote the 
• cause of religion; he gave it also the 
support of an exemplary life. Liberal 
but not loose in his sentiments, he was 
equally displeased with that austerity, 
which covers religion with a perpetual 
gloom, and with that licentiousness, 
which strips her of her fairest orna- 
ments. His religious opinions he 
formed with deliberation and adopted 
with caution ; but when once adopted, 
they were not lightly abandoned. He 
adhered to them tenaciously, and main- 
tained them with firmness, till further 
light, to which his mind was always 
open, produced a different conviction. 
'Ware, Sermon at the Interment of the 
Rev. Daniel Shute, D. D., 26, 27. 



Joseph Emerson, eldest son of the 
Rev. Joseph and Mary (Moody) Emer- 
son, was born in Maiden, August 25, 
1724. After his graduation he was en- 
gaged as a chaplain in the expedition to 
Cape Breton in 1745; and the service 
which he then performed is said to have 
colored his whole life and character. 
Having declined the call to the South 
Precinct, he was ordained, February 25, 
I 74/ / ?> an d became the first pastor of the 
West Parish in Groton, afterwards 
Pepperell. His father preached the 
ordination sermon from the text: 
" Thou, therefore, my son, be strong in 
the grace that is in Christ Jesus." 2 
Tim., ii. 1. 

The military ardor and patriotic 
spirit of the pastor were infused into 
the people of his charge ; and the men 
of Pepperell were among the first to 
protest against the arbitrary acts of the 
British government, as they were among 
the earliest to take up arms to enforce 
their rights. Mr. Emerson was with the 
army at Cambridge, where he is said to 
have made the first prayer in the Ameri- 
can camp. There he took a cold and, 
returning to Pepperell, he died, October 
29, 1775. He left the reputation of an 
able and faithful minister, in whose 
teachings Christian charity and liber- 
ality were conspicuous. His published 
writings were : A Sermon to Capt. 
Thomas Lawrence and his Company, 
1758; A Thanksgiving Sermon for the 
Repeal of the Stamp Act, 1766; An Ex- 
tract from a Sermon on the Death of Rev. 
foseph Emerson, Maiden, 1767. 



JtoJcA/ ^k^Bti^T 



5 6 ^ HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

That y e Rev d m r Aaron Cleveland shall have the use & improvement 
of the fores d house & parsonage so longe as he shall Contineor in the 
work of the ministry in this Precinct. 

The Rev. Aaron Cleaveland, towards whom the inclinations 

of the people of the 
South Precinct were 
now set, was born in 
Cambridge, October 29, 1 7 1 5. He was a son of Captain 
Aaron Cleaveland, a carpenter, whose troubles in connection 
with the building of the Maiden meeting house have been re- 
lated. He was graduated at Harvard College in 1735, and was 
ordained as pastor over the church at Haddam, Conn., July, 
1739, where he continued seven years. His wife, Susanna, was 
a daughter of the Rev. Aaron Porter of Medford and a niece of 
Judge Stephen Sewall. The offers of the Maiden people 
proved acceptable, and the following notice of his coming may 
be found in the precinct records : — 

may y e 23 d 1747 Then the Rev d m r Aaron Cleveland Came with his 
Family to y e south Precinct in maiden, & undertook the work of the 
ministry in the fores d precinct ; and y e precinct com" have agreed that 
his salary shall begin from that day. 

The precinct raised thirty pounds, old tenor, " to pay the 
Charges of the Jnstalement," which took place July 15. The 
following extracts in relation to this and other doings of the 
church are from the first page of " A Book of C 1 - Records," 
which was begun at this time. In the original they are in the 
handwriting of Mr. Cleaveland. 4 

M r Aaron Cleaveland Jnstall d July 15 1747. The Rev d m r Mather 
began with Prayer, m r Cleaveland preached from 1 Cor: 4: 2' 1 more- 
over it is required in Stewards y l a man be found faithfull : the Rev' 1 
m r Webb gave the charge & the Rev d m r Appleton gave the right hand 
of fellowship. 

4 The volume containing the records it was given by the widow of the late 

of the South Church from the installa- Rev. Sylvanus Cobb, D. D. By the 

tion of Mr. Cleaveland until the union courtesy of Miss Maria P. Wilson, its 

with the First, or North Church, in custodian, this volume, which is now in 

1792, was missing many years, having an extremely bad condition, was placed 

been taken from Maiden in 1S37. It is in my hands, and has been of much ser- 

now in the possession of the family vice in elucidating the history of the un- 

of the late George W. Wilson, to whom fortunate church. 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT DECADENT. 569 

At a chh meeting on Aug 1 6. the following votes were Past: (1) 
y t the chh will buy a book to keep these Records in. (2) y* Eben r 
Brown by a letter of Recom" be admitted to the Spetial comm" of this 
chh (3) y' it is the desire of the chh to have a lecture previous to the 
holy Sacrim* (4) y t the Saccrim' be admin d Every Six weeks. 

Sept. 13. y e chh voted not to insist upon Relations being made upon 
the admission of communicants. 5 

In March, 174%, it was voted "that this Precinct will allow 
y e Rev 1 ? m r . Aaron Cleveland for the Necessaries of Life; 
being Dearer then they wear when he setled in y e ministry 
with us." This allowance was fixed at seventy pounds, old 
tenor. The new pastor seems to have made as little impression 
upon the affairs of the church and precinct as Mr. Stimpson. 
In the days of long pastorates, he appears as an exception to 
the general rule; and his brief sojourn at Haddam was rivalled 
by a briefer term in Maiden. Indeed, there appears to have 
been some element of unsoundness in his teachings or belief, 
which shortened his labors, if it did not impair their efficiency. 6 
His entries in the church records cease abruptly, March 25, 
1750. About that time, it may be supposed, some breach oc- 
curred ; but neither the church nor the precinct records throw 
any light upon the matter. Dr. McClure, perhaps upon the 
authority of the lost diary of Mr. Emerson, says he was dis- 
missed. 7 A committee was appointed by the precinct, October 
19, "to Reckon & Settle all affairs with y e Rev4 m!; Aaron 
Cleaveland that Cornsarns y e foresaid Precinct." 

Nothing more is heard of Mr. Cleaveland in Maiden. Of his 
character as a preacher nothing is certainly known. Mr. Allen, 
who is not the best of authorities, says: " In early life he was 
an admirer of Whitefield, and a zealous as well as able 

5 The primitive practice of the New and so general in their spirit. A" a loss 

England churches in requiring written will he be whether most to admire the 

relations as a preliminary to full com- faith which accepted them all alike as 

munion began to decline previous to genuine heart-utterances, or the sim- 

the middle of the last century, although plicity which gave to a few conventional 

it was retained in a few churches until expressions the dignity of humility and 

after the Revolution. Many of these contrition. 

"experiences" have been preserved 6 It is said that he was dismissed 

He who reads them will not be strong by the Haddam congregation for hetero- 

to believe that sincerity pervades them doxy. MS. letter of Edmund 'J.Cleveland. 
all, so uniform are they in their form 7 Bi-Centennial Book of Maiden, 129. 



5/0 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

preacher," and "he was a prodigy of physical strength and 
agility." 8 From Maiden he went to Halifax, Nova Scotia, 
where he preached awhile until his presumed natural unsteadi- 
ness of mind affected him and he became an Episcopalian. 9 In 
1755 he went to England, where he received holy orders, and 
after some delay was appointed to take charge of a mission 
church at Newcastle, in the extreme western portion of the 
province of Pennsylvania. On the way to his new field, he 
stopped at the house of Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia, 
where he was taken sick, and died August 11, 1757. He was 
buried in Christ Church in that city. Franklin wrote the follow- 
ing notice of his death : — 

On Thursday last, died here the Rev. Mr. Cleveland, lately appointed 
to the mission at Newcastle, by the society for propagating the Gospel. 

As he was a gentleman of humane and pious disposition, indefatigable 
in his ministry, easy and affable in his conversation, open and sincere 
to his friends, and above every species of meanness and dissimulation, 
his death is greatly lamented by all who knew him, as a loss to the 
public, a loss to the Church of Christ in general, and in particular to 
that congregation who had proposed to themselves so much satisfaction 
from his late appointment among them agreeably to their own earnest 
request. 10 

8 Allen, Biographical Dictionary (3d am very hearty, and warm in, and 
ed.), 234. hitherto We have been much favourd. 

9 Mather's church, of which Mr. The Difficulty at present is, the unhappy 
Cleaveland was the first pastor, wor- backwardness of many, to Support M r 
shipped in a house which was built at Cleaveland honourably, who were for- 
the charge of Governor Edward Corn- ward in calling him to the Work of the 
wallis. It is now the home of a Presby- Ministry among them." Mass. Archives, 
terian congregation, and its name has liv. 61. 

been changed to St. Matthew's. Here 10 Pennsylvania Gazette, August 18, 

Mr. Cleaveland founded a church li- 1757. While in England Mr. Cleave- 

brary, which is still in existence, many land was led by his researches to change 

of its volumes bearing the autograph of the spelling of his name to Cleveland, 

the founder. Harper's New Monthly, which form is in general use among his 

lxxi. 4S4; jV. E. Hist, and Geneal. descendants. The births of none of his 

Register, xlii. 76. The latter article is children appear in the Maiden town 

unduly eulogistic. records; but the baptisms of George, 

Some dissatisfaction or uneasiness July 19, 1747, Margaret, June 26, 174S, 

existed as early as October 5, 1751, at and Lucy, August 20, 1749, were 

which time Benjamin Green, writing recorded by their father in the records 

from Halifax to Josiah Willard at Bos- of the South Church. He had ten chil- 

ton, says : — dren, and many of his descendants have 

" The Religious Cause of the Dissen- been remarkable for ability in the vari- 

ters and their Independency, is what I. ous walks of life. 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT DECADENT 



571 



After the departure of Mr. Cleaveland the sacrament appears 
to have been abandoned, its last observance having taken place 
March 18, 1750; nor was its celebration renewed until January 
21, 1753, under the ministration of Mr. Willis. The pulpit ser- 
vice again became irregular, being imperfectly supplied by 
committees chosen from time to time, until the fall of 1751, 
when the following entry was made upon the church record : — 

Att a church meeting in the south meeting hous in the south parish 
in maiden on the third day of October one thousand seven hundred and 
fifty one the church being timely notified and voted mr Eliakim willis 
to be the churches paster in said parish 

Thomas Burdit ) 
Ebenezer Pratt } 



Eldrs. 



Thirteen days later the precinct concurred " with the 
Churches Cois of m r Eliakim Willis to be the Prec ct minister," 
and voted him a salary of fifty-three pounds, six shillings, and 
eightpence, lawful money, or one hundred and sixty ounces of 
silver, 



His eldest son, Stephen, went to sea 
at the early age of fourteen, and two 
years later was pressed into the British 
navy, in which he served seven years. 
In 1776, being commissioned by Con- 
gress, he made a voyage to France, and 
returned with a valuable cargo of mili- 
tary supplies. He died at Salem in 
1S01. His son, Richard Jaffrey Cleve- 
land of Salem, and his grandson, Henry 
Russell Cleveland of Boston, were 
authors of some merit. The latter, who 
died in 1S43 at tne early age of thirty- 
four years, produced " many pieces of 
much excellence, both of style and 
thought." 

Aaron, the second son of the Rev. 
Aaron Cleaveland, being but thirteen 
years old when his father died, received 
but a slight education, a disadvantage 
which he nearly overcame by his natural 
abilities. He was for many years a 
hatter in Connecticut, and was an active 
member of the legislature of that state. 
Embracing the doctrines of the Uni- 
versalists, he became a prominent local 
leader in that denomination ; but he 
afterwards became an ardent Calvinist, 



and resolved to enter the ministry. He 
preached in Vermont and Connecticut 
with ability, but was never settled. As 
a poet he gained some reputation, and 
the merit of his works obtained him a 
place in The Poets of Connecticut, where 
may be found his memoir, written by 
his grandson, the Right Rev. Arthur 
Cleveland Coxe, Bishop of the Diocese 
of Western New York. He died at 
New Haven, September 2\, 1815, a;. 71. 
He was the great-grandfather of Presi- 
dent Grover Cleveland. 

Among other descendants of Mr. 
Cleaveland, living and dead, may be 
noticed the Rev. Stephen Higginson 
Tyng, D. D. ; Hon. William Earl Dodge 
of New York; the Rev. Charles Cleve- 
land, the venerable " Father Cleveland " 
of Boston ; Professor Charles Dexter 
Cleveland, a well-known author and 
scholar ; and Colonel Thomas Went- 
worth Higginson of Cambridge. 

After the death of Mr. Cleaveland, 
his widow opened a shop in Salem, 
where she died at the house of her 
daughter, Mrs. Margaret Hiller, March 
28, 17SS. 



572 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

a year and Euery year so Long as he Contineues in the work of the 
ministry a mong us with the Jmprouement of the Parsonag hous and 
land with luse money that is put into the boox solong as he Contineues 
& Caries on the work of the ministry a mong us in this Prec .' 

A yearly supply of eighteen cords of wood was soon after 
added as a farther inducement to the settlement of Mr. Willis, 
" if he Setels with us & tacks the work of the ministry upon 
him ; " n and it was voted " to buld a Backsid lenter the length 
of the Pasneg hous with a Chimney in the same," and to 
" put the out sid fenc of the Pasneg land in good repair." Mr. 
Willis did not accept the call until January 25, 175^2, when he 
wrote a long letter " To the 2 nd Cl h of Christ in maiden & 
y e Society usually meeting with them," which is preserved in 
the records of the church, in which he hailed the voice of God 
in that of the people, and saw the direction of Heaven in the 
invitation which he had received. 

It appears that, after the call had been extended and accepted, 
some dissatisfaction existed in the precinct, and that " great 
pains " were taken to bring about a reunion with the old parish, 
which had " Unanomusly voted that the north meeting house 
mite be pulled down and Set up at the old spot." 12 At a meet- 
ing of the precinct held June 1, 1752 : — 

it was Put to Vote to see if the south Parish will Vote to met at the 
old Place when the north meting hous is Puled Down and set up in 
the old Place whair the old meting hous formerly stood if Particular 
Persons Do Subscribe money Enough to Pay for Puling down said hous 
and mouing and Seting up said hous in the old Place whare the old 
meting hous formerly stood and their to Carry on the Publick worship 
of god for the futer and to Prefer a petision to great and general Court 
humbly Praying that they may be younighted in to one parish a gain if 

11 The supply was at first fixed at ply'd with, by a publick declaration, 

twelve cords, " w h J presume none of at our first Parish meeting, after his 

you Jmagine to be sufficient for my Ordination, of his receeding therefrom." 

Families use," wrote Mr. Willis. South Mass. Archives, xiv. 38. 

Church Records. The addition of six 1B See Petition of Samuel and Ezra 

cords almost produced a breach at the Green in Green Family Papers ; also 

ordination. Bui Benjamin Hills said First Parish Records, April 9, 1752. 

"that he would be entirely easy, if the James and Joseph Barrett and Samuel 

Rev cl m r Willis would recede from his Grover " Entered their Desentes against 

request of six Cord . . . which request the Perseding of said Meeting." 
of s' 1 m r Hills, our Rev[ Pastor com- 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT DECADENT. 573 

money Enough is Subscribed in one month from the Dait heir of and 
this aboue Saide artical Past in the negetive. 

Finally the new pastor was ordained, and the following record 
of the event was placed upon the church book by the hand of 
Mr. Willis himself: — 

Octy 25 th 1752 ns. Eliakim Willis Ordain'd 

The Rev d m. r Shaw began with Prayer, y e Rev d m r Perkins preach'd 
from 1 Corin: n, 1 be y e followers of me as J also am of Christ — 
y e Rev d m r Turill gave y e Charge & y e Rev d m r Mather gave y e Right- 
hand of Fellowship & y e Rev d m r Eliot concluded with Prayer. 

Several members of the precinct appeared before the ordain- 
ing council and protested against the settlement of a pastor, 
" on account of their Jnability to support him and the Prospect 
of the two Parishes being united," urging the action of the 
North Parish in making the proposition which had just been re- 
jected by the precinct. It was afterwards claimed that Mr. 
Willis was informed of the situation, not only by this protest, 
but " also by a Letter signed by fifteen Persons signifying their 
Disapprobation of his settling with them; many of whose 
Estates were as large as any in the Parish, and likewise by other 
Ways." 13 He was blamed as one who had been " hasty in 
settling, & as the faulty cause of the two Parish's not uniting; " 
although his ordination had been deferred " above a Year after 
the Churches Call of him." 14 In justice to Mr. Willis, it must 
be said that there are reasons for believing that he was ready to 
withdraw his acceptance of the call if there were any certain 
prospects of a union of the parishes. 

Soon after the ordination, the church adopted a Confession of 
Faith, which is interesting as being the earliest existing cove- 
nant of a Maiden church. 

[1752] Decem br 28 th at a C h . h meeting voted (after pray') y e follow- 
ing Confession of Faith or C hh Covenant to be propounded to y e Candi- 
dates for admission into y e C h . h 

You do believe y e Existance of y e one Supreme Being, who is possest 
of all possible Perfections & Glory ; & y! this Being is distinguish'd 
into, & subsists in 3 glorious & undivided Persons viz y e Fath: S. & 

13 Mass. Archives, xiv. 34. 14 Ibid., xiv. 38. 



574 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

H. G. & f. in yf fulness of time, God sent forth his Son J. X to take 
upon him the nature of man, y\ consisting of, & subsisting in 2 naff & 
one Person y l he might be a fit mediator between God & man : & you 
do now in an Everlasting Covenant, give up your self to y s God in J. X : 
you do humbly & penitently ask of God, forgiveness thro' y e blood of 
X, for your original sins, as also, for all your actual transgressions ; & 
with all your Heart you do accept of J. X for your Redeemer & only 
Sav', as he is offerd to poor Sin rs in y e gospel ; & y e H. G for your 
Sanctifier; & you do Solemnly Promise before God, y e holy angels, & 
in y e presence of y s assembly, y' being assisted by y e H. G. you will for- 
sake y e vanities of y! evil world, & approve yourself a true disciple of 
J. X in all good carriage both towards God & man. you do believe 
y' there are 2 Sacriments, Baptism & y e L d . s Supper; yf 1* a Sacrament 
of Jnnissation, & seals our admission into yf vissible c h . h ofX, & is to 
be administer'd to those & only those together with their seed, y l are 
taught & discipled to X, & submit to yf orders of y e Gospel : & y e . other 
a Sacra! of growth, & y* is to be administ"' to such as have been before 
Baptizd, of understanding to discern y e L rds Body, t of blameless lives 
& conversations, & accompanied with a manifest desire & hungring 
after X — you believe y! we are bound to hold communion of C h . hs , & 
acknowledge us to be a true c h . h of X ; & Promise so long as God shall 
continue your abode with us, that you will walk in Communion with 
y e C h . h of X in this place, subjecting your self to yf discipline of X 
in it ; & Promise by his grace to live devoted to him all your days in 
a faithful obedience to all his commandments. 15 

Eliakim Willis, who was now settled as the third pastor of the 

church and congregation of the South Precinct, was a native of 

y~ ~ that part of the town 

IsOVt&fc ifr^ ^ct^u ofDartmouthwhichaf - 

, *~^yy , terwards became New 

Bedford, where he was 
born January 9, 171^. He was a classmate of his predecessor 
in the pastorate, Mr. Cleaveland, being graduated at Harvard 
College in 1735. What his occupation had been during the 
seventeen years which passed between his graduation and ordi- 
nation is unknown. If ill fortune attended it, it is safe to say 
that his situation could not have been more uncomfortable than 

15 This Confession of Faith was with the doctrine of original sin less 

carried to the North Church by Mr. plainly affirmed, it was printed by the 

Willis, when the parishes became re- latter church in 1823. 
united. More concise in its terms and 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT DECADENT. 575 

that which he now assumed. Misfortunes and crosses were now 
the rule of his life, and strong must have been the spiritual na- 
ture of that man who did not grow weak in the presence of the 
discouragements which surrounded him on every hand. 

Whatever of influence the character and piety of Mr. Willis 
may have had in later years, they were of little avail in the face 
of the manifest uneasiness and decline which now pervaded the 
church and precinct. Scarcely had he been ordained before 
the active Stephen Paine again moved for a separation with the 
aid of the old parish, which took the following action: — 

At a Publick Meeting of the first Parish in Maiden on the fourth 
Day of December 1752 Voted James Green Modrator of Said Meeting : 
Voted the Parish will Perfar a petition to the grat and General Cort. 
To have M r Stephen Pain : Set of with his Estate To the North Parish 
in Maiden for Ever : Voted Iohn Shutt Iohn Dexter and Timothy 
Sprgue to be a Com" to act in that afare : a True Copy Estest 

Ed-Wait Parish Clark™ 

If a petition to this effect was then presented to the Court, it 
was unsuccessful ; but it was renewed in 1754. The petitioner 
declared that, notwithstanding his protest, he had been 

set off to the new Precinct, tho' he never associated himself with 
them, nor ever since has received any advantage thereby, but has con- 
stantly attended the old meeting ; and tho' he has been obliged to pay 
his Proportion of the Charge of the new Precinct ever since has not 
received any Priviledge. 17 

Meanwhile a more formidable danger presented itself in the 
petition of three influential men of the precinct, Samuel Green, 
Ezra Green, and Benjamin Hills. Captain Samuel Green had 
consented to the division of the town, had been liberal in sub- 
scribing towards the building of the south meeting house, and 
had been helpful to the new parish " in the Relation of a Parish 
Com te . e " 18 With his son, Ezra, he had borne a " Proposinal 
part of the Parish charges not only in Suporting the Gospel 
but in Bying the personage Lands." Although he had said in 

16 Jftiss. Archives, cxvi. 670. The same 17 Ibid., cxvi. 66S. 

committee was authorized to aid a similar 18 Ibid., xiii. 476. The committee of 

petition of Captain Samuel Green, Ezra the precinct acknowledged that he "did 

Green, Benjamin Hills.and Thomas Hills, not a little promote y e same." 
First Parish Records, December 4, 1752. 



5/6 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

1737, " that it would (in his Opinion) Conduce to the glory of 
God, & y e Peace & Hapiness of the Town, to divide the same," 
he now said, " If it be asked why Sam 11 Green was not Reserved 
to the North Parrish answer that the Difficultyes of the Town 
was so Great that J was Tired of the Contentions among us." 
The third petitioner, Benjamin Hills, whose house and lands 
were on the eastern portion of the present Cross Street, had 
also been a prominent and active member of the precinct. He 
had opposed and answered a petition similar to that which he 
now preferred, and had alone advanced " (not long since) a 
considerable sum of money ('till it might be Collected) toward 
the purchase of a Personage towards the Support of the Gospel 
in y e South Parish." These services the precinct gratefully 
acknowledged in its reply to his petition. He set forth that 
the way to the south meeting house was long and inconvenient 
and that he lived to the northward of fourteen families that 
belonged to the old parish, which was denied. 19 Elder Thomas 
Burditt, Phineas Sargeant, and Richard Dexter made answer 
for the precinct. A glimpse of the condition of affairs may be 
obtained in the following extract from their reply: — 

We further beg leave to inform your Excellency & Hon rs , that the 
north Parish is better Capacitated to Support their minister, than the 
South, as having near One Hundred & Twenty Poles, & the South but 
about Eighty ; & that if the Prayer of your Petitioners should be 
granted, others would be Encourag'd to Petition after them, being un- 
doubtedly desirous of being on the strongest side, & only wait to see 
what the Jssue of the Petition before your Excellency & Hon rs may 
be. 20 

The answer of the precinct was of effect so far as to defeat 
the immediate purpose of the petitioners, which failed by the 
nonconcurrence of the House in a vote to refer the matter to 
a committee. The petition, however, was revived in a few 
months ; and after the usual reference and a favorable report, 

19 Petition of Samuel and Ezra Green of with the South Side but by long Ex 

in Green Family Papers ; Mass. Archives, perence have found it to be very predi- 

xiii. 473, 476. Green said, " J told them dital to my Self and Family." 
J should not be willing to have my 20 A/ass. Archives, xiii. 476. 

Estate Devided and So J was laid 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT DECADENT. S77 

the Council ordered, October 30, 1754, "that the Petitioners 
mentioned in the Petition with their Estates be set off to the 
north Parish in Maiden to do Duty & receive Privilege ac- 
cordingly." 21 The House concurred in this action the next 
day. 

The disintegration which the committee of the precinct had 
feared now seemed to be begun. The next year the petition 
of Stephen Paine was finally successful ; and he, with his estate 
almost in the heart of the precinct, was " Set of from the South 
Parish and Annexed to the North Parish in Maiden there to 
Enjoy Priviledge and to doe Duty for the Future." 22 The 
lands now diverted to the old parish had formed nearly a ninth 
part of the South Precinct and the resources of that ministry 
were reduced in a corresponding degree. Moreover, between 
four hundred and five hundred acres of land, which belonged 
to inhabitants of the other parish, lay in the precinct and were 
exempt from its ministerial and other rates. 23 

The south side men now claimed that the estates which, lying 
within the bounds of the precinct, had been continued to the 
other parish in the division of 1737, were exempted only dur- 
ing the lives of their owners then in possession. One of those 
owners, Lieutenant Samuel Bucknam, having died in 175 1, the 
precinct proceeded to tax his son, Benjamin Bucknam, in ac- 
cordance with that claim. In consequence of this act, five of 
the parties most interested, John Shute, Obadiah Jenkins, 
James Green, Isaac Wheeler, and Benjamin Bucknam, peti- 
tioned the General Court in 1756, " that they and their Families, 
their Heirs & their Families & Estates, might be continued to 
the first Parish to do duty and recieve Privilidges for the 
future." 2i The precinct, by its committee, repeated the old 
story of the division and its alleged causes, and again warned 
the Court, saying: — 

In one word if your Excellency & Hon rs should grant y e Prayer of 
your Petitioners others will be encourag'd to petition after them, con- 
cluding that our Dissolution is determined, & being also desirous of 

21 Mass. Archives, xiii. 480. 23 Ibid., 692. 

22 April, 1755, ibid., 691. 2i Ibid., 686. 

37 



578 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

being on the strongest side, & only wait to see what the fate of the 
Petition before you may be, as did your Petitioners y e Petitions of those 
that were Exempted the other day. — we rely upon your tenderness & 
Compassion, & pray that the Petition may be Dismist as unreasonable. 25 

The petition, however, was granted to the extent that 
Benjamin Bucknam and his estate were continued to the North 
Parish 26 a settlement which was substantially a victory for the 
petitioners, as it would have formed a valid precedent had the 
South Precinct taxed the estate of John Shute or any other of 
the exempted parties at their decease. 

The next spring a further movement towards the breaking 
up of the precinct was begun, in aid of which the North Parish 
took the action indicated in the following vote : — 

At a Publick meateing of the first parish In Maiden y e 15 day of 

March 1757 

Was then Chosen 

Capt Dexter 'j 

. —. . a comm'.' 

m r Timothy Sprague V 

& Cap- Hamdon J t0 ^ ne Wlth 

M? John Beachom Ebenezer Barrit and others of the South Parrish in 
Maiden that shall prefer aney petitions to the Great and General Court 
referring to theire being set-off to the North parrish. 
taken of the parrish Rekord 

Isaac Hill, Parrish dark 27 

Before any further action was taken towards a division, the 
following petition was presented to the South Church ; and, 
reading between the lines, the careful observer may see that 
the temporal condition of the precinct was fellowed by the 
spiritual state of the church : — 

maiden may 13* 1757 

To y 2"? C h '.' of Christ in Maiden, Greeting Brethren, we y e sub- 
scribers desire y! you would grant us a regular Dismission from this 
C h . h (to w h . we now belong) to y e 1? c h . h of christ in this Town, for these 
reasons. i s l because there has been some uneasiness in this c h . h upon 
y e account of our attending y e north meeting, w h . we hope we made 
conscience of 

2 ndi y . because we hope & believe it will be more for y e glory of God & 
our Edification to attend there, then here ; & we think we ought to 

25 Mass. Archives, xiii. 692. 26 Ibid., 696. 27 Ibid., xiv. 37. 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT DECADENT. S79 

attend y e preaching of y e word, where we think we can profit y e 
best, if we can do it with conveniency, this is our desire 

Rich r . d Dexter 

Nath n Dexter Tabitha Dexter 

Jn° Pain Abigail Pain 

Sam l . l Baldwin Elizabeth Baldwin 

Benj a Sprague Phebe Sprague 

these to f 
Rezf 1 vf Willis — we 
desire this may be de- 
liverd to f c hl . 1 y e next 
Sabbath — 28 

There are indications that a dissatisfaction with Mr. Willis 
was not absent in the church and congregation. When the 
petitioners " were asked, by y e Past!", whether yy had any thing 
to object ag st eith r his conversation, or Doct 11 ," Benjamin 
Sprague and Nathan Dexter " answrd, yy had nothing more to 
say than what was written; " although others said they objected 
to nothing. Mr. Willis 

then observed to them, y! their request had a manifest tendency to 
dissolve y e C h . ; & it was hinted, y l it could not appear in any other 
light to them — upon \v h . they s c !, y' y e dissolution of y e c hh , was not 
what yy desird, but were willing it should continue, if y e brethren tho't 
they could support y e preached Gospel among them. 

They refused a council for the purpose of settling another, 
" whose labours might be to their edification & comfort here, 
& felicity hereafter," two of them saying " y l if y e C hh continued, 
or if they must have a Minister, they were contented with their 
present Past 1 : " 

The request of the petitioners was viewed by the church as 
"of great Jmportance, & threatning aspect; " and its considera- 
tion was postponed until September 2, when " aft r p* for direc- 
tion, y e C hl } looking upon y e request of y e brethren petitioners as 
unreasonable & a striking at her very being voted a noncompli- 
ance therewith." 29 The petitioners, doubtLess, continued to 
worship in the other parish ; nor does the refusal to dismiss 

28 South Church Records, in toco. 29 Ibid. 



580 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

them appear to have strengthened the church or conduced to 
the edification and comfort of its members. He who for a 
period of thirty-six years, from the fall of 1756 to the union of 
the parishes in 1792, observes but two white men, fifteen women, 
and two colored slaves, admitted to full communion, will place 
a low estimate upon the strength of the unfortunate South 
Church and the spiritual interest which pervaded it. 

The petition which was foreshadowed by the action of the 
First Parish was presented to the General Court in the following 
November. It purported to be "The Petition of a number of 
the Jnhabitants of the South Parish in Maiden," and was signed 
by the following individuals : — 

John Beacham, Eben 1 : Barrett, 

Richard Dexter, Benjamin Sprague, 

Nathan Dexter, Richard Shute, 

Nathaniel Payne, Jacob Parker, 

John Burditt, David Parker, 

Thomas Waite, Samuel Sargeant. 

This threatened defection was far from being confined to 
a limited neighborhood ; for while the Dexters and Parkers 
were in the northern portion of the precinct, John Beacham, 
who had recently come into Maiden from Charlestown, was an 
inhabitant of Sweetser's, or Beacham's Point, at its most remote 
southern extremity. 30 John Burditt and Thomas Waite lived in 

30 Joseph Wilson, boatman, by sev- daughters. He died June 17, 1773, aged 

eral purchases from 1729 to 1742, became seventy-seven years; and his son John, 

possessed ©f much of the Sweetser land his only surviving child and the last 

at Sweetser's or Wormwood Point, a male of the name, being insane, died 

portion of which he sold to Thomas April 16, 1812, aged eighty-seven years. 

Flucker of Boston in 1750. Wilson and His name became attached to his pur- 

Flucker, in 1753, sold sixty-three and chase as Sweetser's had before, and was 

one-half acres, with houses and other in turn displaced by that of Van Voorhis 

buildings there, and other lands to John upon a later change of ownership. A 

Beacham, then styled "shopkeeper of grandson of the last John Beacham, 

Boston." Beacham became prominent, John Gardner, became the founder of 

especially in his opposition to the South the Maiden Public Library by a bequest 

Precinct. His family name is supposed of five thousand dollars, which was 

to have been Beauchamp; and he is received by the town in 1877. On this 

said to have been the only son of foundation the unselfish public spirit 

parents in good position in England, and liberality of Elisha S. and Mary L). 

He ran away from home and came to Converse have built an institution which 

Boston, where he married Sarah Pike in is of the greatest value to the inhabitants 

17 19, and had three sons and three of Maiden. 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT DECADENT. 581 

the vicinity of the Chelsea line. The petition set forth : — 
" That when the Predecessors of several of the Petitioners were 
set off to the South Parish as a distinct Parish, altho' it was 
burthensome to the Parish to maintain a Minister, and other 
necessary Charges, yet they imagin'd they might in Time be 
more capable of sustaining it; " but the continuance of the 
exempted estates to the North Parish and the separation of the 
Greens and Benjamin Hills, with their large estates, had pre- 
vented the realization of their hopes. They informed the Court 
that "by breaking off from the north Parish it is apprehended 
that they have forfeited their Right to ministerial Land belong- 
ing to the north Parish ; and have been deprived of their Pro- 
portion to some of said Land which has been sold for Eight 
hundred Pounds ; so that from low Circumstances they are 
reduced lower." They represented their opposition to the 
settlement of Mr. Willis, for prudential reasons, and the offer 
of the old parish to remove the meeting house to Bell Rock. 
In conclusion they said : — 

Your Petitioners are greatly impoverished by supporting a Minister 
among them, and by contending with the north Parish, and are in 
danger of having a greater Charge brought on them by a Law suit pro- 
posed to be carried on with the North Parish relating to the Ministerial 
Lands lately sold. Upon all these Considerations your Petitioners are 
humbly of Opinion that they are in the Way of their Duty to endeavour 
to be united to the north Parish ; hoping they may have greater Ben- 
efit under the Word and Ordinances there, as well as be eas'd of their 
outward Burthen : and they would inform your Excellency and Hon- 
ours that the North Parish join with them in their Petition. 31 

The committee of the South Parish replied that they still 
expected " the benefit of those Estates which were reserv'd to 
the North or first Parish during Life only," and that they hoped 
to obtain their proportion of the ministerial lands, " tho' sold 
without leave or licence obtain'd " by the North Parish. They 
denied that any had expressed an opposition to the settlement 
of Mr. Willis ; but they acknowledged : — 

That since the General Court hath seen cause to diminish our small 
parish, it is indeed much more difficult for us to answer the obligations 
31 Mass. Archives, xiv. 37. 



582 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

we are under to our minister, for whom we have a tender affection, & 
for his continuance with us, are very desirous ; and therefore are will- 
ing to do even beyond our ability, 'till we have the benefit of the 
Lands before mention'd, which will render the support of the Gospel 
among us light & easy. 

They avowed themselves ignorant of any contentions with the 
North Parish by which " they are greatly Jmpoverished," and 
declared : — 

As for [our] selves, we have had none, nor do we propose to con- 
tend with them, but for our right to the Land, first given to the Town, 
& then one half to the south Parish, when the Town was divided into 
two Parishes by the General Court ; which is injuriously withheld from 
us, by our Brethren of the north Parish, and which, with the General 
Courts Curtailing of us, is the only cause of the uneasiness of your Peti- 
tioners, and others, who only wait to see, what y e fate of the Petition 
before your Excellency & Honours may be, and will be encourag'd if 
the Prayer thereof should be granted, to move for the like favour, as 
did your Petitioners, who could have easily joind with those that have 
been lately sett off from us ; they being also desirous of being on the 
strongest side & where there is the least Charge. 

They complained that the proposed change would take away 
nearly a quarter of their already small parish, and that some of 
the petitioners were new comers, who, 

if they were desirous of having no concernment, or nothing to do 
with us, they might have purchased elsewhere, knowing that we were 
oblig'd to support the gospel among us, as did your Petitioner m* John 
Becham, who lately came among us, and who was well acquainted with 
the obligations we were under to our Minister. 32 

The petition and answer were referred by the Court to a 
committee, whose report, though brief, throws a strong light 
upon the condition of the unquiet precinct. It was adopted by 
both branches of the Court, January 10, 1758, and the petition 
was dismissed. 

The Com"'.' upon the Petition of m r John Beacham & others of Mai- 
den have attended that matter heard y e parties & Consider'd it & find 
by both parties that the Grand point in view of y e Petitioners is a 
Design to break up y e South Parish however Cautiously Expres't in 

32 Mass. Archives, xiv. 38. 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT DECADENT 583 

y e Petition & hereupon beg leave to Report as their opinion that 
s d Petition be Dismissal which is humbly submitted 

p r George Leonard p r ord r . zs 

The precinct now made the most of the situation to obtain 
terms, the proposal of which must have appeared ridiculous or 
irritative, by turns, to the comparatively peaceable men of the 
First Parish. The offer to unite in the maintenance of the two 
ministers, in the present relative condition of the parishes, and 
to share in the benefits of the ministerial fund, was a splendid 
piece of impudence ; nor was it unmatched by the endeavor to 
make the north side men responsible for the many difficulties 
which surrounded their south side neighbors. 

At a publick meeting of the South parish in Maiden on Monday the 
Thirtieth of Jan y 1758 : Jabez Sargent moderator 

Uoted Joseph Caswell Jonathan Oakes & Ezra Sargent a Committee 
to prefer the following proposels to the north or first Parish in said 
town 

The South or second Parish in Maiden To the north or first Parish 
in said totvn sendeth Greeting 

Brethren We your towns men and neighbours beg leave to remon- 
strate : and hereby declare our willingness : and freedom, if you see fit, 
to contract as herein set forth, or stipulated. 

/// the first place, We bewail the unhappy contentions & divisions 
that haue been, and still seem to be so rife among us, who ought to 
love as brethren : And had our predecessors been so happy as to have 
put a stop to the grounds of these dificulties at first, we judg we shou'd 
haue had no occasion to engage in the present controversy, in which 
you cant but think you have had a great Share : But inasmuch as we 
have so far waded thro h many dificulties ; and are thro' 1 much charge & 
expence a Parish & church legally established by authority ; We cant 
but think it our duty, for our own, and our posterities benefit and con- 
venience, to continue and support the Gospell among us, where & as 
Providence has seemed to fix the same. 

In the next place We woud observe, and take it hard, that ever since 
we ware a Parish, you have seemed to endeavour to brake us up by 
weakning our abilities to support the Gospell where, and as you know, 
is so much to the convenience of us & families ; espeacially, by so art- 
fully depriving us of many members of so valuable Estates ; who at first 
ware so freely willing to be joined with us ; and without whom, at our 

33 Mass. Archives, xiv. 44. 



584 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

first Establishment, we shou'd not have tho h t it convenient to have been 
a Parish : and this we think the more cruel, as you ware then the much 
larger growing, and richer Parish. 

Again We wou'd let you know, that however you have alienated 
from the original intention, and as you think fixed the interest of the 
Worcester Lands towards the support of the Gospell in the first Parish ; 
We have indisputable advise and judgment, That we the second Parish 
have a just Title to half the same at least upon the demise, and at the 
decease of the reverend ml Emerson : Whom notwithstanding God 
grant may long live a Usefull Gospell minister. 

We now propose for the mutual peace : and prosperity of each and 
both our Parishes ; and which we think will also tend greatly to the 
flourishing State of our town : that we are most earnestly desirous to 
leave of contention before it be again medled with : And tis our earnest 
prayer that the God of love & peace wou'd dwell among us : and cause 
us to dwell togather in that love and peace which are the stability of 
any people. For these purposes, and that we may enjoy the Gospell 
where it is placed so much to our convenience We unitedly and as a 
Parish wou'd come into the following contract with you. 

Imprimis, That the present ministers of each Parish and their Suc- 
cessors shall be maintained out of the town's treasury or one comon 
Stock, including Worcester interest a comon part of this Stock. 

Item That the sum of one hundred and twenty Seven pounds Lawfull 
money be raised annually for the support of the two ministers, By the 
town, or so much as Shall make the Worcester income that sum to be 
paid the two ministers and their Successors in equal halves. 

Item That whenever any Sum shall return into the treasury of this 
appropriation ; each minister, or his Successor Shall be paid one half 
Such sum be it more or less. 

Item Upon your adherence to, and contract with these proposels we 
will, as a Parish, for our Selves, and our Heirs, acquit and quit-claim 
all our right and property, in, or to your parish wood land, and person- 
age ; The half of which you allow we are intitled to for ever, after the 
death of your present minister, by the generall Courts Order. 

Item If you agree herein we will, with you jointly, apply to the 
generall Court to confirm and establish our purposes, to prevent all dis- 
putes between the parishes hereafter ; If need be therefor. 

These proposalls we think just and equal ; and such a contract we 
esteem but equitable and most reasonable ; and which we desire you 
will maturely consider : and as a Parish return us your answer very 
speedily. 

May God give us understanding ; and lead us to those things that 
make for peace. 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT DECADENT. 58$ 

At a Legal meeting of the South parrish in Maiden on Monday the 
30 day of January 1758 Uoted to accept the above said proposlls and 
Chose Joseph Caswell Jonathan Oakes & Ezra Sargent a Committee to 
prefer the same to the north parish. 

At a Parish Meeting of the North Parish in Maiden, Feb? the 20 
1 758 it was put to Vote to See if the Parish Would Except of the above 
Proposels and it Pased in the Negetive. Isaac Hill, Parish Clark 

The " proposels " deserved the prompt action with which they 
were met by the First Parish; and the propriety of their rejec- 
tion is obvious. At the same time it was 

Voted that if the south Parish in this town would Reunite to be one 
with the north Parish that they shall be exempted from aney ministearel 
tax in this Parish for Eight years Provided they Except of this Gineras 
offer within one year. 

The fate of the precinct now depended upon the diversion of 
a portion of the ministerial fund, the origin of which was in the 
colonial grant of one thousand acres of land in 1662. 

The grant of one thousand acres for the use of the ministry 
of Maiden and its accidental relocation within the bounds of 
Shrewsbury and Worcester have been noticed in a former 
chapter. This land was thereafter considered as the rightful 
property of the town, and as such was reserved from the grant 
made to the Shrewsbury proprietors in 17 17. 34 It does not 
appear that the income derived from that source was of any 
great advantage to the ministry, although the land was appar- 
ently let or leased from time to time. In the month of January, 
172^, it was voted to sell the farm, as it was called; and a 
committee was appointed to petition the General Court for 
authority. 

The town was soon after involved in a suit, or a series of 
suits, with the Shrewsbury proprietors, or with persons who had 

34 One hundred acres of this tract settlem* of the Town Renewed bounds 

fell within the bounds of Worcester, with Maiden. That they have seen 

The town of Worcester being cited to Maidens answer & doubt not but they 

appear on one occasion replied, " That have set y e affair in so just & True a 

it was a matter of surprise to them, . . . light That your Excellency & Hon rs will 

that they always apprehended Maiden in your great wisdom dismiss y e Petition 

had an undoubted Right to said farm & Grant your Respondents Cost." Mass. 

and as about one hundred acres thereof Archives, cxiv. 579. 
lys in Worcester they have from y e 



586 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

entered, if they had not actually settled, within the limits 
claimed, in which it was successful. In 1736 the town of 
Shrewsbury voted a tax of twenty-five shillings " on each House 
Lot, to defray Court charges in defending the Proprietors 
against Maiden men; " and at the same time granted compen- 
sation to Isaac Temple and John Bush " for services done in 
attending the Inferior Court, about Maiden farm." 35 Maiden 
had raised one hundred pounds in the previous year for the 
expenses of its committee. Mr. Emerson, in a letter, congratu- 
lated the town upon the " late smiles of providence ; " and with 
admirable tact asked " wheather it be not highly reasonable that 
the hundred pounds which you ofered me for my suport in the 
work in the ministrey should be made and keept as good as it 
was when I first came amoungst you." 36 

Soon after a committee was chosen and invested with 

full power after haueing vew'd the buildings and those parts of said 
farm that mis' Ephraim Whealer and David Crosbe have built and 
settled upon to agree with said Whealer and crosbe (if may be) ac- 
cording to there best judgment. 

If any agreement was made it did not effect a lasting peace; 
for in 1738 David Crosby complained that 

he had been sued, &c. by the Rev. Joseph Emerson, of Maiden, for 
trespass, breaking into his close, house, &c, in Shrewsbury, and judg- 
ment rendered against him, prays for a new trial, that he may, as he 
can, show that it is not Emerson's land. Petition dismissed. 37 

In 1740 Crosby, in behalf of the Shrewsbury proprietors, 
petitioned the General Court for a settlement of the Maiden 
bounds ; 38 and although no important action was then taken, 
the matter was not allowed to rest, but was revived from time 
to time until January, 174^3, when a committee of both houses 
made a report, which brought about a settlement of at least one 
question involved in the case. They had seen a tract of land 
in Holden, within the old bounds of the Worcester plantation, 
which they found to 

35 Ward, History oj 'Shrewsbury, 27. 37 Ward, History of Shrewsbury, 184. 
85 Maiden Totun Records, in loco. 38 General Court Records, xvii. (2), 336. 



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THE SOUTH PRECINCT DECADENT. 587 

so exactly correspond with the description of Maiden [Farm] as 
given in the Original Plan thereof in the Records of this Court, as to 
afford the highest evidence the nature of the thing will admit of, that 
the same was anciently laid out to satisfy the Grant to Maiden, as the 
same is decyphered on the Plan. 39 

Some of the bound marks of 1665 still remained. The 
committee declared that " the other Tract in Shrewsbury of 
later years reputed to be Maiden Farm, doth of right still 
belong to the Province, and that the Proprietors of Shrewsbury 
nor yet the Church of Maiden have any just claim to it by 
vertue of any grant from this Goverment." The report con- 
cluded as follows : — 

And altho' the Church of Maiden by force of their possession have 
maintained actions of Trespass and Ejectment brought against such as 
had entered on these lands, without lawful right so to do, yet the Judg- 
ments so obtained cannot (as we apprehend) in any measure, bar or 
weaken the claim of the Province to those lands, how far soever the 
consideration of the great trouble charge and expence said Town have 
been at to obtain the quiet possession thereof, may recommend them 
to the favour and compassion of this Court. 40 

The action of the General Court, by a committee, was slow; 
but the Maiden church, or the First Parish, was finally con- 
firmed in the possession of the Shrewsbury land, after re- 
linquishing " all Claim and Demand upon the Tract of Land 
mentioned in said Report to ly in the Township of Holden." 41 
Thereafter the parish held a troublous possession. Ephraim 
Wheeler, who had settled upon a portion of the land, remained 
under a lease; but David Crosby appears to have been less 
pliable. On a former occasion he had told " the Sherriff of 
Worcester that he Would Shoot him Thorough the Heart if he 
Offered to Come into the House ; " 42 and in the final settle- 

39 I have been unable to -find the reproduced with the consent of Dr. 

original plot mentioned in the report of Clark. 

Thomas Noyes, which is printed in 40 General Court Records., xvii. (3), 

(hap. X. A plan was made by David 591-94. 

Ifaynes in 1735, an official copy of which 41 Cf. Mass. Archives, xii. 298. The 

is in the possession of Charles E. Clark, northern part of Worcester was incorpo- 

M. D., of Lynn. As this agrees in its rated as Holden in 1740. 
marks and distances with the report of 42 Deposition of Captain Benjamin 

Noyes, it may be considered as iden- Flagg, Jr. Official copy in the posses- 

tical with the original plan. It is here sion of Charles E. Clark, M. D., of Lynn. 



588 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

ment he kept retired, ostensibly, to avoid the service of execu- 
tions, probably, to impede the adjustment which would quiet 
his claim forever. 

The grant, which was now confirmed to the uses of the 
Maiden church, thereafter was held by the North Parish and 
the town claimed a right in it no longer. In February, 174%, 
the selectmen were petitioned to insert an article in the warrant 
for the annual meeting for the purpose of obtaining a vote to 
sell the land so that the South Precinct might have the portion 
which it claimed ; but the petition was refused and the select- 
men declared, " upon due Consideration we find that the town 
of maiden has no farm at Worcester & Shrewsbury." The long 
course of litigation was not at an end, and the parish had still 
to defend its rights in several actions brought by the Shrews- 
bury people. Judge Lynde was at the Worcester court in 
September, 1749, and recorded in his diary, " Maiden great 
cause all day." Two years later he entered, " great Maiden 
cause all day." 43 At a meeting held, March 12, 174%,, the 
parish 

Vol d Ed Wait Timothy Sprague and John Dexter a Com" : to Sell 
their Ministry farm Lieing Partely in Shrewsbery and Partely in 
Worcester with their Re nd Ministers Consent : for the vse and Benefit 
of the Ministry in the first Church in the North Parish in Maldon. 

Soon after Mr. Emerson, as the legal representative of the 
Maiden ministry, leased to David Dickey of Shrewsbury for 
one year, at a rental of nine dollars, at forty-five shillings to the 
dollar, O. T., " Maldons first Church farm," reserving that part 
which had been leased to Ephraim Wheeler and a portion 
which John McWater had " within fence." There was at that 
time " one Dwelling house and one barn thereon Standing." 44 

There was some delay in effecting a sale ; but under the date 
of March 15, 1754, the committee executed a deed to Captain 
Thomas Stearns of Worcester and Duncan Campbell of Oxford 
for a consideration of eight hundred and forty-eight pounds, 
lawful money. The committee met with some resistance when 

43 Diaries of Benj. Lynde and of Benj. 44 First Parish Records, in loco. 

Lynde, Jr., 170, 175. 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT DECADENT 



589 



they went to Shrewsbury to complete the transfer. . They found 
" Ephraim Whealer and His famely Shut Vpin a house on the 
said farm and he the said whealer Refused to Surrender." 
Another house was held by Richard Myles and his families. 
Both were finally dispossessed and the property delivered to 
the purchasers. 45 

The purchase money, which the parish had voted to " Let 
out at Intrest, to be forever Appropeated to the Vse of the 
Mininstry of the first Church, in the first Parish in Maiden," 
was in 1755 put into the hands of Captain John Dexter, Joseph 
Lynde, and Lieutenant Ezra Green, who were made " a Com- 
mittee to take Care of the money that theay Sold their perish 
farm for — and to Let out the money from time to time as theay 
Shall See fit with good Security." 46 This was the foundation 
of the ministerial fund, which, after the union of the opposing 
parishes, was held by the town, until the gathering of a Baptist 
church and a threatened withdrawal of the followers of Jesse 
Lee caused a majority of the town, while yet they had the 
power, to vote for its transfer to trustees for the benefit of the 
mother church. 47 



45 First Parish Records, in loco, April 
11, 1754- 

45 Ibid., March 12, 1753; March 10, 

1755- 

47 May 7, 1804, the town was called 
"To see if the town will raise Money to 
replace the ministerial money which, 
they in years past, have appropriated to 
their own use." During that and the 
succeeding year, a total sum of four 
hundred and sixty-one dollars and 
seventy-seven cents was voted to re- 
place the fund, which probably repre- 
sented all that was left of the grant of 
one thousand acres. 

The eccentric Lord Timothy Dexter, 
who died at Newburyport, October 26, 
1S06, was a native of Maiden. By his 
will he gave " unto the town of Maiden, 
three hundred dollars, to be laid out to 
purchase a bell for the Meeting-House ; 
also two thousand dollars, to be put 
at interest for 100 years, and the 
interest to be appropriated annually for 
the support of the gospel in said town 



of Maiden." Knapp, Life of Lord 
Timothy Dexter, 156. It was prob- 
ably in anticipation of this bequest that 
the town, January 26, 1807, chose a 
committee " to petition the General 
Court for an act to incorporate certain 
persons as trustees to manage the funds 
& other property belonging to the Con- 
gregational society in Maiden." At a 
meeting in March it was " Voted That 
the selectmen be authorized to transfer 
the public securities & private notes, 
being the proceeds of the Worcester 
farm to the trustees (if there should be 
any) to manage the funds & other 
property belonging to the congregational 
society." 

In the following September it was 
"Voted that the board of trustees of this 
town be authorised to receive of the 
Executors to the last will of the late 
Timothy Dexter Esq r deceased the two 
thousand dollars given in s d will for the 
Support of the Gospel in s' 1 town and 
Likewise to give a discharge for the 



590 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

It was a portion of this fund which the South Precinct now 
sought to divert. As early as February 2, 1756, they had 

Uoted Phinehas Sargent Jonathan Oakes & John Bucknam a com- 
mittee to procure the parishes wright in the town fairm Granted them 
by the General Court for the use of the ministry they also uoted the 
parish should bair the Charge the said Committee Should be at. 

This committee petitioned the North Parish for a division of 
the funds, and their request was promptly refused. At the same 
time it was voted to " defend m r Unite Cox from paying of 
Raits to the South parish." The Precinct, however, had no dis- 
position to quarrel over the latter matter, and voted the next 
year to forgive " Unight Cockses " rate; and he was left to go 
where he pleased. 

Had our southern neighbors been as wise as they were stub- 
born, a pacification might still have been effected and the happy 
union of thirty-five years later accomplished. But they rejected 
all offers of conciliation and prepared to carry their demands 
into the courts of law. At a meeting held March 2, 1758, it was 

Uoted m r Benjamin Kent of Boston Daniel Whittemore Dea n Joseph 
Caswell Jonathan Oakes & Ezra Sargent a Committee to prefer a peti- 
tion to the Great and General Court Assembled at Boston 1758 for sum 
Relief in our present dificult Circumstances. 

If this vote was carried out no relief was gained; and nothing 
more was done until March 12, 1759, when the precinct 

Voted To Chuse two men to add to the Com tee Chosen 1756 febr y 
the 2 to Procure the Parishes wright in the town fairm Granted them 
by the General Court for the Use of the Ministry vis M r Jhon Oliver 
Ezra Sargeant. 

A suit was now commenced, which the old parish prepared 
to oppose. At a meeting, June 6, 1759, it was 

three hundred dollars given in said will ports were made by the trustees until 

for a liell which the town consider they May i, 1824, which is the date of the 

have already received of m r Dexter in last report. In that year the First 

his life time." Nothing more is heard Parish was reorganized under an act of 

of the bequest. That it was received is the General Court, and came into pos- 

apparent from the report of the trustees session of the ministerial funds and 

of the Ministerial Fund in 1808, in which property. The amount of the fund 

the principal of the fund is stated to be which the parish received was forty-two 

twenty-six hundred and ninety-four dol- hundred and thirty-three dollars and 

lars and forty-eight cents. Annual re- thirty-eight cents. 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT DECADENT. 59 1 

Voted — Mr. Timothy Sprague, Capt" John Dexter, and m r James 
Barrett To be a Committee to Stand a Tryall or Tryalls to the End of 
the Law or fineall Judgement : and Execution in an action depending 
in the Law a gainst the Reund. mr. Eliakim Willis Clark minister of 
gods word of the Second Geathered church of christ in maiden Con- 
cerning Maiden first Church Land Lying in Shrewsbury as mentioned 
in Said Ritt or other wise Lying in Worcester with the Consent of the 
first church of christ in Said maiden : and the Consent of the Reun' 1 
mr. Joseph Emerson their present minister Clerk of gods word in said 
maiden 

The actions which were now entered upon afforded a dreary 
restatement of the troubles which have been related. Little or 
nothing of interest appears therein; and while the suits ate 
away the little means which the precinct could yet control, they 
were of no avail in staying the impending ruin of the church 
and parish. The precinct was defeated in its purposes, and the 
North Parish was left in the quiet possession of the fund. 

It is said that Mr. Willis was blamed as the cause of all the 
trouble which had come upon the people; and, as has often 
happened in that tangled web and woof which we call human 
life, he who was, perhaps, the most innocent of all bore much 
of the burden of the punishment which thirty years of misdoing 
had brought upon the unfortunate church and parish of the 
South Precinct. Neither his life nor his property was safe, if 
credit be given to the threats with which he was assailed. The 
following proclamation is a curious witness to the condition of 
the precinct during the time which we are considering. 

By his Excellency Thomas Pownall Esq Captain General and Gov- 
ernor in Cheif in and over his Majesty's Province of the Massachusetts 
Bay in New England and Vice Admiral of the same. — 

A Proclamation. 

Whereas in the month of July last an anonimous Letter was found in 
the Pulpit of the meeting-house of the South Parish in Maiden directed 
to M r . Eliakim Willis (the minister of said Parish) wherein the Writer 
declares — " that he thinks he should do justice to burn him out of 
Town and that if he did not depart from them in two months he would 
be the death of him; if he was hanged for him " — which atrocious 
Fact has been represented to me in Council by a Great number of the 



592 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Inhabitants of the said South Parish in Maiden Praying for the Inter- 
position of the Government in order to discover the author of it. — 

And inasmuch as such an open and flagrant Violation both of the 
Laws of God and Man hath a direct tendency to subvert all Civil Order 
and Government, and to render the Lives and Properties of his Majes- 
ty's Subjects altogether precarious. 

I have therefore thought fit with the advice of his Majesty's Council 
to issue this Proclamation hereby requiring all his Majesty's Officers, 
Civil and Military and all other his Majesty's Subjects within this Pro- 
vince to use their utmost Endeavours for discovering seizing and bring- 
ing to Justice the author or authors of the infamous Letter aforesaid, 
or any of his or their accomplices hereby also promising a reward of 
One hundred Pounds to be paid out of the Public Treasury to any 
Person or Persons who shall inform against or discover any one or 
more concerned in this Wicked design so that he or they may be con- 
victed. And if the Informer shall have been an accomplice or any 
ways concerned in said Crime, (except He shall have actually been the 
author of said Letter) He shall receive his Majesty's Pardon, and shall 
likewise receive the above mentioned Reward upon Conviction of the 
Party informed against as aforesaid. 

Given under my hand at Boston the twelfth day of February Anno 
Domini 1760 and in the thirty third year of his Majesty's Reign 

By his Excellency's Command T. Pownall 

A. Oliver Sccry. i8 

The several actions seem to have been settled by the spring 
of 1763, when a committee was chosen by the precinct " for to 
Reckon with the committee Chosen for to Sue for Part of the 
Worcester farm." The downward course of affairs, which had 
lasted almost from the gathering of the church, now ceased; 
for both church and parish had now arrived at the utmost 
limit of their low condition. Their existence for the next twenty- 
four years was worse than a total dissolution; for their records 
show a church and parish with little of material means for 
a proper observance of the sacrament and a necessary sub- 
sistence, and little of spiritual grace. 

The following entry, made soon after the settlement of the 
suits, appears upon the church records : — 

[1763,] Feb7 23. the C hh meet to chuse a Deacon, & also for an 
open & free conference, with respect more especially to y e frowns of 

48 Mass. Archives, Commissions, Proclamations, Pardons, etc., 1756-1767, 121-122. 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT DECADENT. 593 

Providence upon y e C llh & Society, & y e different sentiments occationed 
thereby. aft r .Pray' for direct", B r Jn° Bucknam was by a unanimous 
vote chosen to y e office of a Deacon — aft r \v h y e Past r exprest his 
desire of y e unity peace & prosperity of y e C hh ; & his readiness eith r to 
continue or dissolve his Relation to them, as y e bretheren should judge 
most conducive thereto ; & withal desird them to conclude or fix upon 
some method for relief — several things were said, & some proposals 
made ; but nothing concluded upon — 

A feeling of apathy seems to have pervaded the parish, as 
distinct from the church, at this time. At a meeting held April 
18, 1763, 

It was put to Vote to See If the Parish would Petition to the Gen- 
eral Court for help to Soport the Gospel and it Passed in the Negative 

It was Put to Vote to see If the Parish would Chuse a Committee to 
Confer with the Revernd W. Willis on what terms he will be willing to 
Relinquish his Pastoral Relation to the Church and Parish and it 
Passed in the Negative. 

Nor does the church appear to have been more active, save 
that at the next recorded meeting, 

[1764,] March 19 th — (after pr)B r Jn° Bucknam gave his answ! of 
non acceptance of y e office of a Deacon — y e C hh voted y! 4 Coppers 
should be Contributed every Communion day to provide or purchase 
y e Elements. 

At length some effort was made to end the troubles into 
which they had fallen; and the church met, January 15, 1765, 
" at y e request of a n° of y e brethren for a free conference . . . 
to see if some Christian methods might be come into for Relief." 
Offers for a settlement were made and rejected ; and although 
Mr. Willis hinted at an ecclesiastical council, nothing was 
done. At a later meeting the pastor complained of 

y e conduct of many not only of y e Society, but of y e C hh , who have 
trampled underfoot my advice, my ministerial exhortation in attending 
publick worship elsewhere, tho' they knew it to be disorderly, & y' it 
grieved me to y e heart- — J think J only desire to know Gods will in 
y e affair before us : & whether it be to remove or continue with you 
(hard & difficult as my lot hath been) J am (thro' great mercy) 
willing to comply. 

In conclusion, he added : — 

38 



594 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Being willing to bear p* of your burden (to spend & to be spent for 
you, tho' y e more J love you, y e less J be lovd) J will make you one 
offer more, viz, that J will abate my Sallery for y e present year, exclus- 
ive of ye parsonage & wood ; provided — that you make conscience 
of attending my ministry more steadily, & f you receive my instruc- 
tions, & take my advice in things Religious & ministerial — that for 
y e future you forbear all your hard & unchristian reflections against 
me : that you treat me with kindness, & do what you can y' J may live 
for y e future, in love & peace. 49 

This offer, to which were added demands for the necessary 
repairs of the parsonage, the gradual payment of arrears, and a 
provision for his future temporal support, was laid before the 
parish in March, when it was " Voted to Comply with the Rev" 
m r Willis Perposalls." The compliance was rather in word than 
in deed, if we may judge from the remarks of Mr. Willis at a 
church meeting in June. He said : — 

Brethr n , you are not insensible of y e malencholy scituation y' we are 
in, w h is y e occation of my appointing y e present meeting of y e C hh , to 
see if any thing can be done for y e removal of y e unhappy alienation of 
affection y' is too aparent among us, & for y e restorat" of y l unity & 
good agreement among us, on w h y e being & growth of y e C hh „ 
y e interest of Religion among us, y e hon r of X, & y e glory of God 
depends — y e want of Love ; & y e conduct of some being unbecom- 
ing y r profession & solemn engagments ; togeth r with y e want of some 
proper method to provide for y e table of y e L d , have been y e occa- 
tion of y e Sacra mt being suspended for a time. 6 " 

Three members of the already small body, Richard Dexter, 
Samuel Baldwin, and John Paine, had withdrawn from the com- 
munion for "their greater Edification; " and others were not 
over warm in their zeal. A slim provision for " y e L ds table," 
and a feeble effort to recall the wandering members gave little 
promise of better things. It is said that no part of the agree- 
ment with Mr. Willis was observed and that the suffering minis- 
ter was in a worse condition than ever at the close of the year. 
He was still bound to his people, and they to him, by a civil 
contract or life settlement, which could be broken only by an 

49 South Church Records, January 29, from August 12, 1764, to June 30, 
1765. The sacrament was suspended 1765. 50 Ibid., June 5, 1765. 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT DECADENT. 



595 



ecclesiastical council or by mutual agreement. What finally 
led to its dissolution is not a matter of record ; but tradition 
intimates that a suit at law for the fulfilment of the contract, so 
far as it involved the payment of arrears of long standing, was 
not impossible and that the final action was induced by that 
consideration. 51 At the annual meeting of the precinct, March 
23, 1766, it was 

Voted to Give the Rev rd M r Willis their Personage House and Land, 
Provided the Reverend M' Willis will Relinquish his Civil Contract with 
the Parrish and oblige himself to Preach the Gospel to the Inhabi- 
tants of the South End of Maiden three years the Contribution Being 
the Parishes their Being two men Chosen by the Parish as Trustees to 
Receive it, and to pay it to the Rev rd M r Willis once in four weeks and 



51 Some little help had lately come; 
and the precinct had regained the bene- 
fit of a portion of the farm of Captain 
Samuel Green, which had been set back 
to the First Parish in 1754. Captain 
Green died February 21, 1761, and the 
southern portion of his farm, with the 
homestall, came into the possession of 
his eldest son, James, who soon after 
sold it to his son, Darius. Joseph 
Perkins of Danvers purchased it in 
1765, and lived upon it until his death. 
It originally contained forty-seven acres 
between the present Main and Ferry 
Streets, and eight acres of upland and 
marsh towards the North River. The 
house, a portion of which is that built 
by James Green soon after his purchase 
in 1647, if ^ na d not been already built 
by Abraham Palmer, is still held in the 
Perkins name. Appleton Street, on 
which it stands, was formerly a way, 
known as Perkins's Lane, leading to it 
from the Penny Ferry road. The an- 
cient and long-ago discontinued way to 
Winnisimmet passed by its door. 

The conveyance likewise carried the 
ownership of a pew in the north meeting 
house, which to Joseph Perkins seemed 
" very Convenient ; " but to his surprise 
he found that the land which he had 
purchased had been reserved to the 
First Parish only during the possession 
of the Greens, and that he belonged to 
the South Precinct, where he must pay 
taxes. Representing that he "Chuses 



to set under the Preaching of the Rev d 
M r Emerson, who hath recommended 
himself to your Petitioner by his Sound 
Doctrine & Examplary life," he peti- 
tioned the General Court that his estate 
might be confirmed to the old parish, as 
was that of Benjamin Bucknam, "much 
under the like Circumstances," in 1756. 
There was, however, a difference be- 
tween the two cases. The Bucknam 
farm had descended from father to son, 
while the Green land, which had not 
been disturbed while in the possession 
of Samuel Green's descendants, had now 
passed into the hands of a stranger by 
purchase. The precinct opposed the 
petition by a committee, whose reply 
cannot be found, and Joseph Perkins 
was obliged to withdraw. Mass. Ar- 
chives, xiv. 421. He continued to wor- 
ship at the north meeting house and was 
an influential member of the church and 
parish, although he was constrained to 
remain an unwilling subject of the South 
Precinct until 1789, when, with his son, 
Jacob, he succeeded in being set off to 
the old parish. He was chosen a dea- 
con of the North Church in 1772, and 
died July 23, 1793, at tne a S e °f seventy- 
four years, having lived to see the op- 
posing churches and parishes reunited. 
He was influential in town affairs, and 
served as town clerk and selectman in 
the latter years of his life. His son, 
Jacob, was father of the late Daniel 
Appleton Perkins. 



596 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

take an account thereof he Being obliged to Preach as much Longer 
after the above time Sett as the Contribution Shall be Sufficient to pay 
him for his Labours among us, at the Same Rate as when his Civil 
Contract Subsisted Between him and the Parish these Conditions 
upon the Rev rd M r Willis Part to be fullfiled if God Should be Pleased 
to Continue his Life and Ability to Pre forme the Same, And If 
Deprived of either the fee of the Personage to Remain his and his 
Heirs forever. 

There was some delay in carrying out this vote ; and it was 
not until January 13, 1767, that Jonathan Oakes, Richard 
Dexter, and Ebenezer Pratt, as a committee of the precinct, 
gave " a good and lawful Deed " of the parsonage house and 
about seventeen acres of land on the west side of the " Road 
leading down to penny Ferry so called," with a barn and about 
two acres of land on the east side of the road. 52 Here the last 
pastor of the South Church lived until his death, gaining, per- 
haps, a not too liberal subsistence from the cultivation of his 
lands and the uncertain products of the contribution box, until 
his old age was gladdened by the pastorate of a reunited church. 

The contributions made during the time fixed by the vote 
served to continue the preaching less than a year ; and at a 
meeting held February 19, 1770, the precinct " Voted to Chuse 
a Committee to Converse with M r Willis to See If he will take 
the Present Circumstances of the Parish under Consideration 
and again Carry on the work of the Ministry among them for 
a free Contribution." The committee reported a month later, 
" that the Reverend M 1 ' Willis doth Engage to carry on the 
work of the Ministry for a free Contribution for the futer 
agreeable to the Request of the Parish ; " and it was " Voted to 
Except the Report of the Committee." 

62 Midd. Co. Deeds, lxvii. 212. I have which belongs to y e Pasnage Land." 

found no deed of the parsonage property A few months later it was voted to buy 

to the South Precinct. It was purchased five acres of land of Elder Ebenezer 

soon after the vote, which is elsewhere Upham, "which Lieth on y e North side 

given, was passed; and the house was of y° Pasnage Land." The house, a view 

already built upon it. The precinct of which is given in Bailey, Everett Son- 

voted, October 3, 1748, to " Repair the venir, n, is still standing (1S9S) in its 

Parsonage house;" to "build a Chim- original location on the west side of 

ney in the Kitching of the foresaid par- Main Street, a little south of Prescott 

sonage house;" and to "Repair the Street, in Everett, 
ston wall (on Each side of the Road) 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT DECADENT. S97 

The precinct thereafter maintained a nominal existence until 
March 27, 1775, when a regular meeting was held; but in the 
choice of officers a collector and assessors were not chosen, 
which is significant. After this, living in positions exposed to 
the fire and incursions of the enemy and coming within the lines 
of the army which invested Boston, the few inhabitants of the 
southern portion of the town removed their families and effects 
to locations more remote, some going as far as Reading and 
others along the old Salem Road to Black Ann's Corner and the 
secluded nooks of Scadan. On their return, the precinct having 
fallen into desuetude, there seems to have been no attempt to 
revive it; and its records are silent for a period of twelve years, 
until a secession from the old parish carried an element of 
strength from the North Church, and induced a temporary 
throb of life in its expiring neighbor. 

Meanwhile the church had maintained a feeble existence and 
generally continued a stated observance of the Lord's supper 
during the milder months of the year, omitting it altogether 
during the winter season, as had been the usual custom. Dur- 
ing the period of hostilities, " being scatterd by the enemy, the 
Sac 1 was omitted at some stated times yet thro' divine goodness, 
the C hh was indulgd the liberty of approaching the table of the 
Lord several times, before the enemy were driven from our 
metropolis." 53 He who "broke the seals" and held the little 

53 South Church Records, 1775-76. ness and poverty of the church caused it 

The records note twenty-two celebra- to be neglected for long seasons, as in 

tions of the Lord's supper by Mr. 1764-65, and again from October 30, 

Cleaveland, ending March iS, \"]^Ap, 1768, to April 2, 1769. It was but twice 

when they appear to have been discon- observed between March 12, 1775, and 

tinued. Apparently they were not re- June 24, 1776, probably by a few of the 

sumed until January 21, 1753, when Mr. scattered people who found themselves 

Willis records his first administration of together, at times whose dates Mr. 

the elements. He continued the enum- Willis had apparently forgotten when 

eration until October 2, 1791, when for he made the record. Later, for several 

the two hundred and fifteenth, and last, years, it was administered but four times 

time he gathered the South Church annually, in the warmer months, when 

around the table of the Lord. At first, provision could be made, 
the sacrament was observed every six The custom of omitting the Lord's 

or seven weeks ; but after the second supper in the winter season seems to 

year it was usually omitted in mid- have been observed, at least for a time, 

winter, and sometimes for a period of by the First Church, and it may have 

three months. Afterwards, the weak- been general in New England. It is 



598 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

flock together in the midst of his many public and private dis- 
couragements must have owned a stronger faith in the provi- 
dences of God than is given to mankind in general. 

I have carefully followed the history of the South Church and 
precinct because its story forms an important part of the story 
of the town ; because the materials for the work are scattered 
and perishing and not readily brought together; and, more, 
because the drama, though played upon an humble and limited 
stage, shows as clearly the effects of the prejudices and animos- 
ities of men as though a kingdom were its scene and a world its 
audience. Unjustly conceived, and nursed by misrepresenta- 
tions, its bright days were few and its decay was of an early 
growth ; its progress was marked by strife and deceit, and its 
destruction was deserved from the beginning. It blighted itself 
and was a curse to the whole town, carrying heart-burnings into 
every part. Its work was less that of the Prince of Peace than 
that of the sons of Belial. Its effects outlasted itself and in- 
duced bitter sectional prejudices, which were not wholly effaced 
within the memory of many now living. Better had it never 
have been. Having been, its story has a lesson which may be 
heeded with profit by the present age. It passed away long 
ago and the bodies of those who gave it life sleep peacefully 
with those of their brethren of the North Parish in the ground 
at Sandy Bank ; but the motives and passions which induced it 
may still be recognized at times in public affairs. Sectionalism 
is as dangerous in a town as in a nation, although its scope may 
be limited ; and prejudice, deceit, and injustice are often its 
ministers. 54 

said that Mr. Emerson endeavored to soon after. The war had left the coun- 

obtain a regular administration of the try in poverty, and carelessness or dis- 

sacrament through the winter; but on a quiet had already begun to paralyze or 

cold Sunday, finding the bread frozen in threaten the long established order, 

a solid mass, it was decided that zeal Under such conditions, the members of 

without discretion was unprofitable. the North Parish, taking "into their 

54 The brief season of hope enjoyed most Serious Consideration the Situa- 

by the South Church, on the occasion tion of affairs in Maiden and the Present 

of the secession from the North Parish unhappy Division of the Town into two 

in 1787, belongs to another period, and Parishes the Sad Consequences of 

will be considered in a later volume. It which have Been Sufficiently Experi- 

was not of long duration, and the affairs enced by Both," in October, 1791, ap- 

of each parish were far from prosperous pointed a committee to consult with the 



THE SOUTH PRECINCT DECADENT 



599 



South Parish with a view to a union "in 
one Religious Society upon Principles 
Equaly Interesting to Both Parishes." 
The General Court, at its next session, 
passed an act authorizing the consolida- 
tion ; and the following entry on the 
records of each church records the end- 
ing of the troubles of sixty-five years. 

" 1792, March 25 th — The Brethren of 
the first and second Church of Christ in 
Maiden voted in the north meeting 
House (after the Blessing was given) 
to be incorporated, with their Officers, 
into one Body, or to receive and em- 



brace each other, as members of one and 
the same visible Church of Christ ; and 
to cultivate Christian Communion & 
Fellowship, by a regular attendance 
upon the Ordinances of the Gospel ad- 
ministered in said House also that 

the furniture of the Communion Tables, 
to be put into one common stock. 

Eliakim Willis, cler:" 
Mr. Willis became the sole pastor of 
the reunited people, taking from the 
South Church its Arminian Confession 
of Faith and Covenant to the church of 
Wigglesworth and Emerson. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE TOWN SCHOOL. 

TT^ILLIAM GODDEN, or possibly Gooden, as Goodwin 

V V was then and long afterward pronounced, was perhaps a 

roving trader who exchanged sugar and tobacco for beaver pelts 

and other merchantable productions of the country. He seems 

to have had no stated place of resi- 

^-^ / Qq dence. In 1652, being, as he wrote, 

J y^^ti^Gi/lyyJ "at present in Nuingland but leav- 

[y/ ing the land," he left the value of 

^^ yl sixteen pounds in the hands of Ralph 

C y\c^odQ7XJ Shepard of Maiden ; 1 and about the 

same time he witnessed, with Ralph 
Shepard, the unfortunate bargain of John Lewis with Paul 
Wilson, which, being unrecorded, afterwards gave Mr. Wiggles- 
worth much trouble. He was again in Massachusetts Bay in 
1662, being then about sixty-four years of age; and he after- 
wards wrote a will, which he signed in the presence of Samuel 
and Mary Blanchard, of Wilson's Point, in which he speaks of 
himself in the following terms : — 

Jn the Name of God Amen, and through the strength of Jesus christ 
my alone Saviour. J William Godden being Sicke and weake, but of 
Sound memory and understanding, Do vpon the 9 th day of the 1 2 th m° 
comonly called febr. 1663. Do make and constitute my last Will & 
testament in mann r following. 

To Mary, the witness, wife of Samuel Blanchard, he gave 
fifteen pounds in money, " if it may be found of my estate in 
New England, or else to be made vp I5 ls of the best of my 
estate in any place where it is due to mee in New England, 
where slice please or in what shee please." To Mary, the wife 

1 Midd. Court Files, 1666, xv. 4. 



THE TOWN SCHOOL. 6oi 

of Thomas Skinner of Maiden, and to Simon Mellens and 
Thomas Barruce he also made devises. There were sums of 
money due him from Edward Wiar and William Egar, Scotch- 
men, and James Green, amounting to two pounds and two 
shillings, which he set apart, — " all w ch money is to be payd to 
my Excecuto 1 ' 3 , these money 5 is to be disposed for my buriall, 
Also J give to the foure y l cary me to my grave 2 s a peece, to 
be payd by my Excecutors." For the rest, he says : — 

my debts and fun r all charges first discounted, J give the remainder 
of my estate that can any way be found in New England, by bill, bond, 
or otherwise due to mee, J say J give the remainder of my estate to be 
disposed of for the schooling of the Poore children of charlestowne, & 
Mauldon, into equall pporccons to be payd by the direccon of the 
Select men of each Towne, under their hands to my Excecuto rs 

His friend, Samuel Blanchard, and another whom he might 
choose were made executors. In March, i66 5 6, he was found 
drowned ; 2 and soon after Samuel Blanchard, having proved 
the will as executor, brought a suit against Ralph Shepard for 
the sixteen pounds which he owed in 1652. What benefit the 
poor children of Charlestown and Maiden received from the 
good intentions of William Godden is neither a matter of 
record nor of tradition. Only the fact remains that his name is 
the first connected with the idea of free education in Maiden. 

It may be supposed that a school of some kind, humble 
though it may have been, was established here at an early day; 
but no knowledge of such a foundation has come to us of a 
date earlier than December 19, 1671, when 

Mauldon Being presented by the Grand Jury for not haueing a 
schoolem r . Capt. Wayte appeared in Court and declared they were now 
Supplyed according to law, and is discharged the p r sentm' paying fees 
of Court. 3 

No other reference to educational matters is found prior to 
April 1, 1691, when this simple entry in the town records — 

2 "[March 10, i66 5 o.] Beinge Jn- and a copy is in Midd. Court Files, 1666, 

formed that William Godwin is Lately xv. 4, with papers relating to the case 

drowned." Midd. Probate Files, in loco, with Ralph Shepard. The inventory 

Godden's original will, with other pa- shows a balance of ,£122 16s. id. 

pers, is in Midd. Probate Files, in loco; 3 Midd. Court Records, iii. 12. 



602 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

" Ezekiel Jenkins continuing to be the Townes Scoule Master," 
proves that the school had not ceased to exist. In 169% a 
change of rule is indicated by an entry as concise as the first — 
" John Sprague jun^ Schoolmaster." At the annual meeting, 
March 8, i6g 6 / 7 , another change was made, and "John Moulten 
[was] chose Scool-master." Moulton was a son of Thomas 
Moulton, who settled on the northerly bank of the South River 
near the island which bears his name. He accompanied or 
followed his brother-in-law, Thomas Mitchell, to Pemaquid, 
where he was in 1682, and where they appear to have settled as 
traders along the eastern coast. They returned to Maiden, per- 
haps after the destruction of Pemaquid in 1689, where John 
Moulton died, April 8, 1707, aged about seventy-six years. 
His recommendation as a teacher may have been the acquire- 
ments which a mariner had gained in trade and navigation, or 
the availability of an old man with little or nothing to do. His 
rule was of short duration, and the next year John Sprague was 
again " chose Scool-master." As he was chosen to be the 
town clerk at the same meeting, he became responsible for the 
orthography of the record. At a meeting held a few months 
later, the choice was confirmed by the following vote : — 

[August 24, 1699.J John Sprague chose scoolmaistar for this pres- 
ant yeer : or for one yeer. jt js left to y e select-men to agree with him 
what he shall haue for his jncurigment to keep scool for one yeer. 

The "jncurigment" which he received and the length of his 
service at this time maybe matters for conjecture; but it is cer- 
tain that the town soon became lax in the performance of its 
duties and allowed the school to cease for a while. At a Court 
of General Sessions of the Peace, held at Charlestown, Decem- 
ber 26, 1 701, — 

Maldon Selectmen appearing to ans r their p'sentm' for y e want of a 
Schoolmaster for writing and Reading Jnformed the Court y' they haue 
agreed w th John Sprague till next March. The Court accept him. are 
dismist paying ffees. 4 

Thus reminded of the law and the penalty of its evasion by a 
power which commanded respect, the town at its annual meet- 

4 Midd. Court Records — General Sessions, in loco. 



THE TOWN SCHOOL. 603 

ing passed a vote, the record of which is the most definite of 
any which had yet been made in relation to education. 

[March 4, 170^.] John Sprague Is chose scool-marstar for y e yeer 
jnsuing To learn Children & youth to Reed and wright and to Refme- 
tick acording to his best Skill. And he js to have ten pounds paid 
him by y e town for his pains. The scool js to be free for all y e Inhabi- 
tants of this town : and to be kept at foure severall places at foure 
severall times one quartar of a yeer jn a place : In such places whar 
those five men shall apoint, namly : Leut Henery Green, Leut John 
Line, Lemuell Jenkins, Tho Okes And Nathaniell Upham : who are 
chose by y e town for y' purpose. 

The school was kept in such convenient houses as could be 
procured in the several neighborhoods; but at the next annual 
meeting a location central to the whole town was chosen, and it 
was " voted that y e scool shall be kept jn y e watch-hous for this 
yeere." A week later, both the teacher and the place were 
changed, the following record being made : — 

[March 8, 170^3.] by a uote Ezeckiel Jenkins js chose scoolmastar 
for this presant yeer : and The Scoole to be Kept at his one hous : he 
js to haue 3 pounds for y e yeer : and y e befitit of y e scollars. 

The benefit of the scholars, or rather the teacher's benefit, 
was that advantage which the master might derive from the 
light manual labor which scholars in country schools performed 
during their leisure moments down to a time almost within the 
memory of man, and the small voluntary fees paid in kind 
which might be expected from a community of simple country 
folk and farmers. Master Jenkins was rechosen the next year; 
and he agreed to serve for " thirty shilings money and he to 
haue y e benifit of y e schollars," which he enjoyed until his death, 
July 30, 1705. A gravestone at Sandy Bank quaintly recog- 
nizes his vocation and adds to the usual statement of name and 
date this sympathetic comparison of his former and latter 
states: — " Mauldens Late School Master From A Painfull 
Life Is Gone To Take His Rest His Lord Hath Calld Hi m 
Who me ." 

His successor was Nathaniel Wayte, the youngest son of 
Captain John Wayte and the ancestor of the Waites of Leices- 



604 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

ter and Groton. He was a weaver as well as a schoolmaster and 
he became a selectman. He had lived in Medford, but re- 
turned to Maiden about 1698, when he bought a house and land 
of James Chadvvick. He was " chose Scoole-master " Septem- 
ber 7, 1705 ; and the selectmen agreed with him until the first 
of March for twenty shillings and the usual " benifit of y e 
scoolars." Some irregularity must have occurred soon after; 
for the town was again presented " for not haueing a School- 
master according to Law." The selectmen appeared at 
Charlestown and " made answer that they are provided with a 
Schoolmaster & he is in actuall Service w th them. The Court 
accepting of theire Answer they are dismist paying fees." 5 

Nathaniel VVayte was continued in his office by a vote passed 
at the next annual meeting, March 4, 170-^6, but some trouble 
soon arose. At a meeting held in May it was " voted y l Jona- 
than Sprague and Leut Henery Green shall be men To agre 
with natt waite for his beeing a scoolmaster this yeer. The sd 
Waite Refused to agree with them." After a little delay, dur- 
ing which it was " voted y l Isaac hill and Sam 11 Waite Sen r shall 
Goe to mrs wigglesworth to Se whether Shee will jmproue y e 
parsonag land this yeer and what she will Giue for it," the 
teacher or the town became more compliant; and it was " voted 
y x nathaniell waite shall haue twenty shilings for his beeing a 
scoolmaster this presant yeer and he to haue y e befifit ofy e 
scolers. And y e s d Waite exepted." A week later, at a stormy 
meeting held in relation to church affairs, the schoolmaster was 
put to use, it being recorded that " natt waite [was] jmproued 
as a moderator." 

Master Wayte was continued as " townes Scoolmaster " 
until May 11, 1708, when the town " noted John Sprague Scool- 
master for this preasent yeare ; " but the latter seems to have 
preferred solid payment rather than the customary " benifet " 
of the pupils. At a meeting held ten days later, it was 

noted whether the Town will alow John Sprague aight pound for this 
present year to Be the Towns Scolmaster and the uote pased on the 
negitife 

5 Midd. Court Records — General Sessions, December II, 1705. 



THE TOWN SCHOOL. 605 

noted nathanell Wayt to Be the Towns scolmaster for this yeare if 
the Town and he cane agree upon termes. 

noted That it is Left to the select men to agree with nat wayt for his 
Being a scolmaster for this year. 

The selectmen met at the house of Lieutenant Henry Green 
in due time, when they made a town rate of ten pounds, eight 
shillings, and tenpence, " in Referance to Bearing a part of the 
charge of Reparing the Batery in charlstown," and " allso agreed 
with nathanell wayt to Be the Towns Scolmaster for This year 
insuing and for his labor to haue I 11 . 15 s . o d mony and the 
Benifet of the Scolers." The benefit of the scholars may have 
proved of more value than was anticipated ; for a teacher was 
found the next year who required less money of the town than 
was received by his predecessor. This was Jacob Wilson, who 
was " chose Scoolmastar," April 27, 1709, " for y e yeer ensuing 
to larn children To Reed and to wright and Refmetick — and 
he js to haue 2 shilings paid him by y e town : and he js to haue 
y e benefit of y e Scoolars." 

I am inclined to believe that at this time the people of Mai- 
den were not mindful of the blessings of the common school ; 
that their expenditures were sparingly made ; and that they 
shirked their duty as often and as long as the troublesome and 
sometimes inquisitorial Court of General Sessions allowed. At 
a meeting held May 22, 1710, " by A vote Samuell Wilson Js 
chose Schoolmastar for This town jf y e Town and he can Agree 
upon Terms ; " and the selectmen were directed to treat with 
him and " bring Report Therof To y e Town meting aftar lecture 
on wensday next." The selectmen failed to make an agree- 
ment; and at a meeting held two weeks later, " moses hill js 
chose Scoolmastar for y e yeer jnsuing and he excepts and will 
sarue for y e benefit of y e scoolars." Moses Hill may have found 
the effort to obtain a livelihood from the benefit of the scholars 
an irksome one, and he soon relinquished it, if, indeed, he had 
ever taken it up. In less than a month the town was again 
presented by the grand jury, with the result indicated in the 
following extract : — 



6o6 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



[At Charlestown, Iuly 3. 17 10.] The Select men of Maldon appear- 
ing in Court to answe' y r . p r sentment for not haueing a gramar School as 
the Law directs, and Exhibiting a List of y e Jnhabitants ab l y e number 
as y e Law requires, but many of them being needy rather than Capable 
of Supporting a gramar School The Court Do Dismiss them for the 
p r sent as to a gramar School, and order them to provide them selues 
of a good able sufficient Schoolmaster to teach their Children to write 
and Read, and make theire report to y e next Court of Quarter Sessions 
of theire so doing w". 1 y e name of y e p r son so prouided are dismiss pay- 
ing fees. 6 

A list of f families f bares publiquc charges Jn maiden. 

31 Lazras Grouer 

32 John Green 

33 Tho Green 

34 will Green 

35 Richard upham 

36 Tho upham 

37 natt Euens 

38 natt euens jun* 

39 Sam 1 . 1 walton 

40 Jonathan barrit 

41 Eben: Harndall 

42 phines upham jun r 

43 James upham 

44 John wilkenson 

45 John pratt jun r 

46 Leu 1 Green 

47 Sam! 1 Green 

48 Joseph Green 

49 daniell Green 

50 Tho burditt [jun r ] 

51 phines Sprague 

52 william Sargeant 

53 Jonathan Knower 

54 John Greenland 

55 James Houey 

56 Steuen Lerebe 

57 Simon Grouer 

58 Thomas Waite 

59 John mudg 

60 Tho. burditt 



I 


m r parsons 


2 


Jsaac Hill 


3 


moses Hill 


4 


John Wilson 


5 


Leu 1 newhall 


6 


Tho newhall 


7 


Gersham Hils 


8 


natt upham jun r 


9 


petar Tufts 


10 


natt waite 


1 1 


daniell newhall 


12 


sara" waite jun r 


13 


Thos waite jun r 


14 


Jonathan Sprague 


15 


Ezeckill Jenkins 


16 


Lemuell Jenkins 


17 


daniel Floyd 


18 


Edmond Chambarlin 


19 


Richard pratt 


20 


Tho pratt 


21 


Lem Jenkins 


22 


Sam" Green 


23 


william wait 


24 


Sam" waite 


2 5 


Jose Line 


26 


John Line 


27 


Cap' Line 


28 


Tho Line 


29 


Sam" howard 


30 


Sam" Green 



6 Afield. Court Records — General Sessions, in loco. 



THE TOWN SCHOOL. 



607 



61 Jose Lamson 

62 James whittemore 

63 Tho okes 

64 John Green 

65 nathaniell nicols 

66 Abraham Skiner 

67 Tho parkar 

68 ben: whittemore 

69 Tho Skinar 

70 ben hils 

71 natt wilson 

72 James haruell 

73 John Sargeant 

74 Sam" bucknam 

75 phines upham 

76 Jose balden 

77 James molton 

78 obadiah Jenkins 

Tho dunell 
Tho Grouer 
Tho degree 

Goodwife 



79 natt upham 

80 Jacob Wilson 

81 John huchenson 

82 Richard dextar 

83 Sam" Green 

84 Lanard drownd 

85 william Green 

86 John pratt 

87 Edward Sprague 

88 Jose Townzen 

89 Jona: Howard 

90 Sam" Sprague 

91 Sam" Sprague jun r 

92 John dextar 

93 John fozdick 

94 Jacob winsled 

95 Jonathan Sargeant 

96 John upham 

william Teel 
wido Sayes 
Zachriah Hill 
Holloway. 7 



Constrained by the order of the Court, the town held an inef- 
fectual meeting, July 12, when the following votes were passed. 

nathaniell waite chose Scoolmastar voted y l y e Scool shall be Remoued 
jnto 3 parts of y e Town — The first half yeer jn y e center — and one 
quartar jn y e southwardly end And one quarter jn y e nothardly end of 
y e Town. The Town not Agreeing To y e s d waits propesitions : And 
adjornd The meting To fryday next 4 of y e clock aftarnoon. 

[Adjournment, July 14.] voted y f y e man y f js chose to be Scool- 
mastar shall be Scoolmastar jf y e Town and he can agree upon Terms : 
vots was calld for jn And Thomas pols of boston was chose Scool- 
mastar for y e yeer ensuing. 



7 Midd. Court Files, July, 1710. This 
list, on which the selectmen rested their 
plea, is interesting not only as giving 
the names of the ninety-six heads of 
families in 1710, but also as showing in 
a general way their relative locations in 
the town. The seven names which are 
unnumbered are of those unfortunate 
individuals who were too poor to bear 
the burden of town charges. They were 
the town's poor of that time. 



It was enacted in 1692 that towns 
having one hundred families or house- 
holders should maintain a grammar 
school and employ as a teacher " some 
discreet person of good conversation, 
well instructed in the tongues." The 
town escaped by showing that seven of 
the heads of its one hundred and three 
families were needy persons. 



6o8 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

The election of Thomas Pols failed to supply a teacher and 
another meeting was held September 8, with the following 
result. 

voted y l Ther Shall be 3 men chose to make choice of a scoolmastar 
And To agree with him to same y e Town from this time imtill y e first of 
march following. 

This may sartifie whome jt may consarn y l we y e subscribars haue 
agreed with John Sprague to be y e Towns Scoolmastar untill y e first of 
march next ensuing this date maiden Sep y e 9: 17 10 

Henery Green 
Jose Line 
nath upham 

Even John Sprague failed, in the end, to accept the office of 
" y e Towns Scoolmastar ; " and with the fear of the Court upon 
them, the voters met again, November 20, and chose the five 
selectmen, with Joseph Lynde and Samuel Sprague, as a com- 
mittee to " prouide a Scoolmastar Acording To cort order for 
y e benefit of This Town." At the same time it was " voted y l y e 
sum of money which y e comitie shall Agree for to giue y e scool- 
mastar for his saruic As a scoolmastar jn This town y e town will 
pay y money." Two weeks later the town voted to bear the 
charges of a journey to Ipswich "to endeuor to atain m r Sam 11 
wigglesworth to be Schoolmastar for this town — or who els 
they shall preuaile with." The journey was fruitful of good 
results; and John Greenland, as town clerk and one of the 
committee who rode to Ipswich in the service of popular edu- 
cation or to escape the wrath of the Court of General Sessions, 
made the following entry in the town record. 

Dec y e 6: John Greenland and John dextar beeing sent by y e abou- 
said comitie went To Ipswich and Agreead with m r Samuell 
wigglesworth to be Schoolmastar for y e Town of maiden for y e space of 
six months. 

The service was to commence January 1, 171°/^; and at the 
end of the term of six months, the teacher was to receive the 
sum of sixteen pounds and ten shillings in money. A few clays 
later the selectmen again appeared before the Court, " Exhibit- 
ing a note under y e hand of m r Sam' 1 Wigglesworth," and their 



THE TOWN SCHOOL. 609 

report being accepted they were dismissed. The town had 
learned a lesson of the Court and thereafter a stated provision 
by town rates was made for the school and nothing more is 
heard of the " benifet of y e scoolars." Before the new teacher 
began his term, it was " voted y 4 y e Schoole shall be kept y e first 
four months jn m r parsons hous And then y e School shall be 
Remoued jnto sum hous Towards y e north end of The Town y e 
othar Two months." The first town rate for the support of 
a school was made by the selectmen, February 23, iji°/i, for the 
amount of eighteen pounds and twopence. 

Samuel Wigglesworth, who was probably the first public 
school teacher in Maiden who possessed a liberal education, 
was the youngest child of the Rev. Michael Wigglesworth and 
wife, the " servant mayd," Martha. He was graduated at 
Harvard College in 1707, and remained at Cambridge, pursuing 
his studies, two years longer; after which, following the ex- 
ample of his father, he studied medicine, more perhaps as a 
fellow-student than as a pupil, with Dr. Thomas Graves of 
Charlestown, afterwards Judge of the Superior Court, who had 
married Sybil, the daughter of his stepmother, Sybil Avery, 
the third wife of Michael Wigglesworth. In 17 10 he removed 
to Ipswich Hamlet, where the messengers of Maiden found him 
engaged in the practice of his intended profession. On his 
return to his native town he began the study of theology; and 
the vote which has been cited, by which the school was ordered 
to be kept at the house of Mr. Parsons a portion of the time, 
may indicate that the parsonage was the temporary home of 
Mr. Wigglesworth and that his new studies were pursued under 
the direction of its master. 

It cannot be supposed that the scholastic labors of Maiden 
were exhaustive of time or strength. Certainly they could not 
have severely tried the resources of a college graduate, even 
of that day, limited as was the curriculum of the school to a 
knowledge of letters, reading in a monotonous tone, simple 
ciphering, and the art of making possible pothooks with im- 
practicable quills. Like his father the new teacher became 
" Mauldens Physician;" and his account book, which is pre- 

39 



6lO HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

served, is that of a country doctor whose patients were poorer 
than his practice. His usual price for a visit was sixpence, 
and his accounts were carefully kept, as became a school- 
master; but many a debit still remains to be offset in the final 
settlement. 8 

Notwithstanding the vote which had been passed in 1710, the 
school appears to have been kept but six months of the year, 
which may have satisfied the requirements of the Court but did 
not answer those of the law. At the close of 171 1 Mr. VVig- 
glesworth was engaged for a second term of six months ; and 
it was 

Voted Ther shall be sixteen pounds money Rais d for To pay y e school- 
mastar namly m' Wigglesworth, and That y e school shall be kept 4 
months jn y body of y e Town And Two months at y e northwardly end 
of s d town. 

Mr. Wigglesworth preached his first sermon, January 20, 
iyV/2', and at the close of his second term he was invited to 
remove to Dracut as a preacher, where he remained a year and 
received two unanimous calls to a permanent settlement, which 
he declined. A few months preaching at Groton followed, and 
he returned to Ipswich, where he was ordained as the first 

8 The account book of Samuel Thomas Dunnell, the bellman and 
Wigglesworth is preserved in the li- grave-digger, owed four shillings, which 
brary of the New England Historic were never paid; and William Teele 
Genealogical Society. His accounts as contracted an additional indebtedness of 
a physician are with people in Ipswich ten shillings and eightpence for his 
and its vicinity until his removal to daughter Abigail, which was only par- 
Maiden in 171 1. The entries relating tially offset by a payment of two shil- 
to his practice here give valuable hints lings and sixpence, also made by his 
relating to places of residence, relation- wife. Deacon John Greenland was 
ships, and other conditions. William charged "for his negro wench," and 
Teele was a debitor to the amount of " Leynard " Drown " for his black 
twenty-six shillings and eleven pence, child." 

and the only payment which appears to Dr. Wigglesworth, about this time, 

have been made was five shillings "paid was improving the acquaintance of his 

me by his wife." An item in this ac- future wife, Mary, daughter of John 

count is "To a visit 6' 1 with a pain Eat- Brintnall of Winnisimmet; and it may 

ing medecine for himself Deliv d by me have been by his influence that, accord- 

1.6. o. 2. o." " Nattha" Nicols of Mai- ing to the town records, "in y e yare 1712 

don" was charged two shillings for a nv John Brintnall sener Did giue to y e 

visit and " an Eye water." Thomas Town of maldon forty shillings in glase- 

Dunhill, whose acquaintance we have ing of y e meeting house & parsonag 

already made among the town's poor as house." 



THE TOWN SCHOOL. 6ll 

pastor of the Hamlet Parish, now Hamilton, October 27, 1714. 
Here, ministering, as had his father, to " Soul and Body Two," 
he labored fifty-four years, showing many of the paternal traits 
of mind and character, and becoming, like the parent, to be 
esteemed and beloved, not only by his own flock but by those 
of neighboring and distant churches. Exhausted by his labors 
and worn by increasing bodily infirmities, he died Septem- 
ber 3, 1768, in the eightieth year of his age, leaving a reputa- 
tion " as a talented writer and a devoted minister," whose life 
had been passed " in prescribing for ills of the body as well 
as of the soul," and who " applied his abilities, influence, 
and opportunities, as one who was to render an impartial 
account." 9 

There was yet another inherited trait in the mind of Mr. 
Wigglesworth which claims attention here. The poetic faculty 
which he possessed, hidden and perhaps stifled as it became 
under the weight of his severer professional studies and duties, 
bore more of refined imagination and graceful thought than can 
be found in the rude and rugged rhymes of the author of the 
Day of Doom. It was while he was at Charlestown, engaged 
in his medical studies, that he sung his first and last known 
song, a funeral one upon the death of a dear friend. With its 
gentle imaginings and tender complaints, repressed and ob- 
scured by an imperfect diction and halting measure, it is still 
a gem of price in spite of its faulty setting. The search 
through the material universe for the lost one and the sudden 
thought of the futility of the " fond delusions " are well con- 
ceived and expressed with spirit. Then the reality of the 
stern and relentless spirit, Death, which has taken his friend 
from the living world and holds him afar beyond the reach of 
his affection, strikes him with a force that seems to take away 
the power of utterance and enas his funeral song. A moment, 
and then, as if all human sensibilities were joined in one ex- 
quisite burst of pathos, he adds the " dainty music " of the epi- 
taph which closes the piece. 

9 Felt, History of Ipswich, Essex, and Sketch of the Wigglesworth Family, in 
Hcvnilton, 279-282. Harris, Genealogical MS. 



6i2 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

A Funerall Song. 

Dedicated to / memory of M r Nath" Clarke, Master of Arts In 
Harvard Co/ledge ; who departed f Life in a Voyage from Great 
Brittaine to New Eng, IJOQ. Aged 23. 

1. Vain poet's license now if thou can'st Soar 
Above mount Sinai's top, 'bove things reveal'd, 
Put on y e winged morn and Speed amain, 
Where increate Eternity's conceal'd. 

2. Fancy thy Self Shott through th' Etherial world, 
Translated from thy Clay amid'st y e Seats 

Of brightest Angels mighty Seraphim 

Of Thrones, Dominions, Princes, Potentates. 

3. Find there a Saint in milk white robes array'd, 
Cloath'd with y e Sun, adorn'd with grace and love, 
Who not long Since bad y s vile world adeiu, 

To Fill y e number of y e Choir above. 

4. Tell him who now is glorified above, 

How rivulets of tears have drown'd our Eyes, 
Our hopes are all thrown overboard with him, 
Our tumid thoughts becalmed in a Surprise. 

5. Put on thy graces, court y e vestal Soul 
To a relapse of things; with all thy might 
Sing an Encomium of Terrestiall Joyes, 
Try if thou canst recall her winged flight. 

6. At least ascend and view y e orbs above, 

See where He pierc'd Heav'ns powd'red Canopy, 
Perhaps his soul left her idea there, 
Or stopt to hear y« Spherick Harmony. 

7. Behold y e starry train those rolling lamps 
That burn fierce Anthems to th' Eternall light, 
Number those morning sons and find him there, 
Look look and see him with Extream delight. 

8. Warbling divinest airs and shouting forth 
Loud Hallelujahs to th' Immortal King, 

The God whose breath First form*d y e Heav'nly Hosts, 
And quick'ning gave to every living thing. 

9. Descend my soul to y e Elysian bow'rs 
Th' imaginary shades where up and down 
The blessed Ghosts do rove and pass y e hours, 
In gratefull pastimes till th' Eternall dawn. 

10. Trace every verdant grove, each flow'ry bank, 
Whose wanton edges curl y e Silver Streams ; 
Search every silent grott, each peaceful] vale, 
Each circling walk in those Enamel'd greens. 



THE TOWN SCHOOL. 613 

11. Ask all y e rural pow'rs and infant swains 
That range in those luxurious paths of bliss 
Ask if or no a comly gentle Youth 

Has flown of late into their paradise. 

12. But hold fraill Mortall, stay thy restless flight, 
Do'st think thou can'st by scearching find out God ? 
Lo ! his pavillion is in darkness sett, 

The Heav'n of Heav'ns it Knows not his abode. 

13. No, no, my Muse relinquish those vain toyes, 
And fond Delusions of Elysium, 

There is no Heaven but what's above y e stars, 
Nor middle state 'twixty s and y' to Come. 

14. The world of Spirits is scituate beyond 

The Kenn of thy Dim opticks, and their joyes 
As far remov'd and unapproach'd by thee, 
As Heavenly Dainties are from Earthly toyes. 

15. When once cold Death hath chill'd y e fluid mass, 
And snatch'd y e blast which farm's y e vitall flame, 
The Soul expires to him y f Did inspire it, 

And never sees Corruption again. 

16. Learn hence y e mortals how an angry Foe, 
Learn How a Lawless, Tearless Enemy 
Murders us with an unrelenting hand, 

And reaps impartiall both y e Green and Dry. 

17. He shrinks not att y e manly grace, 

See Here He rudely takes their breath, 
See, see y e valiant soul gives place 
Unto all Conqu'ring time and Death. 

EPITAPH. 

Add one kind drop unto his watry tomb, 
Weep y e relenting Eyes and Ears, 
See Death himself could not refrain, 
But Buried him in tears. 

ALIUD. 

Flete Cleri mortem, mortem cujus ipsa flevit Mors. 
Non jacet in tumulo, Sed jacet in Lacrymis. 

S. WlGGLESWORTH. 



Charlestown, Aug f . 15, 1709. 



10 



During the second term of Mr. Wigglesworth in Maiden the 
townsfolk began to consider the matter of building a school 

10 N. E.Hist. and Geneal. Register, iv. 89-90. Cf. Tyler, History of American 
Literature, ii. 35-38. 



614 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

house, which, important as it was, was apparently the occasion 
of as great a local excitement as the hotly contested questions 
relating to the location and construction of school buildings in 
recent years. At a meeting held May 18, 171 1, 

Jt was put to vote whether y e Town would buld a Schoolhous and 
set jt on y e Towns land on y e west side of y e way ouer against y e wach- 
hous. And y e School to be kept two thirds of y e time y' a Schoolmas- 
tar shall be jmproud jn y e s d Schoole-hous and y e othar third part of y e 
time at y e notherly end of The town : neer or a mong y e Greens jn sum 
priuet Roome And y e hous to be bult at y e charg of y e town and also 
y e charg of priuet Roome : And y e vote past on y e negitiue : 

Six months later a briefer entry in the records shows a wiser 
action of the town. 

[November 20, 1711.] Voted That ther be a School-hous bult — 
Also voted y t y e Schoolhous shall be set between y e pound and John 
Wilsons hous. 

At the annual meeting in March, 171^, John Greenland, Lieu- 
tenant Thomas Newhall, Jonathan Sprague, and Jacob Wilson 
were chosen to "set out y e spot of Ground whare y e school-hous 
shall stand; " and the dimensions of the proposed building were 
fixed by a vote. 

The first school house in Maiden would have made a sorry 
figure by the side of those of the present day. It was neither 
imposing nor elegant. Hardly could it have been convenient, 
except that to the simple farmers of that day anything was of 
convenience that afforded a shelter from the heats of summer 
and the storms of winter. It was " bult 20 foots jn length 16 
foots wide 6 foot stud between joints." A chimney, " nere 
seven foots between y e gams," decreased the capacity of the 
room ; and when its spacious " harth " was blazing with its 
pile of green logs the physical discomfort of the child who sat 
on the nearest bench could only have been equalled by that of 
the unfortunate shiverer who sat by the door. Of course, it was 
of one story and its walls were filled with brick " to y e plaets," in 
that good cold-defying fashion which may yet be found in some 
old houses, and which puts to shame the shams of modern con- 
struction. It had " two windorcs one on y e South and y e other 



THE TOWN SCHOOL. 615 

on y e Est," and one " dower of plain Boords." That it was the 
first house built exclusively for a school I have no doubt. That 
no house was owned by the town in the centre for that purpose 
in 1 7 10 is proved by the vote in relation to " m r parsons hous," 
which has been quoted. Its location is nearly indicated by the 
vote which directed that it should " be set between y e pound 
and John Wilsons hous." The former was on, or near, the site 
now occupied by the engine house on Main Street; and the 
house of John Wilson was that at the junction of the Salem 
and Reading Roads, which his father, Lieutenant Joseph W r ilson 
bought of Joseph Hills in 1679, whose ancient well, in which 
stood the town pump of later days, has but recently disappeared. 
As at a later day the town owned a strip of land north of the 
pound, I find no difficulty in believing that thereon, at the cor- 
ner of the great county road and the Medford Road, the school 
house was set ; and the arrangement of the house favors this 
belief. As it is elsewhere stated, the present square did not 
then exist, and the roads ran together at a point nearly opposite 
Hill's Tavern, which stood in the place of the City Hall. 

The contract with the " carpender," William Green, stipulated 
that " by y e 20 of Aprill next y e woork is to be competed, as y e 
seson will alowe ; " n and the agreement was apparently fulfilled, 
as, at a meeting held, May 15, 1713, it was voted, "That y e 
schoolhouse shall be jmproued for a wach hous when ther js an 
ocasion And nott To disoblige y e school jn s d house at aney time." 
This was a very good arrangement for the town, as the watch 
house of 1694 was probably in need of repairs, and the school 
house was needed for its special purpose but four months in 
the year. 

Mr. Wigglesworth's removal in the summer of 1712 left the 
town without a teacher ; and at a meeting held November 28 
in that year, Deacon John Greenland, Jonathan Sprague, and 
Jacob Wilson were chosen 

to see if thay can procure a man y' will serve y e Town for sume time 
a school master if that y e Town and he can agree and make Report 

11 See the contract in Bi-Centennial building. The original document, with 
Book of Maiden, 185, 1S6, to which I am others, has disappeared since 1S50. 
indebted for the description of the 



6l6 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

there of at y e next Town meeting which will be on y e 3 day of 
december next. 

This committee failed of its purpose ; and at the adjourned 
meeting it was voted, 

that Left Thomas Newhall & Sam" Bucknam & Sam 1 ' Sprague be a 
committe to procure a school master for y e Town of maiden for 6 
mounths if he may be had and to agree fully with him apon y e tearms 
if he do not exseed 30 pounds per year and so propourtiable for less 
time & y e Town will pay y e money. 

The last committee was more efficient or more fortunate 
than the first; and Francis Foxcroft, who had recently been 
graduated at Harvard College, was placed in the seat of Mr. 
Wigglesvvorth. His labors were so acceptable that in the 
following March it was voted 

That y e Town will alow m r francis foxcroft aftar y e same Reat for 
anothar quartar as this Town did alow him for y e last quartar To 
keep School jn This town : And y e select men are apointed to 
Treat with him consarning y e mattar. 

If Mr. Foxcroft accepted the terms, his rule ended with the 
second quarter; and he left Maiden to enter upon a larger 
sphere of usefulness and honor. After a short term as Register 
of Probate in Middlesex, he became a Justice of the Court of 
Common Pleas, and filled the office of a Councillor for twenty- 
six years. 

It was voted, August 31, 17 13, " Thatt John Greenland decon 
[Phineas] upham and John wilson shall Take care to prouide a 
schoolmastar : for This town And to agree with him to sarue y e 
town half a yeer : and y e town To defrey y e charg of y e school- 
mastar:" The success or failure of this committee is not 
recorded; but in May, 17 14, the town voted fifteen pounds for 
the maintenance of a school for six months ; and soon after 
the selectmen reported to the Court of Sessions that they 
were " provided w th one Thomas Vernon." 12 In August the 
town was again without a teacher and the selectmen were 
authorized "To prouide a schoolmastar for y e Town for six 
months." 

12 Midd. Court Records — General Sessions, June S, 17 14. 



THE TOWN SCHOOL. 617 

In the spring of 171 5 the school was kept at the extreme 
northern limit of the town, it having been 

noted [January 17, 171^/5,] That y e school shall be moued to John 
greens house jn y e woods : — for two months : which js to be March 
and April next ensuing the date heerof. 

Under the date of November 30, 171 5, the following record 
was made : — ■ 

Joseph Wilson and william Sargeant was chose for to prouide a 
school-mastar for y e Town for half a yeer : and to agree with him for 
his saruic : — Accordingly we whose [names] are heer unto sub- 
scribed haue agreead with — John bushop to sarue y e Town as a 
school-Mastar eighteen pounds for his saruic : This Return was made 
by y e aboues 1 ! Jacob wilson and william Sargeant. 

The town lying under a presentment " for want of or their 
being without a writing school," the selectmen soon after ap- 
peared before the Court and answered that "they were pro- 
vided of a writing School-master and Exhibited a manuscript of 
his under his hand viz c J no Bishop." 13 That the master was sent 
to the scholars and not they to him appears towards the close 
of Mr. Bishop's term when, May 11, 17 16, it was " vot: y l The 
Schoolmastar shall be Removed To y e northardly end of This 
Town To Keep y e school y e Remaining part of y e Time agread 
on for him to be among us." The selectmen made a further 
contract with Mr. Bishop, which was confirmed by the town, 
January 25, 171^/7, when it was " Voted ' y l The Town doth con- 
tinue John bishop as a schoolmastar and that he shall continue 
vyith us y e wholl Term which y e select men agread with him 
for; " and at the annual meeting in March, the sum of fifty 
pounds was raised "to pay y e school master and to defray other 
town charges." Mr. Bishop's term expired soon after and he 
departed from Maiden. 

In the following May it was voted " that y e select men get a 
school master and agree with him for y e time y* thay shall 
higher him for." Daniel Putnam of Danvers, who was grad- 
uated at Harvard College in that year, was employed for six 
months. The town voted in November " that there shall be 
u Midd. Court Records — General Sessions, December 13, 1715- 



6l8 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

20 pounds money Rased to pay y e present school master m r 
daniel putman for his keeping school six mounths according to 
y e agreement of y e select men with him in this present year ; " 
and in December Mr. Putnam was chosen " to be their school 
master for 3 mounths Lounger." The new teacher added the 
study of theology to the duties of a schoolmaster; and upon 
his retirement from Maiden he began to preach at Reading, 
where after two years' service he was ordained, June 29, 1720, 
as the first pastor of the Second or North Parish in that town. 
There, after a pastorate of thirty-nine years, he died June 20, 

I759- 14 

At the annual meeting, March 3, 171^, it was voted " that 
y e select men shall procure a school master and y e Town to pay 
him; " but no record was made of a choice until July 25, when 
Richard Dana, probably he who had just been graduated at 
Harvard College and who became that eminent jurist whose 
death at Boston in 1772 saddened the hearts of the patriotic 
and unquiet people of Massachusetts, was chosen to teach for 
one quarter " sartain " for the sum of ten pounds and ten 
shillings. 

In 1 7 19 the town was again remiss and the selectmen ap- 
peared before the Court at Concord to answer a presentment of 
the grand jury " for neglecting to haue and keep an approved 
grammar School master." They were ordered " To provide 
them selues w th a Grammar School master by the next Court." 
More than three months later, they reported " that they are 
usein all means for y e procuring a suitable p r son," and were 
ordered "to p r sue their Endeavo rs to haue a suitable p r son agst 
[the] next Court of Quarter Sessions." They appeared at the 
next session of the Court, March 8, i7 I 9/ 20 , and reported that 

they haue obtained w th a great Difficulty m r Josiah Marshall to Come 
and abide \v th them & serue their Town as a School master for ^ th of 
a year. The Court accept of their Information, and direct & order 
them to be diligent in getting of him or Some other as y e Law 
directs. 15 



14 Eaton, History of Reading, 212. sions, August 25, December 8, 1719, 

15 Midd. Court Records — General Ses- March 8, i-j l Y 20 - 



THE TOWN SCHOOL. 619 

Mr. Marshall, who was a graduate of Harvard College of that 
year, appears to have remained but a little, if any, longer than 
the stipulated three months. Under the date of June 14, 1 720, 
the Court Records show that 

The Select men of Maldon having informed the Court y' nV Josiah 
Marshall their now p r sent Schoolmaster hath been approued of by Two 
of the neighbouring Ministers as a p r son Suitably qualified for such an 
office are discharged of their p'sentmt payin ffees & Costs. 10 

Fourteen days later Mr. Marshall had departed and the town 
chose a committee to procure a schoolmaster. A similar com- 
mittee was chosen at the annual meeting, March 5, i72 I / 4. 

Neither the measure of the success which attended these 
committees nor the names of the masters whom they procured 
are to be found upon the records ; but the diary of the Rev. 
Samuel Dexter contains the story of his connection with the 
school in the early part of 1722. He says: — 

July y e 6, 17 20. I took my first Degree, and as it was y e Desire of 
my Parents, so it was my own also, to be Improv'd in Business, & not 
to live Idlely, some Schollars do, without being Improv'd. I was spoke 
to y e next Day after y e Commencement to go & keep school att Tan- 
ton, which I undertook, & kept y e school there half a Year. Then 
being Desirous, if it might be, to Live nigher my friends, by y e Motion 
of some, I was invited to keep y e School at Lyn. WTore Quitting my 
school at Tanton, I accepted of the Proffers made at Lyn, and Feb. 
17, 172°^, I Began my School at Lyn, in w ch I Continued a Year, 
and upon y e Day, y' my Engagement was up there A Committee from 
Maldon Came to treat with me in Reference to Maldon school, w ch 
proposalls I complyed with & kept y r school for ab' six weeks, & 
then was mostly to this present time [4 Dec. 1722] Improve'd in 
preaching. 17 

16 Josiah Marshall, a native of Brain- behavior towards his wife." lie went 

tree, was a classmate of Samuel Dexter to North Carolina, where he continued 

and of Joseph Stimpson, afterwards of several years. On his return he lived at 

the South Precinct. He was graduated Mendon, and died in 1772. Cf. Vinton, 

in 1720, and after his departure from Giles Memorial, 354. 

Maiden, like others who made the peda- 1T Samuel Dexter, son of John and 

gogue's stool a stepping-place to the Winifred Dexter, was born at Maiden, 

practice of theologv, he entered the October 23, 1700. His father filled the 

ministry, being ordained at Falmouth, offices of deacon, selectman, and captain 

August 19, 1724. He was dismissed in of the Maiden foot with honor to him- 

1730, after having been "laid under self, and died November 14, 1722, while 

bonds to keep the peace, and be of good his son was in Maiden engaged in his 



620 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



After the six weeks of Mr. Dexter nothing is known of the 
school until June 17, 1723, when the selectmen "Agreed with 



theological studies. His final sickness is 
the subject of a series of graphic entries 
in the diary of the son. He had been 
seized with " a Cold fit," followed by 
a " continued drooping," which was 
thought to be a severe cold. His indis- 
position continuing, Dr. Samuel Wheat 
of Cambridge was called, who pro- 
nounced it to be "y e Burning Ague;" 
and on the following Sabbath, Novem- 
ber 11, Dr. Wheat and Dr. Burchsted of 
Lynn, consulting, " Determin d him a 
very Dangerous Man, but not beyond 
Hopes." The day after, Mr. Emerson 
" left y e 23 d Psalm as a Cordial," which 
was administered the next day, but 
proved no more efficacious than the 
material potions of the physicians ; for 
on the following day he died. Before 
his death " He sang by himself y e 23 d 
Pal. y e first verse in S' David Tune," in 
the uncouth version of New England. 

" The Lord to me a shepherd is, 

want therefore shall not I. 
He in the folds of tender grass 

doth make me down to lie; 
He leads me to the waters still. 

Restore my soul doth he ; 
In paths of righteousness he will 

for his name sake lead me." 

" Then," wrote the son, " I sang with 
him y e Last verse, not above a quarter 
of an hour before he Dyed, — he then 
Continued praying to his Last Minutes 
— about 5 Minutes before he dyed, he 
pray d so loud y' I heard him in y e Lower 
Room. I went into y e Chamber, & as I 
sat by y e fire, I heard him fetch a Long & 
loud Breath, — I started up, but it was 
his Last. Thus he breath d out his soul 
without y e least struggle, and so went 
praying out of a world of Trouble, to 
praising in a world of joy. . . . Nov. 17. 
We Buryed my Father." 

Winifred, the mother, was daughter 
to Lieutenant Samuel and Rebecca 
(Crawford) Sprague of Maiden. She 
was born December 31, 1673, married 
about 1696, and died December 5, 1752, 
"after great Weakness and long Lan- 
guishm'." Her son says of her: "She 
was a very pious Woman, Strictly Re- 



ligious, Liv d in y e fear of God, & Dyed 
Strong in faith, .S; full of Comfort & 
Joy." 

Soon after teaching at Maiden Sam- 
uel Dexter preached about a month at 
"a New Plantation Call d Brimfield," 
and received an invitation to settle 
there, but "for Severall Reasons, gave 
y m a Denyall." After the death of his 
father he preached at several places and 
received calls from Medford, West- 
borough, and Yarmouth. He intended 
to accept a settlement at the latter place ; 
but receiving an invitation from Ded- 
ham, where he had preached in July, 
1723, and been "something dash d & 
Confus 1 ' in Morning prayer," which he 
considered " y e most Eligible," he de- 
termined to leave his " Friends at Yar- 
mouth & wait upon providence with 
respect to Dedham," and was ordained 
as the fourth pastor of the First Church 
in the latter place, May 6, 1724. He re- 
ceived a salary of one hundred pounds. 
Meanwhile he had met Catherina Mears 
of Boston, who was born September 25, 
1701. Her father, Samuel Mears, was 
landlord of the George Tavern, near the 
Roxbury line. Mr. Dexter writes: — 
"Nov. 22, [1723.] This Day it was very 
Cold. — I Communicated something of 
my mind to y e young Lady, w ch I hope 
(& I think I have reason to hope) may 
thro y e smiles of Indulgent Providence 
be y e Person in w m I may find y* good 
thing & obtain favour of y e Lord. I 
think I have not been rash in my pro- 
ceedings — she is as far as I Can find a 
Woman of Merit — a woman of good 
Temper & of prudent Conduct & Con- 
versation. ... I will commit my Cause 
unto God most high — Oh Let me not 
force providence but follow it." They 
were married at Boston, July 9, 1724, 
by the Rev. Benjamin Wadsworth of 
the First Church ; and the landlord's 
daughter made him a good wife. Three 
months after the marriage he wrote of 
her: "my Companion is a kind Tender 
& virtuous Person. I hope I have in 
her y 1 good thing w cl1 is from y e Lord" 
After his death she married Samuel 



THE TOWN SCHOOL. 



621 



m r . nathan bucknam for To keep y e school jn This Town 
Twelve months, and for his saruic he shall haue four pounds." 
Mr. Bucknam, as has been mentioned in a former chapter, was 
then keeping the school at Mystic Side, where he had been 
placed by a committee of the town of Charlestown. His en- 
gagement was apparently made in anticipation of the annexa- 
tion of the " Charlestown neighbors " to Maiden for school 
purposes, which was soon accomplished, as has been related ; 
and after the school had been kept in the centre five months, 
it was removed to Mystic Side until March i, 172^, when it 
was transferred to " sum conuenant place jn The northardly 
end of maiden," where it remained until the end of " m r buck- 
nams yeer." 18 



Barnard of Salem, and died at Dedham, 
June io, 1797. 

As a young man he appears to have 
been possessed of a morbid tempera- 
ment, which was not uncommon at that 
period, and which in his case may have 
been influenced by the life and character 
of Mr. Wigglesworth ; indeed, there are 
passages in his diary which are not un- 
worthy of the gloomy pen of the Maiden 
poet. Diffidence and modesty appear to 
have restrained and tormented him. 
For a while he refused to preach at 
Charlestown, lacking the courage to 
proceed. He bewailed his natural dis- 
position that made his life weary, and 
exclaimed : " O, that God would dissi- 
pate the dark clouds!" " My fears do 
Multiply upon me," he wrote, wnen per- 
plexed with the Dedham call. Nor did 
his final acceptance bring him peace; 
for he found a people of little educa- 
tion who were given to religious con- 
tentions, and who were divided among 
themselves. The day after his accept- 
ance was read to the people, being at 
Dedham, he says : " Severall of my 
friends came to see me, & one Rab- 
shekah to revile me ; " and the poor 
young man was discouraged and dis- 
mayed. The earlier part of his ministry 
was attended with opposition and 
troubles, which painfully affected his 
benevolent and pacific mind until the 
formation of a second parish separated 



the malcontents from the parent church, 
when peace and harmony prevailed. lie 
preached a Century Sermon in 1738, of 
which the second edition was printed in 
1796, after which he "continued in the 
pastoral office, performing the duties of 
it, much to the satisfaction of his people, 
by whom he was greatly beloved and 
esteemed, till the 29th of January, 1755, 
when, after a short sickness, he was re- 
moved by death in the 55th year of his 
age, and the 31st of his ministry. The 
society expressed their regard to his 
memory, and to the family he left, by 
voluntarily defraying the expenses of a 
decent and honorable funeral." 

Samuel Dexter was father of Samuel, 
a merchant of Boston and founder <5f 
the Dexter Lectureship of Sacred 
Literature in Harvard College, and 
grandfather of Samuel, the eminent 
statesman and jurist, who was Secretary 
of War and Secretary of the Treasury 
successively under John Adams. Cf. 
N. E. Hist, and Geneal. Register, xiii. 
3°5~3 IO > x i v - 35 et se 1 > Sigma (Lucius 
M. Sargent), Reminisceiices of Samuel 
Dexter, 12-14; Dexter, Some Serious 
Thoughts [Century Sermon), ed. 1796, 
49 ; Lamson, History of First Church 
and Parish in Dedham, 49 et seq. 

18 American Quarterly Register, viii. 
52. Nathan Bucknam, son of Joses and 
Hannah (Peabody) Bucknam, was born 
at Mystic Side, October 22, 1703, and 



622 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



After the expiration of the engagement with Mr. Bucknam, 
the selectmen were again instructed to obtain a teacher; and 
thereafter the records are silent in relation to school affairs 
until July 22, 1726, when it was voted "that the Town Doth 
Confirm m r John Emerson for A Schoolemaster in this Town 
for the time that those men that Acted as parrish selectmen 
have Agreed with him for." This appears to have been a tardy 
justification by the voters of an act of a parish committee which 
had taken upon itself an authority which the proper town offi- 
cers had neglected or refused to exercise. Mr. Emerson, who 
was a brother of the pastor, like other early masters was a 
young graduate of Harvard College, and his residence at Maiden 
was doubtless induced by the presence of his brother and an 
opportunity of pursuing the study of divinity. He remained 
at Maiden not long ; and removing to Topsfield, where he was 
ordained, November 27, 1728, he lived in the quiet exercise of 



was graduated at Harvard College, 1721. 
It was while teaching at Mystic Side, 
being then in his twentieth year, that he 
preached his first sermon, apparently at 
Maiden. Samuel Dexter thus records 
the event in his diary: "[Jan. 6, 172%.] 
M r Bucknam preached his first sermons 
publickly from y e 55 Isa. 7. — will God 
make him an Instrument of much good 
in his Day." While teaching at Mai- 
den, or soon after, he received a call to 
settle at Medway, and delayed his answer 
several months on account of his age. 
At length, having attained his majority, 
he was ordained December 29, 1724, 
at Medway, where he remained until his 
death, February 6, 1795, at the advanced 
age of ninety-one years. His pastorate 
of more than seventy years has hardly a 
parallel in the annals of the American 
pulpit. N. E. Hist, and Geneal. Register, 
xiii. 309. 

Mr. Bucknam was slight in stature 
and of an impetuous disposition. His 
successor says of him : " Although Mr. 
Bucknam was young and of a slender 
constitution, he was mature in Christian 
knowledge and experience, and strong 
in the faith and hope of the Gospel. 
At the time of his settlement he was de- 
servedly considered as an able, pious, 



and promising young man. Much was 
hoped, under God, through the instru- 
mentality of his public and private 
labors. Nor were these hopes and ex- 
pectations disappointed. As to his re- 
ligious sentiments, they were Calvinistic. 
He firmly believed in those doctrines 
which are usually called the doctrines of 
grace, or the doctrines of the reforma- 
tion. These he faithfully and unequi- 
vocally preached; and these were the 
ground of his consolation and hope in 
death. He was diligent and faithful in 
the discharge of all ministerial duties. 
His people loved and revered him. 
Few, if any, ministers have been more 
generally and deservedly respected by 
their people than Mr. Bucknam. He 
was small in stature, but of grave and 
dignified deportment. Although he was 
a man of quick feelings, and his passions 
[were] easily excited, they were happily 
controlled through the influence of that 
holy religion, which he so faithfully and 
so earnestly preached. If under the im- 
pulse of sudden and excited feelings he 
sometimes spake unadvisedly with his 
lips, his passions were soon calmed and 
gave way to the dictates of sober reason 
and religion." Wright, Century Sermon 
8,9- 



THE TOWN SCHOOL. 623 

» 

the duties of a Christian minister until his death, July 11, 
1774. 19 

In January, 1726/7, the selectmen were again instructed to 
procure a teacher; and similar votes were passed from time 
to time until 1730, when at a meeting in March, the town raised 
sixty pounds for a schoolmaster ; and in November it was voted 
" That Thomas Degressha shall have y e old schoolehouse." 
The selectmen continued to act as a school committee ; and in 
May, 1732, the following record was made. 

Whareas it was Left with The Select men to provide The Town a 
School mastter for some time not exceeding one year They have agreed 
with John Sprague to keep School in this Town the term of half a year 
for the sum of thirty pounds his time beginning the sixth of June 1732. 

This agreement was renewed until July 29, 1733, and perhaps 
for six months longer; but at the annual meeting, March 16, 
173^, the selectmen were again directed to obtain a teacher. 

The few inhabitants at Wilson's Point, then known as Blanch- 
ard's Point, had found their school privileges at a distance, as 
they continued to find them while that district remained a part 
of Maiden; and in 173% they petitioned the town to "alow 
the school to be keept at Samuel Blanchards two months in 
this instant spring of the year." This petition was refused as 
was also that of Samuel Blanchard that he might be repaid for 
" all the money that he has bin out towards the support of the 
school in this town." 

It may be inferred from the vote, just mentioned, by which 
Thomas Degresha, the bellman and grave-digger, was placed 
in the possession of the school house, that the house of 1712 
had passed its usefulness; and it would appear that the town 
was disinclined to repair it or to build another. The following 
vote, passed May 23, 1737, tends to confirm this inference. 

[ Voted,~\ That the school shall be keept annually one half part of 
the time in the south part of this town that is to say on the south side 
of the great swamp pembertons brook and leweses bridge commonly 
so called : and the other half part on the north side of said swamp 
brook and bridge above mentioned in any place or places that may be 
obtained by each part of the town for there conveniency. 

19 Atnerican Quarterly Register, vii. 255. 



624 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Seven years later it was voted, May 14, 1744, 

That the School shall be keept one quarter part of the time yearly 
near the house of Abraham Skinner and one quarter part of the time 
yearly near the hous of Thomas Burditt Ju' and another quarter part of 
the time yearly near the hous of John Collman or the house of the 
widow Mercy Pratt provided that perticular persons will be at the 
Charge of erecting a School house at each of those places. 

This vote seems to have been passed in the interest of the 
inhabitants of the North Parish and may be explained by the 
possible existence of an independent school in the South Pre- 
cinct, as hereafter mentioned. If it was carried out to its fullest 
intent, the school was kept in turn at the following places: first, 
on Cross Street, then known as Hutchinson's Lane ; second, on 
the Salem Road, near the present Sprague Street; and third, 
within the limits of the present town of Melrose. A school 
house may have been built at this time near the house of 
Abraham Skinner, which stood in the vicinity of the present 
corner of Walnut and Cross Streets, by " perticular persons," 
as the house which formerly stood in " the South parte of the 
town upon the Corner of m r John Tufts land " was mentioned 
thirty-nine years later. 20 

For seven years more, beyond an occasional vote giving 
the selectmen authority to provide a master, little or nothing 
appears upon the town records concerning schools. That a 
school house had been begun in the South Precinct implies 
that a separate school, as well as a separate church, may have 
been contemplated by the people of that ambitious but feeble 
parish. That the school house, like the meeting house, was not 
immediately completed appears in the action of a parish meet- 
ing, held March 30, 173S/9, when "a vote was Called for, to see 
if y e PrecS 1 would finish y e School house, and y e vote pased in 
y e negitive." There was a little more liberality shown in Octo- 
ber, 1754, when the precinct, induced thereto, perhaps, by the 
hope of obtaining its fancied " wright in the town fairm," voted, 
" that their Shall be ten Shillings & Eight pence Paid out of the 
ParishTreasury to pay for the mendin g the Scoolhouse windows." 21 

20 Maiden Town Records, June 2, 1783. 21 Soutli Precinct Records, in loco. 




oJ!fi(in?z6J(^KiMj*\ 



THE TOWN SCHOOL. 625 

At length the Maiden school took a more permanent form, 
a change which is marked by the following entry in the town 
records. 

Maldon march the 18 th 175°/ the select men agreed with mr Natha- 
niel Jenkins to keep school in this town one half year from the day of 
the date hereof for sixteen pound lawful money. 

Nathaniel Jenkins, the son of Nathaniel and Sarah Jenkins, 
was born, May 4, 1721. Under favoring circumstances his 
natural abilities aided by education would have given him a 
pulpit in those days when a pastorate was a goal to aspiring 
youth. As he 
was, he be- 
came a shoe- 
maker, and so 

passed the period of early manhood. Had a kind Providence 
given him health, a shoemaker he might have remained to the 
end. But he appears to have possessed a feeble constitution and 
to have been troubled by many ills ; and the selectmen, vexed 
and perplexed, as they seem to have been by their annual duty 
of providing a schoolmaster, and thinking, perhaps, that a sick 
shoemaker might make a passable teacher, prevailed upon him 
to leave the lapstone and the awl and enter upon a course of 
study with Mr. Emerson. Graduating from the parsonage after 
a few months with a slight knowledge of the languages, it is 
said, and a sufficient mastery of the mysteries of the three R's 
to enable him to obtain the approbation of several neighboring 
clergymen, he took up the rod, which he wielded with a zeal 
that, tradition asserts, was not alway tempered by discretion. 
He is said to have been a worthy teacher ; but his worth seems 
to have been gauged by his piety rather than by his ability to 
teach, and, measured by the standards of a later day, it might 
have appeared almost barbarous and altogether inadequate. 
Happily, however, for him, his reputation depends not upon 
the more exacting rules of a later generation, but grew out of 
conditions which were more favorable to its growth. Excellent 
was he in his day and generation ; and the schools of Maiden 

may well own that their first real and abiding life was nursed by 

40 



626 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

the conscientious care of him who after the labors of a quarter 
a century, dying, was honored by the humble title of " Late 
School Master of this Town." 

A change was made in 1752 in the vote relating to the place 
of keeping the school in the centre, and it was voted : — 

[May 13, 1752.] That the town due reconsider the votes refering 
to the Keeping the School in the two middlesmost places in this town. 

vot That the School shall be Kept one half the time between John 
Willsons and the north meeting house provided that perticular persons 
erect a School house for that purpose. 

The latter vote indicates that no school house then existed in 
the vicinity of the north meeting house, and the former with- 
drew the school from Hutchinson's Lane. It does not appear 
that the town had reassumed the burden of a school in the 
South Precinct, where, as has been seen, a school house had 
been built and a school may have been feebly maintained by 
the parish. A year later the vote of 1737 was altogether re- 
considered, and the whole question relating to the school and 
its locations was left open. It is supposed that for several 
years thereafter it was kept at such convenient places in the 
several neighborhoods as could be procured from time to time, 
until 1758, when the following vote was passed: — 

[March 6, 1758.] Voted at the above said meeting that the town 
dos reconsider the vote refering to the schools being kept one half the 
time yearly on the north side of the meeting house built for the town 
and that the school shall be kept one half the time yearly on the south 
side of the said meeting house on land latly posesed by Jabez VVayte : 
Provided that perticular persons are at the charge of erecting a schoo' 
house on said land for that purpose. 

An attempt to give the school a more easterly location was 
made in 1762, when the town refused to " grant the request of 
Nathaniel Jenkins and others which is to see if the town will 
alter the place of Keeping the towns school where it is now- 
ordered for six months in the year and fix it in the senter be 
tween medford and Chelsea line." The school house was built 
in accordance with the vote near the pound on the southerly side 
of the meeting house and was occupied for its legitimate pur- 



THE TOWN SCHOOL. 627 

pose from time to time as the school in its wanderings about 
the town came into the neighborhood. At other times it was 
utilized as a home for the town's poor, as is shown by a vote 
passed in 1766, which is given in another place. 

If the parish school in the South Precinct had ever had a 
long independent existence it had certainly now been aban- 
doned, and the town assumed charge of the house. The select- 
men issued an order in 1769 in favor of Ezra Sargeant for 
" making a dore and mending several things at the south 
schoolhouse." 

The inhabitants of Scadan had apparently been without school 
privileges, except as they had been accommodated by the school 
at the centre or at the north end, either at a long and wearisome 
distance from the nearest farm in that thinly inhabited district, 
until 1 765, when at the annual meeting it was voted that the school 
might be kept three months in fifteen " near the house of m r 
Thomas Wayte }u\ provided perticular persons provide a house 
for that purpose." Two years later an unsuccessful attempt 
was made to reconsider this vote ; and later still a house was 
built by several inhabitants, of whom the most westerly located 
was Dr. Jonathan Porter, whose house, which stood where now 
is the eastern corner of Salem and Porter Streets, had been oc- 
cupied as a tavern by Daniel Newhall, for many years, and by 
his widow, Sarah, after his death. The land of Dr. Porter was 
bounded by the estate recently owned by the heirs of the late 
Daniel J. Coburn ; and the dividing line was afterwards a portion 
of the western line of the Scadan or east school district. 

The land on which the Scadan school house stood was deeded 
to the proprietors by Thomas Waite, Jr., who thereby, next to 
William Godden, whose early bequest has been noticed, owns 
the honor of being the earliest benefactor in the cause of popu- 
lar education in Maiden. His deed, a portion of which is here 
given, is the first in which land in Maiden is transferred for 
educational purposes. 

To all People to whom this present Deed of Gift shall come Greet- 
ing Know ye that I Thomas Wait Jun r of Maiden in the County of 
Middlesex in the Province of the Massachusets Bay in New England 



628 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Taylor For and In Consideration of the real & Hearty Concern Which 
I have for the Education of the Children & youth in said Town have 
given and granted ami by these presents do freely clearly absolutely 
give and grant unto Ezekiel Jenkins John Grover Jun r Nathan Sargent 
Nathaniel Jenkins Jun r Doctor Jonathan Porter William Wait Jun r 
Jacob Parker Thomas Hills John Wait Ezra Wait Samuel Shute Joseph 
Floyd Michael Neagles Ezekiel Jenkins Jun r Samuel Wait Richard 
Wait Phinehas Pratt Ebenezer Wait Thomas Wait the 3 rd Jacob Parker 
Jun r John Howard Joseph Jenkins John Jenkins & Samuel Burdit all of 
Maiden aforesaid their heirs and assigns forever a certain peice of 
Land Situate lying & being in Maiden aforesaid whereon there is a 
School House erected by the Persons above named which House is 
to be appropriated to the use of a School & that only and said 
peice of land is butted and bounded viz' beginning at the Country 
Road that leads from Lyn thro' Maiden to Medford and running 
Northerly fifteen feet then turning and running Westerly Thirty four 
feet thence turning & running Southerly fifteen feet to said Road from 
thence running Thirty four feet to the first mentioned Place and is 
bounded Easterly northerly and Westerly on the said Thomas Waits 
land and Southerly on said Road. [December 12, 1771.] 22 

The land thus conveyed was between Rockwell and Columbia 
Streets, on the northerly side of Salem Street. A ledge formed 
its northern side, between which and the street a small place 
artificially levelled recently indicated the site where the school 
house once stood. The last remnants of the ledge disappeared 
in 1895. 

There seems now to have been in existence, though in an im- 
perfect state, the germ of the later school district system, for at 
the centre and in the south and east, houses, built at the cost of 
the inhabitants, were provided; and though there is no positive 
knowledge to be attained, a record made after the Revolution 
goes far to show that a similar house had been built at the 
north end. At a meeting,held May 17, 1773, the votes of 1752 
and 1758 were reconsidered, and it was 

Voted, That the School Shall be Kept for the future, fifteen Weeks in 
each of the School Houses successively which are now improved for 
that purpose. 

After the trials of a quarter of a century in the Maiden school 
Master Jenkins passed to a higher form, March 19, 1776, at the 
22 Midd. Co. Deeds, lxxv. 52. 



THE TOWN SCHOOL. 629 

age of fifty-three years. Possibly the ills which drove him from 
the shoemaker's bench to the stool of the teacher may have 
shortened his life ; and with a stronger body he might have 
carried the school without interruption through the years of the 
Revolution into the new era which followed. But at his 
decease the school soon languished or altogether ceased. 
Aaron Dexter, son of Richard and Rebecca (Peabody) Dexter 
of Maiden [born November 11, 1750], who had just been 
graduated at Harvard College, taught two months in the sum- 
mer and fall of 1776. Leaving Maiden he studied with Dr. 
Samuel Danforth of Boston and made several voyages as a 
medical officer, in one of which he was taken by the British. 
He attained a high position in his profession and became the 
first Professor of Chemistry and Materia Medica in Harvard 
College in 1783 He retained this office until 1816, when he 
was appointed Professor, Emeritus, of Chemistry and Miner- 
alogy. He died at Cambridge of old age, February 28, 1829. 
Traditions and the absence of any information in the records 
lead me to believe that little was done towards the maintenance 
of a free school during the gloomy period which followed the 
departure of Mr. Dexter from Maiden. In the spring of 1779 
John Downe received twenty-eight pounds, sixteen shillings, 
and tenpence halfpenny, for " Keeping the School in said 
Town " five weeks, and disappeared. After a month Dr. John 
Sprague, who was just beginning his career as a physician 
after his first service in the infant navy of the new states, was 
installed in the school house near the north meeting house, 
and received the apparently large sum of sixty-eight pounds 
and fifteen shillings for the labors of one month and fifteen 
days. For a like term in the following winter he received the 
yet more liberal sum of one hundred and fifty pounds, after 
which he retired from the teacher's desk and returned to the 
naval service. Dr. Sprague, it is said, beat the rudiments 
into his pupils with a fervent belief in the efficacy of the 
system of Solomon. It was in remembrance of him that the 
late Rev. Thomas Cushing Thacher, excited by " a peculiar 
sensibility " at the mention of his name, wrote, " the afflictions 



630 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



of my childhood were neither few nor far between." 23 The 
salary which he received dwindles to a pittance when we con- 
sider that in January, 1780, eight shillings and ninepence of 
his money would buy a pound of beef, while eight pounds 
would pass from his hands for a bushel of indian corn. 




In October, 1780, the town voted to raise 
three thousand pounds " for a school ; " 
but I find no evidence that it was ex- 
pended, and I am inclined to think that 
a school existed rather in name than in 
reality for two or three years. In 1783 
the town began to consider the question 
of furnishing better accommodations for 
the scholars; and, with long discussions 
and many delays, after several years the 
work out of which has grown our present school system was 
begun. Its story, however, belongs to a period other than that 
which we are considering. 

Rude and inadequate, to our more modern understanding, 
were the schools of this period ; but they were full of promise 
and bore the germs of a larger growth. Little supervision 
was exercised over teachers and scholars. From time to time 
some committee was chosen to locate a school or bargain with 
a teacher; or the selectmen were ordered by a town meeting 



23 Bi-Centennial Book of Maiden, 181. The home of Master Jenkins, a par- 

For my knowledge of the immediate tial view of which is given in the text, 

successors of Master Jenkins I am stood on that portion of the old Salem 

mostly indebted to the Perkins Papers in Path which still remains near the cor- 

the possession of the Maiden Public ner of Salem Street and Broadway. 

Library. Vide chap. ii. note 9. 



THE TOWN SCHOOL. 63 1 

to attend to some educational matter. The first school com- 
mittee was chosen in 1789, in obedience to a statute passed in 
that year. By the same law school districts were authorized ; 
but the system was not adopted here until ten years later. 

Reading and writing limited the education of most girls. 
In the larger towns they attended dame schools in the milder 
seasons of the year; but in the smaller communities, like 
Maiden, girls took their chances with the boys in attending 
the travelling school, when it came into their neighborhood in 
its periodical round from place to place. I have met with 
no early instance of a dame school in Maiden except that kept 
for a brief time by Mrs. Rebecca Parker; 24 and it was several 
years after the adoption of the school district system before 
a woman was found to teach in a public school. 

Reading and writing alone were essentials in the schools ; 
but arithmetic was taught to the boys in most of them. In 
1789 that was made compulsory with spelling and grammar. 
Geography was not required until 1827. The New England 
Primer, the Westminster Shorter Catechism, the Psalter, and 
the Bible were the text books. So late as 1826 a friend of 
the writer, now dead, was required to teach the Catechism in 
a district school at Weymouth. It has been remarked that the 
displacement of the Bible and the Psalter by the spelling book 
and reader and the decline of religious education in the schools 
were coincident with the rapid growth of the many isms which 
followed the revolutionary period and were in some measure 
its result. 

24 Vide chap. xiii. note 15. 




&/ (5^/(53 



'arm 



CHAPTER XIX. 



T 



BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 

HE change in the dividing line between Maiden and Read- 
ing in 1727 was not wholly satisfactory to all who were 
set off to the latter town ; and it left a neighborhood of Greens 
in the northwestern part of Maiden, who were still remote from 
religious privileges. The new town of Stoneham, at Charles- 
town End, and the building of a meeting house there, 1 offered 
the advantages which they craved ; and there was presented to 
the General Court, June 21, 1734, 

A Petition of Iohn Green Isaac Green Iohn Dexter and Ionas Green 
of Maiden and David Green Thomas Green and Samuel Green of 
Reading setting forth their Difficulty to attend the Publick worship of 
God in their Towns by reason of their Remoteness from the meeting 
house there and therefore praying That they and their familys and 
Estates may by order of this Court be annexed to the Town of 
Stoneham. 2 

David and Thomas Green were of the ten who had been set 
off to Reading; and the Maiden petitioners were owners and 

1 Maiden women gave twenty-one Stoneham. "Drake, History of Middlesex 
shillings and sixpence in 1727 towards Co., ii. 342. 
furnishing the new meeting house in 2 General Court Records, xvi. 29. 



BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 633 

occupants of the lands which lay between Ell Pond and the 
Reading line, covering all that was left in Maiden of the old 
first division on the west side of the country road. John Green 
occupied the farm of sixty-three acres which had belonged to 
his grandfather, Thomas. His house stood on the way to 
Stoneham, a little west of the great road. 3 John Dexter had 
married a daughter of Deacon Joseph Green. The General 
Court, after an investigation and a report by a committee, 
voted, 

[December 21, 1734,] That the prayer of the petition be so far 
Granted, as that the pet rs Iohn Green, Isaac Green, Ioseph Green, 
Iohn Dexter & Ionas Green, with all their Lands Contained within the 
following boundarys viz! beginning at Stoneham line and Riming down 
on the Seventh Range line so called to Eneas [Phineas] Spragues land, 
and so on a strait course to an oak tree standing between Samuel and 
Ioseph Greens land, and from said oak tree a strait course to the cor- 
ner mark between the said Samuel Greens land and the land late of 
Iacob Green, deced, at or near the Country Road that goes from 
Maiden and Reading, & then to follow the dividing line between Mai- 
den and Reading home to Stoneham line, be annexed to and accounted 
as part of the Town of Stoneham, Subject nevertheless to the payment 
of their proportion of all Rates as are or shall be assessed by the Town 
of Maiden before the Twentieth day of February next . . . and that 
the persons thereby [hereby] set off to the Town of Stoneham pay the 
account of the Committees time & Expence amounting to the sum of 
Six pounds ten shillings. 4 

This territory, comprising most of the section now known as 
Melrose Highlands, remained a part of Stoneham until 1853, 
when, after considerable opposition on the part of that town, it 
was reunited with the Commons and became a portion of the 
new town of Melrose. It was this section which, on its union 
with Stoneham, broke, at its northern extremity, the long west- 
ern line of Maiden, which previously ran in a nearly direct 
course from Creek Head at Edgeworth to Reading. 

The next year an attempt was made to procure the cession 
to Medford of a portion of the territory which had come from 



3 Greene, Descendants of Thomas i General Court Records, xvi. 99. 

Green\e\, 14; Goss, Historical Address,\2. 



634 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Charlestown, on the west side of North River ; and the town at 
a meeting, held May 16, 1735, refused to 

set of a sartain tract of Land lying in maiden on The easterly side of 
medford with the parson and the estates of The parsons who are with 
The said town of medford in a petition to the town of maiden from the 
said town of maiden to the said town of medford. 

This apparently related to the estates at Blanchard's Point, 
which were not only at a distance but were separated by the 
river and marshes from the meeting house and school. The 
petition to the town failing to find favor, the project rested for 
a while; but it was renewed in December, 1738, when there was 
presented to the General Court 

A Petition of Ebenezer Brooks and others a Committee for the Town 
of Medford : Setting forth the smalness of the said Town and the con- 
venient situation of certain Tracts of Land lying in the Towns of 
Charlestown and Maiden, to be joined to Medford, and Praying that 
the said Tracts as particularly described in the Petition may be set off 
from their respective Towns and joined to the Town of Medford 
accordingly. 5 

The petition was opposed by committees of the two towns ; 
and, their answers " being maturely considered," it failed so far 
as the Maiden territory was concerned. A portion of Charles- 
town, lying on the other side of Medford, was ordered by the 
Council to be annexed to the latter town ; but the Represent- 
atives refused to concur, and the circumscribed limits of Med- 
ford remained unchanged until 1754, when its bounds were 
enlarged by the addition of the Charlestown lands upon the 
west bank of the upper Mystic and the wood-lots lying below 
Stoneham. Blanchard's Point remained a part of Maiden until 
1817. 6 

5 General Court Records, xvii. (i) 323. been exaggerated. The 3500 acres of 

6 The straitness of Medford at this Cradock could not have been con- 
time seems to have been but little under- tained in the 2474 acres which Medford 
stood, even by its own historian. " Pe- possessed before its enlargement in 
culiar " from the first in its formation 1754. At that time it was confined to 
and government, it comprised only the the easterly bank of the Mystic, 
single manor or plantation of Governor Blanchard's Point was a part of Mal- 
Cradock ; and even a portion of that den; and the northern line of the town, 
may have been within the borders of the beginning at a point in the line of Mal- 
neighboring towns, or its extent has den, south of the county road, ran 



BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 635 

In 1735 a most malignant disease, popularly known as " the 
Throat Illness, or a Plague in the Throat," appeared in New 
England and became for many years epidemic and of frequent 
occurrence. It was the most fatal disease ever known in the 
country; and its effects could only be compared to those of the 
great plague, which, in the preceding century, had ravaged 
the city of London. Its cause was obscure; but its early 
growth was marked by well established symptoms and its pro- 
gress by regular, though rapid, stages. Its symptoms were 
usually, " a swelled throat, with white or ash-colored specks, an 
efflorescence on the skin, great debility of the whole system, 
and a tendency to putridity." It was not found to be conta- 
gious, for it spread without possible communication and ap- 
peared without warning in sequestered locations. The Boston 
physicians considered it " to proceed from some occult Quality 
in the Air, and not from any observable Infection communicated 
by Persons or Goods." 7 It was afterwards noticed that diseases 
among cattle prevailed in New England and that " the plague 
made terrible havoc in Egypt" during the years in which the 
throat distemper raged in England and America. There are 
not wanting indications that it was most prevalent after seasons 
of excessive moisture and that its worst ravages were in low and 
damp locations. The season in which it commenced in 1735 
was " unusually wet and cold, and the easterly wind greatly 
prevailed." Popular belief, at the time, attributed its first ap- 
pearance to a scourge of caterpillars, which devastated the 
land, as similar visitations had preceded the great plagues of 
history. 8 Very few children escaped its attacks and many 

w.N.w., and left to Charlestown all that canker worm, which well nigh destroyed 

extensive and picturesque tract of hills every green thing. In the general dis- 

and woodland which lies south of Spot tress a day of fasting was observed, to 

Pond. If the line of the present Valley implore the removal of the scourge ; and 

Street were extended across the map it on that day Mr. [Samuel] Moody [of 

would very nearly give the northern York] officiated for his son-in-law, Rev. 

boundary of the town as at first estab- Joseph Emerson, of Maiden. The late 

lished. Deacon Samuel Waite, of Maiden, used 

7 Boston Weekly A T ews- Letter, April to tell the story as he had often heard it 
1736. from his own father, who was an eye- 

8 It was about this time that the fol- witness of the affair. A very aged lady, 
lowing incident occurred. "At a certain yet living [1847], fells it as she received 
time great ravages were made by the it from her grandmother. Dea. Waite's 



636 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



adults came under its baleful influence. It was, in the worst 
cases, usually fatal on the third day, and many of those who 



father said that when they went to the 
meeting-house that morning, the canker- 
worms were so numerous that you 
could scarce set down the foot without 
crushing them by the score. The lady 
referred to not only alluded to the same 
circumstance, but said that as she 
crossed the stone walls on her way, she 
saw them hanging on the bushes, as she 
was wont to phrase it, ' in pecks.' 

" Mr. Moody's text was from Mai. 
iii. 1 1 : ' I will rebuke the devourer for 
your sakes.' As he became warmed 
with his subject, he seemed filled with a 
sort of prophetic fire, and at last ap- 
pealed to his hearers in terms like the 
following : — ' Brethren, here is the 
promise of God ! Do you believe it ? 
Will you repose full confidence in it ? 
I believe it, and feel an assurance in my 
soul that God will bring it to pass.' It 
was given to him according to his faith ; 
for when the somewhat protracted ser- 
vice was done, the destroyer had disap- 
peared at the rebuke of the Lord. Not 
one of the insects, which had been so 
multitudinous, was to be seen alive. 
The father of Dea. Waite said that he 
saw them lying dead in ' little wind- 
rows ' on the shores of the creek which 
runs through the town. These were 
probably left by the receding of the 
tide-water which had been draining from 
the meadows." Moody, Biographical 
Sketches of the Moody Family, 62, 63. 

Our fathers knew little of the times 
and seasons of God's work in nature. 
It is a tradition that the sudden dis- 
appearance of the scourges was caused 
by as sudden a change in the weather; 
but it is more likely that they had ful- 
filled their time, and that a natural 
organic change swept them away. 
Droughts, storms, earthquakes, and 
pests of worms and grasshoppers were 
signs of God's displeasure and instru- 
ments of His wrath, and their coming 
and going were recorded with fear. 
John Hull wrote in 1661 : " The canker- 
worm hath, for the four years, devoured 
most of the apples in Boston, that the 
apple-trees look, in 4th month, as if it 



was the 9th month." American Antiq. 
So. Coll., iii. 203. Thereafter he and his 
son-in-law, the diarist Sewall, after him, 
note such public calamities with careful 
hands. In 1685 both a drought and 
the caterpillars spoiled the land ; and in 
1 70S fasts were held in many places to 
implore deliverance from the worms. 
In 1743 "Multitudes of worms eat al- 
most every green thing in the ground." 
Lewis, History of Lynn, 326. And six 
years later the grasshoppers ate what 
an excessive drought spared. 

" In 1770, cotemporary with the 
clouds of flies in India and a most fatal 
pestilence among men and cattle in 
Europe, appeared in America a black 
worm about one inch and a half in 
length, which devoured the grass and 
corn. Never was a more singular 
phenomenon. These animals were 
generated suddenly in the northern 
states of America, and almost covered 
two or three hundred miles of country. 
They all moved nearly in one direction, 
and when they were intercepted by 
furrows, in plowed land, they fell into 
them in such numbers as to form heaps. 
They sought shelter in the grass, a hot 
sun being fatal to them. They dis- 
appeared suddenly about the close of 
June and beginning of July." Webster, 
History of Epidemic and Pestilential Dis- 
eases, i. 259. 

These worms have appeared at other 
times, and were considered by Webster 
" to be the harbingers of pestilence ; at 
least they have preceded diseases in 
America." Webster, ut s apra. In 1791 
the canker worm appeared " in numbers 
before unexampled," and devoured the 
orchards over the country- They con- 
tinued three or four years ; and in 1799 
it was said that many trees had not re- 
covered from their ravages. About the 
same time the palmer worm devastated 
the forests. So common have the visi- 
tations of caterpillars, worms, and other 
creeping, crawling, and living things be- 
come that they have ceased to excite pub- 
lic attention, and they are no longer feared 
as precursors of disease and death. 



BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 637 

recovered were impaired in health and died at an early age. 
Webster says, "it was literally the plague among children." 9 
It is said to have extended over the country " from Pemaquid 
to Carolina," although little is known of its effects in the middle 
and southern provinces. It is better known at the present day 
as diphtheria, a disease which has not wholly lost its terrors 
nor been disarmed of its fearful fatality. 10 The celebrated Dr. 
Josiah Bartlett of New Hampshire introduced the use of Per- 
uvian bark in its treatment with success; and the same 
remedy, under its later form of quinine, is still employed by 
practitioners. 11 

Although the disease widely prevailed in the years 1735 and 
1736, Maiden seems to have escaped any extended visitation, 
though a few fatal cases, which cannot now be distinguished 
with certainty, may have occurred until 1738, when it appeared 
in the southern part of the town. 12 There may have been 
several cases in the spring .or early summer; but about the 
beginning of July they multiplied, and in the space of a little 
more than three months forty persons died. In this brief 
time two families buried three children each, two more buried 

9 lie also says: "In some places, and Pestilential Diseases, i. 233-235 ; and 
this distemper was more fatal than in Green, History of Medicine in Massachu- 
others — country towns suffered more setts. 69, 70. These authors mostly fol- 
than populous cities. . . . Scorbutic low Douglass. In 1754 the town of 
people and those who lived on pork, Kingston, N. H., was again visited by 
and of course the poor, suffered most, the disease, which spread to the ad- 
In some families it was comparatively jacent parts of New Hampshire and 
mild — in others it was malignant like Massachusetts, and in some measure all 
a plague." Webster, History of Epi- over the country. A good account of 
demic and Pestilential Diseases, i. 233, this visitation appeared in the Boston 
234. Daily Journal, February 19, 26, 1881. 

10 Dr. William Douglass, a Scotch u A great-great-aunt of the writer 
physician of Boston, wrote " The Pi-ac- was treated in this disease by an appli- 
tical History of a New Epidemical F.rup- cation of crushed millepeds — sow-bugs 
five Miliary Fever, with an Angina and their fellows! She lived, but lost 
Ulcusculosa which Prevailed in Boston the free use of her voice. 

A T ew England in the Years 173c; and i- Lewis says that in October, 1732, 
1736," which is considered by competent "an epidemic cold affected most of the 
judges the best work extant upon the people in Lynn;" but he does not men- 
subject of which it treats. This was re- tion the distemper until 1740, when he 
printed in New England Journal of says: " A fatal disease, called the throat 
Medicine and Surgery, xiv. For other distemper, prevailed in Lynn, and many 
accounts of the distemper see Belknap, fell victims to it. In October, six chil- 
(Farmer's) History of New Hampshire, dren died in one week." Lewis, History 
234-236, Webster, History of Epidemic f Lynn, 325. 



638 HISTORY OF MaLDEN. 

four each, and another, that of Samuel and Elizabeth Howard, 
lost five in the short space of seventeen days. Among the 
early victims was an adult, Phineas Upham, Jr., " a religious 
and desireable Man," who died July 17, at the age of thirty-one 
years. 13 So rapid and fatal a dispensation could not fail to 
carry terror and dismay to the people of the little town ; and 
1738 was long remembered in family traditions as a year of 
sorrow. 14 

The manifestations of God's wrath and the evidences of His 
abounding love were often coupled in the experiences of our 
fathers. The scourge which passed over the country brought 
the great questions of life and death more closely to the 
hearts of the people; and a revival, which had arisen in 1734, 
swept like a cleansing fire over the western towns of Massa- 
chusetts and down the Connecticut valley, and dissipated for 
a brief season the mists which had settled upon the religious 
life of the province. 

It is doubtful whether the tide of spiritual religion ever 
reached in this country a point lower than that at which it 
stood about the beginning of the second quarter of the last 
century and for many years after. The mischievous practice 
of the half-way covenant had leavened the church with unright- 
eousness; and although Arminianism was as yet unavowed 
and not an article of the ancient creed had been renounced, 



13 Emerson, A Word to those that are Dead," says the preacher, "that I have 
Afflicted very Much, 7. repeated these Things, but to excite and 

14 During the prevalence of the dis- encourage the Living." The text, Prov. 
ease, Mr. Emerson preached two ser- viii. 17, was one which had been given 
mons, the first of which was entitled : her by her grandfather, John Upham, 
Early Piety Encouraged. A Discourse upon his death-bed. Samuel and Mary 
occasioned by the joyful and triumphant Upham lost four children by the dis- 
Death of a Young Wonian of Maiden, temper. 

Who died of the Throat-Distemper, Sept. The other sermon, which was 
6, .1738. Aitat. 21. The young woman Preach 'd at the Lecture in Maiden, 
was Abigail, daughter of Samuel and October 20/h, 1738, On Occasion of the 
Mary (Grover) Upham, whose death as repeated and multiplied Deaths of CM- 
described by Mr. Emerson was that of dren in many Families in said Tnvn, by 
an old-time enthusiast. " She sought the the Throat Distemper, had a more gen- 
Lord early, and found him;" and her eral application. 

example was urged upon the youth of The facsimiles which are given in the 
Maiden because it was " a very remark- text are from copies in the Prince Li- 
able one." "It is not to praise the brarv, now in the Poston Public Library. 



BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 639 

many of the churches, especially of those around Massachu- 
setts Bay, were silently drifting away from the faith of the 
fathers. The miscarriage of an attempt to hold a general 

Early Piety 

Encouraged. 
A 

DISCOURSE 

occafion'd by the 
joyful and triumphant DEATH 
of a 

Young Woman 

of MALDEN, 

Who died of the Throat-Diftemper,. 

Sept. 6. 1738. Mtat. 21. 



With ^Dedication to the Children, and 
Touth of /aid Town. 



By Jofeph Emerfon, V. D. M. 



Jer. ii. ?. 7 remember Thee, the Klndnefs of thy 

Touth, and the Love of thine Efpoufals. 
I Cor. xv. 55. O Death, Where is thy Sting ? 



BOSTON; Printed by J. Draper, for 
H. Fojter, in Cornhill. 1738. 

synod in 1725, which marked a wider separation of church and 
state, and the financial distresses which prevailed, weakening 
the support of religious observances, completed the demoral- 



64O HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

ization of the churches ; and the torpid and cautious preaching 
of many of the clergy was an evident reflex of the faint 
orthodoxy which filled the land. The " great earthquake " 



A Word to thofe that arc 
affliStedvery much. 

«* * * *»'^—— ' * 

A 

SERMON 

Preach'd at the 

Le&ure in Maiden, 

Ofloher 20th 1738. 

On Occafion of the repeated and multi- 
plied DEATHS of Children in many- 
Families in faid Town, by the Throat 

Dijlemper. 



By Jofeph Emerfon, M. A, 



Pfalm cxvi. 10. — / was greatly afflitted. 
Pfalm cxix. 50. This is my Comfort in my Af- 
fliction : For thy Word hath quickened me. 

BOSTON ; Printed by J. Draper, for 
H. Fofier, in Cornhill. 1735. 



of 1727, by its physical disturbances, induced an awakening of 
life in the churches ; but its general results were of no lasting 
duration. At length the tendencies toward spiritual action, 



BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 64 1 

if they existed at all, became so plainly verging upon Armin- 
ianism, and its open preaching became so common, that the 
fears of the more conservative clergy were aroused ; and a 
controversy arose, which was distinguished by the famous 
discourses of Jonathan Edwards upon Justification by Faith 
alone. These discourses were the immediate cause of the 
revival in the Connecticut valley, which was not without a 
powerful influence in other parts of New England and prepared 
the way for the remarkable uprising which followed the preach- 
ing of George Whitefield in 1740. The latter revival, which 
has passed into history as " the Great Awakening," fostered 
by the preaching of Whitefield and Tennant, spread over the 
land with resistless power and produced results which are yet 
of force. It destroyed the half-way covenant and breathed 
the pure air of health into the declining churches; it defined 
more clearly the line between the conflicting tenets of Calvin- 
ism and Arminianism and developed a spirit of religious liberty 
which paralleled that of political freedom, which began to 
animate the people. 

There is little of certainty known as to the course of the 
revival in Maiden ; and the presence of the trouble between 
the two parishes must have tended to lessen its effects. The 
recognized piety and Calvinistic preaching of Mr. Emerson, 
however, were favorable in the old parish and could not have 
been without some influence upon the people ; and tradition 
indicates that the Great Awakening was both felt and acknowl- 
edged in the church of Wigglesworth. That a reaching out 
for better spiritual things existed, which excited the attention 
of Whitefield and induced his presence, may, not unreasonably, 
be presumed. He says: — 

Monday, October 6, [1740.] At the Intreaty of Mr. Emerson, 
Son-in-Law to dear Mr. Moody, I believe a real Man of God ; we 
went to Maiden, 14 Miles from Marblehead, where I preached not 
with so much Power as in the Morning. But one Girl came crying to 
me and saying, She feared she had not true Faith in Jesus. Oh that 
thousands others began to doubt also ! Here the Secretary and 
several Friends from Boston gave us the meeting; with them after 

41 



642 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Sermon, 1 immediately sat out, and got privately into Boston about 
7 at Night. 15 

Four years later, on his second visit to New England, White- 
field came again to Maiden. Prince says, under the date of 
Saturday, December 15, 1744: — "And last LonV s-Day he 
preach'd for the venerable Mr. Cheever of Chelsea, and admin- 
istred the Holy Supper there : The next Day preach'd for 
the Rev. Mr. Emerson of Maiden." 16 It is not improbable 
that he preached here at other times in his later visits to 
America; and it is certain that he was here in the early part 
of September, 1770, or a little later, just after the ordination 
of Mr. Thacher, when he was on the way to the eastward, 
whence he never returned. An aged school teacher, Miss 
Porter, who was living in Medford in 1840, and was then over 
ninety years of age, remembered hearing him in the old 
meeting house in Maiden. The house was thronged and the 
preacher was forced to make his way to the pulpit by a ladder 
through a window at the back of the house, which opened into 
it. His text was: "Who is this that cometh up from the 
wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?" 17 

It must be said that even the influences of Whitefield and 
Tennant, powerful as they were, while they gave a new and 
lasting element of life to the decayed churches, were insuffi- 
cient to overcome the tendency against the formal Calvinism 
of the earlier New England ; and it came about that a declen- 
sion in religious interest soon followed the excited state of 
mind which attended the Great Awakening. That period, 
which witnessed a rapid and remarkable growth in the minds 
of men in regard to civil and individual rights, witnessed also 
a dearth of spirituality, which excited the fears while it grieved 
the hearts of those who still walked in the ways of the elder- 
day. Out of this unpromising order of things came, after 
many years, the mutual protests of the Methodist and the 

15 Whitefield, Journal, in loco. He 1G The Christian History, in loco. 

was on the way to Boston from a tour 17 Canticles, viii. 5. Letter of the late 

to the eastward, and had left Salem at Rev. John G. Adams, D. D. 
nine o'clock that morning and preached 
at Marblehead two hours later. 



BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 643 

Unitarian — a religion of enthusiasm and faith and a religion 
of culture and thought ; and midway between them stood the 
ancient church renewed and quickened with an earnest grace 
that retained all the strength and beauty of old, while it 
renounced forever the weaknesses and faults of the years 
which had passed away. 

The internal affairs of the North Church and parish during 
the pastorate of Mr. Emerson appear to have been favorable 
to prosperity and to such growth as could come out of the 
humble circumstances of the people. The controversy with 
the " south side inhabitants " gave little time for differences 
within; and the esteem in which Mr. Emerson was held 
strengthened his influence and gave force to his teachings. 
The loss of the pastor's diary and the absence of the church 
records leave us little to record. The parish records, beyond 
the story of the trouble with the rival precinct, present mostly 
details which are curious or quaint and throw a mellow light 
upon the simple ways of our predecessors; and he who 
traces the progress and growth of the town may be pardoned 
if he pause awhile over matters which, though of moment to 
the men of the eighteenth century, seem trivial in these later 
days. 

Upon the division of the town the ownership of the meeting 
house at Lewis's Bridge was transferred to the old parish and 
votes relating to its repairs, as well as to the maintenance of the 
ministry, no longer appear upon the town records. In January, 
174%, a committee was chosen by the parish to " Buld pewes 
Round by the woles of y e metteing house ; " and Bernard 
Townsend was allowed to build a pew on condition "that he 
will menten the glass a ganst it and Return it to y e parish when 
he and his Wife Remoued out of this parish." 18 This pew 
reverted to the parish in 1764, when the committee, "which 

18 Bernard Townsend, a merchant of Salem Road, excepting three acres on 

Boston, removed to Scadan about 174S. the northern side on which the house 

He was appointed a justice of the stood. He remained not many years in 

peace in 1749, was selectman in 1751 Maiden; and his lands were sold by his 

and 1752, and representative in the latter attorney, Dr. William Clark of Boston,, 

year. His farm of one hundred and six- in 1759. 
teen acres was on the south side of the 



644 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

wear chouse to Lot out the pue Lots and sell them to the higher 
bider," was authorized " to sell the parishes pue that was Barn- 
ard Twonsend s esqur." 

The meeting house began to get out of repair and more room 
was required for pews. In December, 1763, the parish voted 
that " the mens and womens north Stair be took down in order 
to build more pues," and " to Lower the meeting house at the 
top as soon as the Season of the year will a Low in a proper 
manner." At the same time it was " voted meassers : mr Sam 11 
howard Jsaac hill and m r Thomas hills a Committee two agree 
with a carpentor or Carpentors to Lower the meeting house as 
in their Judgement they think proper." Five months later the 
latter vote was reconsidered and it was voted " not to Lower 
the meeting [house] at the Top. but to Repeair it as it is with 
the money the pue Lots sold for." It was voted not " to put 
Sash Glass in the windos," but to have " the whole of the Glass 
. . . set in wood as peart is now ; " and 

it past in the affairmitive ... to new clabord the Est End of the 
meeting-house and fore sid. and the west End if the Committee, and 
Carpentors think best after they have don the end and four sid. and 
make water tables Round the meeting house ... to new Shingle the 
Southard Side of the meeting house Rooff. and buld a Bell free and put 
up the Spindle again and weather Cock as before. 

It was also voted that " new doores [be] maid to the meeting 
house and maid Lower in proper Shape, and Shells over the 
dores. dores and windos to be painted," and "that the meeting 
house be Repair d as to the Jn Side work by Jron Straps and 
bolts, and Seailing wheir it wants and Seats be Repeair d and 
maid up a gain." In the following September the vote relat- 
ing to the windows was reconsidered and it was voted " to put 
Sash Glass in the windos and new frames and new Squears in 
all the windos in the meeting house," and " to take up the 
three hind Scats both mens and womens in order to make more 
pues to be Sold to the highest bidder." A committee was 
appointed " to sell the pue Lots to the highest bidder to wards 
Repeairing the meeting house." At the same time the parish 
remembered the pastor, and it was voted " to Shingle the one 



BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 645 

half of the Rooff of the Reuen d mr Joseph Emersons house that 
is the Back Side of the rooff." 

In March, 1765, the parish anticipated a regulation of later 
days, refusing to " alow that the allys in the meeting house 
have chairs Set in them in time of Sarvis." The work of repair- 
ing the house appears to have proceeded with the usual tardi- 
ness ; and it was unfinished in March, 1767, when the vote in 
relation to a belfry, which was passed in 1764, was reconsidered 
and it was " Voted to Repair said Bellfree & Build a Steple." ]y 

In the meantime the pastorate of nearly forty-six years and 
the beneficent work of a life, which seems to have been as 
simple and unpretending as it was fervent and sincere, were 
drawing to a close; and that close was sudden and unexpected 
and fell as a heavy weight upon the church and parish. Says 
the parish record : 

fji 76 7,J July: 14 This Day Sent a warrant to warn the freeholders 
&ce To meet at the North Parrish meeting hous occasioned by the 
Death of the Rev d Pastor M r Joseph Emmerson who Deceased the 
Last night. 

More definite is the town record which says : — 

The Rev d Joseph Emerson consort to Mrs. Mary Emerson who had 
been in the Judgment of charity a faithfull minister here, and that for 
the space of forty and five years. Deceased in the evening of the 13 
day of July 1767 very soon after lying down to sleep who was cheirly 
and in health before. 20 

19 The "Steple" was finally built. 20 Mr. Emerson had nine sons and 

John Paine had five orders, June 27, four daughters, of whom ten lived to 

1768, for a' total amount of nineteen follow him to the grave. Of the seven 

pounds, two shillings, and fourpence, surviving sons three were ministers, of 

"for his bulding the Steple vpon the whom Joseph, the eldest, of Pepperell, 

meeting house." and John, the youngest, of Conway, are 

It was voted, May 17, 1770, "to sell mentioned elsewhere, 
two Pew Lots to be took of from the William, the twelfth child, was born 
womens seats below at the Back of said in Maiden. May 31, 1743, and was grad- 
seats," the proceeds to be used to pur- uated at Harvard College in 1761. He 
chase a piece of salt marsh for the entered upon the study of theology with 
parsonage. Three years later it was his father, and was ordained January 1, 
voted "to Repair by making new two 1766, as pastor of the church at Con- 
windows on the north Side of the meet- cord, of which his ancestors, Peter and 
ing house;" and in 1774 it was deter- Edward Bulkley, had been early minis- 
mined "to Sash the five windows in the ters. " His ardent love for his country," 
meeting house," and to number the it is said, " prevailed on him to contri- 
pevvs. bute, by his intellectual and personal 



646 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



The parish "Voted to Raise the Sum of Thirty Pounds L: 
money to defray the Charges of the funeral & the same sum to 
be Given to mrs: Emerson to her Disposal Said Sum to be 



services at home and abroad, in the 
great conflict of the American Revolu- 
tion." His sermon to the military of 
Concord, which was preached March 13, 
1775, and afterwards repeated at Acton, 
is said to have been " a powerful appeal 
to the feelings and understanding of his 
audience, and to Heaven for the just- 
ness of their cause;" and sinking into 
the hearts of the soldiery of those towns, 
it bore fruit a few weeks later at the Old 
North Bridge. 

In August, 1776, he joined the army 
as a chaplain at Ticonderoga, where he 
continued but a short time, being dis- 
charged by General Gates, September 
18, on account of ill-health. Returning 
homeward, his disease increased; and 
he was obliged to stop at tiie little 
settlement of Rutland, on Otter Creek, 
where he remained suffering with a 
bilious fever, which he bore " with great 
composure, resignation, and Christian 
fortitude." He died Sunday, October 
20, 1776, at the early age of thirty-three 
years, and was buried with military 
honors by a detachment from the army. 
A monument to his memory was erected 
by the town of Concord fifty years after 
his death, on which he is described as 
" enthusiastic, eloquent, affectionate and 
pious ; he loved his family, his people, 
his God, and his country. And to this 
last he yielded the cheerful sacrifice of 
his life." 

It is said that his "personal appear- 
ance was pleasing and prepossessing 
and his manners familiar and gentle- 
manly." One who wrote soon after his 
death said: — " His ministerial gifts and 
graces were distinguishing, and not only 
endeared him to his Hock, but promised 
growing reputation in the churches. In 
his public discourses, he discovered 
vivacity of genius, a polite taste, facility 
of expression, and a good degree of lit- 
erary knowledge. His doctrine was 
clear ; his exhortations pungent ; and 
reproofs, when necessary, he adminis- 
tered with becoming gravity and author- 



ity. In friendly conversation he was 
communicative and facetious, though 
not unmindful of his ministerial charac- 
ter. And in his family connections he 
was kind and tenderhearted, careful to 
discharge his duty and exemplify the 
power of Christian love as well as natu- 
ral affection." His son, William, a dis- 
tinguished early Unitarian, was the first 
minister of Harvard and was afterwards 
settled over the First Church of Boston 
until his death in 181 1. As a writer and 
speaker, he was among the foremost 
men of his day ; but his fame has been 
eclipsed by that of his son, the Concord 
essayist and poet, Ralph Waldo Emer- 
son. Cf. Boston Gazette, November 4, 
1776; Shattuck, History of Concord, 94 
et sea. 

Waldo, another son of the Rev. Joseph 
Emerson, who was born in 1735, was a 
prosperous merchant or trader in that 
part of Wells which is now Kennebunk ; 
and he appears to have inherited many 
of the characteristics of his father. He 
died suddenly, April 1, 1774, at the early 
age of thirty-eight years, and was re- 
membered as an upright and enterpris- 
ing man and a useful citizen. A view 
of the house which he built about 1760 
and which is still standing in Kennebunk, 
is given in Whitefield, Homes of our 
Forefathers. He married in 1759 Sarah 
Hill, the daughter of the Rev. Samuel 
Hill, of Rochester, N. H., and grand- 
daughter of Abraham Hill of Maiden, 
who was then at the age of seventeen 
years. She died soon after her husband, 
leaving an only surviving child, Sarah, 
who married Theodore Lyman at the 
infantile age of fourteen years. Cf. 
Bourne, History of Wells and Kennebunk, 
492. 

The other sons of Mr. Emerson were 
Edward, born April 1, 1728, who re- 
moved to York, where he was living in 
17S0; Samuel, born July 7, 1730; and 
Bulkley, born June 15, 1732, who was a 
stationer in Newburyport, where he was 
living in 1780. 



BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 



647 



Paid in three months from said Date, [July 14, 1767;]" but 
refused a vote to furnish a gravestone. 



A N 

EXTRACT 

FROM A LATE 

SERMON 

On the Death of the Reverend 

Mr. Joseph Emerson, 

Pa/lor of the FiVft Church in Maloew. 
Who Died very faddenly 

On Monday Evening July 13th, I7^7« 
In the 68th Year of his Age. 

Delivered at Maiden, 

By JOSEPH EMERSON, A.M. 

Paftor of the Church at Pepperrell. 



I 



Zeck. r.5. Your Fathers, inhere ar they? yjnd 

the Prophets, do they live for ever ? 
Mal. I. 6. A Son honoreth his Father. 

\ n wwrnmimmn n i ■ hum 

BOSTON: 

[Printed by Edes 8c Gill, for B clk el ey Em rR<>ON,| 

Of NtwevRv-PoRT, 

"mdcclxvii. 



Mary, the eldest daughter, married died in 1758. Rebecca was well ad- 
the Rev. Daniel Little, of Wells, and vanced in life when she married Jacob 



648 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



The character of Mr. Emerson is sketched in another place. 
The memory of his piety and sweetness continued many years, 
I doubt not, in the church and among the people with whom 
his life was spent ; but as they who knew him passed away, so 
passed the knowledge of his virtues. After many years his 
name was again remembered and the Emerson School, and 
a mossy stone at Sandy Bank are his memorials. When 
I sought some trace of his memory in village traditions a 
hundred years after his death, I found but this: "Pie carried 
a woman's muffin cold weather." EJicu!' 11 



Parker in 1777. The next year, re- 
turning from a visit, she brought the 
small-pox into Maiden, as is elsewhere 
related. Widow Parker married, in 1780, 
Deacon Benjamin Brintnall of Chelsea, 
who died here in 1786. After this she 
lived in the old house, in the lane now 
covered by Essex Street, which had be- 
longed to her first husband, Jacob 
Parker, and in which she held a widow's 
right. Here she kept a school which 
apparently had some of the elements 
of a town school ; and she may be con- 
sidered as the first schoolmistress in 
Maiden. Isaac Parker, who was born 
in 1776, was one of her pupils. In later 
life he remembered that the only book 
he had was a Psalter. After he had 
read and spelled a little, he was usually 
put to shelling beans or some other use- 
ful and improving occupation. 

The younger sister, Ruth, lived with 
Rebecca after the death of her first hus- 
band, Captain Nathan Sargeant, in 1798, 
until her marriage with Samuel Waite 
in 1802. Tradition hints that the sisters 
were not over-happy together ; and the 
following extract from the diary of their 
brother, John, tends to confirm the story : 
" f May 27, 1799.I Arrived at Maiden in 
safety after a pleasant and prosperous 
journey. Found my sisters well and 
living together in harmony which af- 
forded me much satisfaction." Ruth 
died July 21, 1S0S, at the age of sixty- 
seven ; and Rebecca soon became the 
fourth wife of the venerable Samuel 
Waite. It is said that the aged couple 
lived an unhappy life; but it appears 
that the wife was enfeebled and sick, and 



that a slowly increasing insanity, which 
was not readily perceived, induced freaks 
of temper and actions which were for- 
eign to her real disposition. She died 
July 21, 1816, her husband having died 
January 20, 181 5. 

21 Madam Emerson, as she was called 
by the townspeople, remained in the 
parsonage until the settlement of Mr. 
Thacher. At the annual meeting of the 
parish, March 14,. 1768, it was" Voted 
the Widow Emerson to Remain on the 
Personage as Usual upon her Entertain- 
ing the Ministers the year ensuing with 
there horses on the Saturday nights & 
Sabaths ; " and a similar vote was passed 
at the beginning of the following year. 
The claim of Mrs. Emerson for the bal- 
ance of Mr. Emerson's salary was slowly 
met. A balance of thirty-nine pounds, 
one shilling, and twopence, lawful 
money, was due in July, 1768; and after 
a payment of seven pounds had been 
made, October 11, 1774, forty-seven 
shillings still remained. 

Mr. Emerson died possessed of a 
right in an estate conveyed to him by 
his son Waldo in 1765, which is described 
as that property "which my tlonour'd 
Father Samuel Hill late of Rochester 
in the Province of New Hampshire 
Deceased had in Maiden aforesaid 
which came to him the said Samuel Hill 
by his Father Abraham Hill of Maiden 
aforesaid deceased." Midd. Co. Deeds, 
Ixv. 33. This estate consisted of three 
acres, or more, on which were a house 
and barn and afterwards, if not then, a 
shop and bake house, upon the east side 
of the road near the north meeting 



BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 



649 



The death of Mr. Emerson threw the people of the North 
Parish into the depths of uncertainty. Captain John Dexter, 
Jabez Lynde, and Ezra Green were chosen to supply the pulpit. 
Two months later the parish voted : — 

[September 24, 1767.] that the Parrish Do Concur with the Church 
in the appointment of the Seventh Day of Octo r : next to be keept as 
a Day of Prayer Supplication & Fasting respecting the Choise of a 
minister. 

In December the committee was directed to " apply to m r 
John Emerson for Supplying the Pulpit untill next annuall 
parish meeting; " and in the following March it was voted to 
have Mr. Austin, Mr. John Emerson, and Mr. [Amos] Sawyer 
preach four weeks each. At the expiration of the twelve 
weeks it was " voted to hear mr. Amos Sawyer, and mr John 
Emerson to prach upon probation," and they were to " prach 
Six Sabaths a peas." The twelve sabbaths in which the candi- 
dates were to " prach " being past, the parish by a vote con- 
curred with the church "to haue m r John Emerson for their 
minister; " and terms of settlement were offered. 22 The busi- 



house, having Harvell's Brook at Lewis's 
Bridge on the south and running north 
to the tavern property of Moses Hill, 
near the line of the present Irving Street, 
with three acres on the northern slope 
of Powder House Hill and another three 
acres near by. It had come to Abraham 
Hill in the division of his father's estate; 
and it seems likely that he built the 
house into which Madam Emerson 
moved when she left the parsonage. 
She purchased the remaining half-inter- 
est from William, Mary, and Sarah 
Thomas of Marshfield, children of Mary, 
the only daughter of Abraham Hill, and 
occupied the house until her death in 
1779. It was then held bv quit-claim 
and lease by Captain Nathan Sargeant, 
who had recently married Ruth Emer- 
son ; and in 1S07 it was purchased, with 
the three acres on which it stood, by 
Samuel Tufts. At this time it was 
owned by Marv Moody Emerson of Con- 
cord, who held three-fifths, and by Ruth 
Waite,who held the remainder, with the 
exception of a right which Rebecca 



Bi intnall had in the south-west chamber 
with other privileges. Tufts sold it to 
Isaac Wyman of Marblehead in 1S13, 
who in turn sold it to the town, three 
years later, for the purpose of a town 
house, which was never built. The Em- 
erson house was demolished about 1S70. 
22 John Emerson, the youngest son 
of the Rev. Joseph Emerson, was born 
in Maiden, November 20, 1745. It is 
said that the good parson brought up 
his children in the strictest manner of 
New England. This son appears to 
have been a worthy child of a pious 
father; for "he seems to have been 
sanctified from his birth, not recollecting 
the time when he was not deeply inter- 
ested in religion." In his after life he 
was especially given to prayer; and his 
son, the Rev. Samuel M. Emerson, said 
" that his father spent more time in 
prayer in the family and closet than 
any man whom he ever knew. He usu- 
ally occupied nearly all the time on the 
Sabbath from the close of the afternoon 
services till dark in this exercise." 



C50 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



ness, however, dragged. Four months later the parish made 
a slight addition to the former offer, but refused to make a 
settlement for life ; and the negotiations soon after came to an 
end. In April, 1769, it was " voted To hear m r Prentis preach 
with us four Sabbaths if he can be obtain d if not m r Thomas 
Abbet if he can be obtain d to Sabbath; " and a month later, 
at a meeting called to decide "who to hear next: after m r 
Thomas Abot has prached," it was "voted not to act any thing 
vpon the warrent." At the same time it was " voted, that 
the parish meetings should be waned by Puting vp notyfy- 
cations at Lut" amos vpham Shoop. Nath" waits and m r Nath! 1 
Sareents." 



Dr. Edwards says he entered college 
at the early age of thirteen years. He 
was graduated at Harvard College in 
1764, and is supposed to have studied 
theology with his father, preaching occa- 
sionally in the neighboring towns. The 
call to Maiden failed, apparently, by the 
refusal of the parish to make a life 
settlement. He commenced to preach 
at Conway, Mass., April 9, 1769. The 
little church at this place had just been 
gathered; and the first sermon of Mr. 
Emerson was preached in a barn in the 
midst of a dense forest. So retired and 
hidden was the place of worship that 
two ministers who attended the ordain- 
ing council are said to have been lost 
in the woods, having been unable to find 
their way back to the meeting house 
after their dinner at the house of a 
parishioner. Of his first Sabbath at 
Conway, Mr. Emerson wrote: — 

" On this Sabbath the people, all 't is 
supposed that were able, came to hear 
the word. Natural curiosity, indeed, 
was doubtless one motive for this atten- 
tion. The speaker was a stranger from 
a distance, and a youth of small stature, 
nothing otherwise distinguishing; only, 
it was literally John preaching in the 
wilderness whom they came out to see 
and hear." 

Here he found his life-work, as his 
father had found his at Maiden, being 
ordained December 21, 1769. It is said 
that "when Mr. Emerson informed Miss 
Sabra Cobb, his intended wife, of his 



purpose to go to Conway, she could not 
bear the thought of going into the 
depths of the wilderness, so far out of 
the world, and tried to prevail on him 
to find a place nearer Boston, and give 
up, for her sake, the engagement he 
had made with the Conway settlers. 
He would not hear to it, and expressed 
his determination in these words : — 
' I cannot give up corn for the sake of 
the Cobb.' It appears that she yielded, 
and the good man enjoyed corn and 
' Cobb ' too for many years." The years 
of Mr. Emerson lengthened out into a 
pastorate of over fifty-six years, in which, 
after the manner of the ancient pastors 
of New England, he became a father in 
the little forest settlement, identifying 
himself with all the interests of his 
people and rejoicing and weeping with 
them in their joys and sorrows. During 
fifty years he had not lost in all a year 
in the performance of his duties, and 
he had baptised twelve hundred and 
nineteen subjects. In his life he wrote 
upwards of thirty-five hundred sermons, 
admitted five hundred and eighty per- 
sons to his church, and followed one 
thousand and thirty-seven of his flock 
to the grave. He died suddenly, June 26, 
1S26, at the age of eighty-one years. 
Cf. Holland, History of Western Massa- 
chusetts, ii. 347 ; American Quarterly 
Register, x. 267 ; and Celebration of the 
Hit ml red th Anniversary of the Incorpo- 
ration of Comvay, 29 et seq. 



BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 65 1 

The people seem now to have almost despaired of getting a 
man to fill the place of the departed pastor, and they transferred 
their applications from one to another with surprising rapidity. 
Whether dissatisfaction with the candidates, or an unwillingness 
to come to Maiden on the other hand, or the inadequacy of the 
settlement caused the repeated failures cannot now be ascer- 
tained. 23 A vote, passed June 8, 1769, " to have m r John Emer- 
son to prach with us " was immediately reconsidered ; and it 
was voted " to apply to ml" [Enos] hitchcock to prach with us 
if he can be obtain' 1 four Sabbeths ; " and a month later it was 
voted " to heair m r Webster of Salsbuary." Before the close of 
the month it was voted to have " m r John Emerson to preach 
with us;" but Mr. Emerson had preached to acceptance at 
Conway in April and had no farther inclination towards Maiden. 
It was voted at the same time to have " m r Iuory honey to 
preach," and, failing both, to have " m r Hunt of Boston to 
preach two Sabbaths." It is not certain that those who were 
invited came to preach ; and the people appear to have been 
ready in October to hear any who might offer. They voted 
"to heair Som won man or more to preach with us who has 
not as yet preach d with us in our veakance." They refused to 
" hear the Reuen cl m r Juiroy houey," but voted " to heair m r 
Webster of Saulsbuary," and " m r Couggen of new twon ; " and a 
month later they were ready to hear Mr. Hovey after they had 
heard " the Reun? m r John Wyeth." Afterwards they heard, or 
endeavored to hear, in addition to the earlier candidates, Mr. 
Webster and " m r Hopkins of Salem," " m r Brown of waltham " 
and " m r Boond." 

At this time a youth who had not yet completed his eigh- 

23 It is not clear that dissension did and fidelity, and we hope, with great 

not prevail in the church and parish, success, we trembled for the Ark of 

At the ordination of Mr. Thacher, the God in this place ; we were deeply 

congregation was congratulated " that affected with your divisions, and the 

after so long a time your divisions are danger we saw you in of falling into 

healed ;" and the Rev. Nathaniel Apple- unhappy contentions and alienations, 

ton, addressing the church, said : "When We congratulate you on your present 

it pleased the Sovereign Lord of life to union and harmony, and on the agreeable 

take to himself that Man of God, who prospect this day affords you." Robbins, 

had, for a long course of years, laboured Ordination of the Reverend Mr. Peter 

among you, with exemplary diligence Thacher, etc., 31, 40. 



652 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

teenth year was master of the town school in Chelsea, where he 
had taught since July 28, 1769, for a salary of six pounds, law- 
ful money, per quarter, and his board. He had been graduated 
at Harvard College in 1769, having been maintained there " by 
the kind assistance of a number of gentlemen of Boston; " and 
he had already shown that he was possessed of extraordinary 
qualifications for the ministry Captain Ezra Green, who is 
said to have been one of the earliest to recognize his talents, 
invited him to pass a Sunday at Maiden, remarking, "You had 
better put a couple of sermons in your pocket, for we may 
make you preach." Accordingly he came to Maiden, and, with 
a sermon from John xix. 30, It is finished, which he had written 
while in college, he made his first appearance in the pulpit, 
January 28, 1770. For this, his first day's preaching, he re- 
ceived twenty-eight shillings. 

It came about as Captain Green had intended. The personal 
appearance and engaging eloquence of the youthful preacher 
reconciled the conflicting elements in the parish ; and on the 
following Thursday it was " voted To hear M r Peter theatcher: 
Chelce Shoolmaster to preach with us " on the next six Sab- 
baths. He preached so well on those six Sundays that when 
they were passed it was voted " That M r Peter Thacher Preach 
with us for thirteen Sabbaths next Ensuing ; " and before that 
time expired, the church, at a meeting of which the Rev. Joseph 
Roby of Lynn was moderator, chose him to be its pastor, by a 
unanimous vote. The parish soon passed a vote in concurrence 
and offered a settlement of sixty pounds, with a yearly sum 
of eighty-six pounds, thirteen shillings, and fourpence, " Like 
money," to be paid " so long as he shall Continue in & Carry 
on the work of the ministry In general amongst us." In addi- 
tion, the minister was to have the improvement of the " person- 
age," and could take from the parish wood-lots " so much wood 
as is necesary for the use of his Family." Of the annual 
amount to be raised, fifty pounds, seventeen shillings, and seven- 
pence were provided by the interest of the parish fund, which 
had its origin in the sale of the Shrewsbury land. It is said 
that Mr. Thacher, considering his " Extream youth," was in- 



BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 653 

clined to reject the invitation, and that he finally accepted it 
with reluctance. His answer, which is preserved in the parish 
records, does not invalidate this tradition. He wrote : — 

To the Church 6° Congregation of the First Parrish in maiden 
Dearly Beloved Brethren in our Lord Iesus Christ — After having 
maturely deliberated upon the Call which (tho most unworthy) you 
have given me to enter on the work of the ministry among you Having 
Looked up to the great Head of the church who holdeth the stars in 
his right hand & is the fountain of light & wisdom &: having Like- 
wise asked Counsell & advice of those who were Capable of Giving 
it to me I would now Declare my Desire & willingness to Devote my 
self my time Tallents & oppertunities to the service of the Lord Iesus 
Christ & of the soules of his People : I would also testify my willing 
acceptance of the Call which you have given me to settle with you in 
the work of the Gospel ministry after you shall have passed some Ex- 
planatory Votes Relative to the terms you propose to me, not doubting 
but that on Account of my Extream youth you will allow me those 
advantages which shall be thought needful for me in order that I may 
follow the appostles Direction to give my self to Reading meditation & 
prayer. This I would Do (if I know my own Heart) not by Con- 
straint but willingly not for filthy Lucree sake but of a Ready mind. 
And as my Dear Brethren at a more tender age than was allmost ever 
known I am about (at your Call) to Enter on a work the Greatness & 
Importance of which mad an appostle tho: old In years in Grace & 
Experience cry out who is sufficient for these things as I shall have 
many Difficulties to Combat with & many Temptations to overcome in 
this arduous work, as I am (young & you know) & subjected to Very 
many failings, & infirmities & my tender years Cannot be supposed to 
have given me so great a share of Experience as many others have I 
would beg you to Consider my youth to cast a mantle of love over my 
infirmities & follies & to grant me a Constant Remembrance in your 
Prayers at the Throne of Grace that I may not Live to my self but to 
God that I may Labour for him & spend my strength in his Service, 
that the Lord Iesus Christ would honour & improve me in his that I 
may not while taking Care of the souls of others neglect mine own 
Vinyard or having Preached to you be my self a Castaway but that 
Having been made a mean of turning many to Righteousness from the 
Evil of their ways I may shine as the Brightness of the Firmament & 
as the Stars forever & Ever. 

Mr. Thacher, being then at the age of eighteen years and 
six months, was ordained September 19, 1770. .The day was 



654 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

observed " as a Day of Fasting & Prayer; " and the parish 
raised ten pounds, lawful money, for the expenses of the ordain- 
ing council. 24 The exercises at the ordination were in the 
following order: — 

Prayer, by the Rev. Joseph Roby of Lynn: Sermon, from i. Iohn, 
i. 3., That which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you, by the 
Rev. Nathaniel Robbins of Milton ; The Charge, by the Rev. Nathaniel 
Appleton of Cambridge ; Prayer by the Rev. Samuel Cooper, D.D., of 
the Brattle Street Church, Boston ; and The Right Hand of Fellowship, 
by the Rev. Andrew Eliot, D.D., of the New North Church, Boston. 

Peter Thacher, who had now become the pastor of the old 
church, was of a ministerial race that had upheld the faith of 
the churches both in England and America, of whom Peter, 
rector of St. Edmunds, Salisbury, in the old England, and 
Thomas, the first minister of the Old South Church, Boston, 
and Peter the first minister of Milton, in the new England were 
worthy branches, being in the figurative language of those days, 
painful preachers or golden candlesticks in the temple of the 
Lord 25 Eight clergymen of the name had gone out from Har- 
vard College before the close of the eighteenth century; and 
two other graduates, the father and the grandfather of the Mai- 
den pastor, were preachers of the gospel before they entered on 
other professions. An ancestor of Mr. Thacher in another line 
was the Rev. John Oxenbridge of Berwick-upon-Tweed, who, 
fleeing from the effects of the Bartholomew Act, became a min- 
ister of the First Church in Boston. Peter Thacher was the 
eldest son of Oxenbridge, Jr., and Sarah (Kent) Thacher, of 

24 " We hear from the North Parish lieving that the Rev. Peter Thacher, 
in Maiden that the 19th of this present who was instituted vicar of Queen Camel 
Instant is appointed for the Ordination in 1574, was the progenitor of the line 
of Mr. Peter Thacher to the Pastoral whose first representatives in America 
Care of the Church in that place : In were the Rev. Thomas Thacher of 
Compliance with Scripture Example, a Weymouth and Boston, and his uncle 
Vote of the Convention of Ministers the Rev. Anthony Thacher, who found 
some Years ago, and the Desire of their safety from a disastrous wreck and an 
late Rev'd Pastor Mr. Emerson, they enduring memorial in the rocky islet, 
have voted to observe it as a Day of Thacher's Woe, off the coast of Cape 
Fasting and Prayer : The exercise it is Ann. The reasons are given at large 
expected will be in the Afternoon." Mass. by a namesake, Peter Thacher, in The 
Gazette, September 6, 1770. Thacher Family, a privately printed 

25 There are strong reasons for be- brochure of six pages. 



BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 655 

Boston, and was born at Milton, whither his parents had retired 
to escape the small-pox which then prevailed in Boston, March 
10, 1 7 5 ] ^ . His mother died when he was twelve years old and 
his father, who was a prominent man in the political affairs of 
the time, died a year later, leaving a young family in nearly 
destitute circumstances. 26 He became a pupil in the Latin 
School under Master John Lovell at the age of seven years, and 
by the pecuniary assistance of several clergymen of Boston and 
other friends, he was enabled to enter college when thirteen 
years old. 

The childhood of Joseph Emerson was paralleled by that of 
his successor. Books of piety and the conversation of his elders 
were preferred to the usual pleasures of childhood ; and it was 
said of him that " he never was a child." A grave deportment 
and " measured periods of discourse, in which it is said he imi- 
tated his father's manner," whether natural or affected, occa- 
sioned the prediction that he would become a preacher. A 
natural ardor and haste, which should have been restrained in 
his childhood, was allowed to guide him; and his education 
was pushed forward to its detriment, and disadvantages were 
occasioned which he felt through life. 27 Theology was his 
favorite study ; and his talents, his quick and retentive memory, 



26 Oxenbridge Thacher, Jr., H. C, formed of long continued benefit from 
173S, died at the age of forty-five years, his talents in supporting the side of 
Delicate health induced him to relin- liberty, from the zeal with which he 
quish the duties of the pulpit for those engaged." On the death of Mr. Thacher, 
of the bar, and as a lawyer he became Samuel Adams made his first appearance 
influential and eminent. As a repre- in the General Court as his successor, 
sentative of the town of Boston, he 27 This may have led to a lack of 
espoused the popular side and defended thorough scholarship in some important 
with ability the privileges of the colo- directions. Harrison Gray Otis says 
nies. His pamphlet, The Sentiments of that "some were disappointed in finding 
a British American [1764], was timely that his theological acquirements did 
and attracted much attention. Hutchin- not rise to the highest standard of pro- 
son, History of Massachusetts Bay, iii. fessional excellence ; " but he adds that 
104, speaks of him as "a practising " they were consoled by the conviction 
lawyer, who had been considered as on that his talents were quite above medi- 
the side of government until a short ocrity, and were edified by the pathos 
time before his election, when he ap- and solemnity of his prayers, the mani- 
peared in favour of liberty. Death is fold graces of his oratory, and the sub- 
the common enemy of patriots and stantial piety and worthiness of his 
courtiers, and in about two years frus- whole character." Sprague, Annals of 
trated the expectations which many had the American Pnlpit, i. 719. 



656 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

and a lively imagination gave life and interest to his conversa- 
tion and his discourses. Though plain of speech and manners, 
even to roughness, in his daily life, in the pulpit a melodious 
voice and fervent speech, joined with a rich glow of fancy, held 
the attention of the cultivated and won the applause of the mul- 
titude. Where he preached the house was crowded ; and so 
marked were his abilities, even at the outset of his career, that 
the celebrated Whitefield, who could only have seen and heard 
him about the time of his ordination, referring to the singular 
fervor of his prayers, called him " the young Elijah," esteemed 
him as the ablest preacher in America, and looked upon him 
as one born for the defence of New England Orthodoxy. 28 
The Rev. William Emerson gave a lively picture of him in later 
years. 

He was illustrious for his natural powers. His soul was lodged in a 
person possessing the advantages of a noble stature, a commanding 
mien, a full and steady eye, a countenance pleasing and expressive, a 
mouth formed for ready utterance, and a voice of wonderful sweetness, 
variety, and strength. With these qualities of body, so eminently use- 
ful to a public speaker, the Father of lights had united a sound under- 
standing, a fancy of uncommon spriteliness, a tenacious memory, and 
a correct judgment. 29 

While in Maiden he was an earnest adherent of the Calvin- 
istic faith of his fathers, which he defended by argument and 
exhortation with energy and zeal; but as he advanced in life, 
his views were modified and he came to look with tolerance 
upon the differences which pervaded the religious world. It is 
not quite clear that he did not incline to Arminianism at one 
time. His successors in the Brattle Street pulpit, Dr. Palfrey 
and Dr. Lothrop, agree that his earlier views were relaxed in 
the course of his ministry. Dr. Sprague, apparently on the 
authority of Professor Tappan, appears to attribute this change 
to the influence of his social and political associations, rather 

28 Whitefield was in Boston and its after. He died at Newburyport, Sep- 

vicinity in August and September, and tember 30, 1770. 

from what is known of his movements, 29 Emerson, Sermon on the Decease of 

he must have been in Maiden prior to the Rev. Peter Thacher, D. D., n. 
the ordination, or two or three days 



BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 6 $7 

than to conviction, and says that in his later days, " when the 
evil days of adversity came, his mind recovered the tone of 
deep evangelical feeling which he had early exhibited, and 
Christianity, by her most serene and heavenly influences, illu- 
mined his path to the grave." 30 

It was not alone as a pastor and preacher that he stood 
pre-eminent in the exercise of his abilities. With his quickness 
of mind and natural impetuosity, which he tempered and re- 
strained, he threw himself with effect into the consideration 
of those great questions which took precedence, even over 
religion, in the minds of men, and placed himself at once in 
the front rank of those who in the pulpit and by the pen gave 
direction and strength to public opinion. His mind and energy 
gave form to the feelings of his townsmen in several papers, 
which have distinction for their deep and earnest patriotism 
and their fearlessness of utterance. Not content with the work 
of voice and pen, he gave the last proof of his sincerity by 
joining the alarm list and preparing for the conflict which he 
foresaw. It is said that he earnestly proposed to emulate the 
Rev. Phillips Payson of Chelsea, by marching to intercept 
the regulars on the retreat from Lexington, but the orders of 
his captain were peremptory and he was obliged to remain at 
home, " that he might serve the cause of humanity in the 
line of his profession." 31 

31 Sprague, Annals of the American Annals of the American Pulpit, i. 718- 

Pulpit, i. 722. 723. 

31 The connection of Mr. Thacher Mr. Thacher married at Chelsea, 

with public affairs while in Maiden will October 8, 1770, Elizabeth, the young 

appear in the course of our story. The widow of Zachariah Poole of Medford, 

troubles attending his departure and his who was his senior by about seven 

career as pastor of the Brattle Street years. She died January 26, 18 16, aged 

Church in Boston belong to a later seventy-one years. Of their ten children, 

period and will be considered in another eight of whom were born in Maiden, six 

volume. Materials for an estimate of survived Mr. Thacher. 
his character and abilities are to be The eldest child, Thomas Cushing, 

found in Mass. Hist. Coll., viii. 277-284 ; was born October 11, 1771, and was 

Emerson, Sermon on the Decease of the graduated at Harvard College in 1790. 

Rev. Peter Thacher, D. D , [with notes He was ordained pastor of the First 

and a "character" by Hon. James Sul- Church in Lynn in 1794, where he re- 

livan] ; Allen, Genealogy &*c. of the mained until 1S1 3, when he severed his 

Descendants of Thomas and Anthony connection with that parish and received 

Thacher, in loco; Allen, American Bio- a recommendation and a present of eight 

graphical Dictionary,"]^; and Sprague, hundred dollars. He afterwards resided 

42 



658 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



There are no known records of the First or North Church 
before May, 1, 1770, at which time Mr. Thacher was chosen to 
be its pastor. At a meeting held January 13, 1772, when 
Joseph Perkins was chosen to the office of a deacon " by 
written votes," it was voted " to contribute 2 d lawful money at 
the Communion, each member," and " to buy a Book out of 
the Chh stock in which the moderator may keep the Records 
of the chh." In this book the records from the choice of Mr. 
Thacher were written and it was in use until 1832, when the 
church seceded from the parish and voted " to unite in worship 
with the Trinitarian Congregational Society in this place." It 
is now in the hands of its proper owner, the Trinitarian Con- 
gregational Church, to which, by right, pertains the name and 



in Maiden, where he kept a store in a 
building on Main Street nearly opposite 
the First Parish meeting house. Later 
in life he removed to Cambridge, where 
he died September 24, 1S49. He married 
Elizabeth, daughter of Captain Benjamin 
and Hannah Blaney of Maiden, who died 
at South Reading in September, 185S, at 
the age of eighty-eight years. Peter 
Thacher Washburne, a distinguished 
jurist and Governor of Vermont, was 
their grandson. 

The fifth child of Mr. Thacher, Peter 
Oxenbridge, was born in Maiden, De- 
cember 22, 1776, and was graduated at 
Harvard College in 1796. He spent 
three years as assistant teacher at 
Phillips Academy, Exeter. At this time 
his views were towards the ministry, and 
he pursued a course of theology, to some 
extent under the direction of his father; 
but upon leaving Exeter, he began the 
study of law in the office of the distin- 
guished statesman and jurist, James 
Sullivan, and was admitted to the bar 
in 1S02. His abilities and character soon 
won him a place in his profession and 
gave him a continually increasing and 
honorable practice. He was active in 
the establishment of the Boston Athe- 
naeum and the Provident Institution for 
Savings; and in 1823 he was appointed 
Judge of the Municipal Court of Boston, 
as successor of Josiah Quincy, an office 



which he held until his death. In this 
laborious and difficult position, he "dis- 
charged its duties with singular ability, 
with an integrity unimpeachable, with a 
firmness and independence never intimi- 
dated, with a mercy prudent and dis- 
criminating in its judgment and exercise, 
with a knowledge of principles and pre- 
cedents that made him seldom in error, 
and with an indefatigable industry and 
fidelity, that entitle him to the grateful 
remembrance and considerate regard of 
the community he has so long and so 
faithfully served." He performed the 
duties of his office to the last, although 
his health had failed and given way 
under his labors ; and he died suddenly, 
February 22, 1843. " Pure in his motives, 
upright in his conduct, courteous in his 
manners, useful in his life," was the 
eulogy of his pastor from the pulpit of 
his father. The criminal cases of Judge 
Thacher, prepared as a t^xt-book, has 
become a standard work. 

The last child of Mr. Thacher to be 
born in Maiden was Mary Harvey, the 
only daughter who survived him. She 
died unmarried, June 24, 1849, and is 
buried in the graveyard at Sandy Bank. 

The children of Mr. Thacher who 
were born in Boston were Samuel 
Cooper, a graceful writer and pastor of 
the New South Church in Boston, and 
Charles, a merchant. 



BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 



659 



traditions of the old First Church. One of the first acts of the 
clerk when the new book was opened was to record the names 
of his fellow members. The list is of those who were fathers 
and mothers in our Israel. 



1772. A List of the male members in full Communion with the 
first Chh of Christ in Maiden. 



John Shute, 3 ' 2 
Sam! Howard, 
Joseph Perkins, 
John Dexter, 
Eben' Harnden, 
Jabez Lynde, 
Thomas Manser, 
John Colman, 
Thomas Wait, 
Samuel Green, 



Samuel Sprague, 
John Harnden, 
Samuel Shute, 
Nathaniel Howard, 
John Howard, 
Thomas Pratt, Junf, 
Phinehas Pratt, 
Amos Shute, 
Stephen Pain, 
John Jenkins, 



32 Samuel Howard and John Shute 
were deacons of the First Church when 
Mr. Thacher was ordained. The former 
died March 19 (18), 1775, at the age of 
seventy-five years, and the latter, Sep- 
tember 30 (20), 1780, aged eighty-seven 
years. Joseph Howard was chosen with 
Joseph Perkins in 1772, but declined to 
serve, and John Ramsdell, the former 
apprentice of Edward Waite, was after- 
wards chosen in his place. Joseph Per- 
kins came from Danvers in 1765, when 
he purchased the homestead and fifty- 
five acres of the Green farm " on the 
hill," a large portion of which has re- 
mained in the hands of his descendants 
to the present time. He was town 
treasurer in 1771-73, town clerk in 1779- 
88, and a selectman several years. He 
is said to have been a man of much 
force of character, possessing an energy 
and stubbornness which seem to have 
been natural to his race. He died 
July 23, 1793, at the age of seventy- 
four years. 

After the death of Deacon Perkins, 
Ezra Sargeant, who had been chosen by 
the South Church in 1776, exercised the 
functions with Deacon Ramsdell until 
December 30, 1808, when " Brother 
Nathan Holden gave in, in writing, his 



acceptance of the office of Deacon, and 
deacon Sargeant affectionately addressed 
the brethren on his resigning, thro' in- 
firmity of age, the burdensome duties of 
s d office." Deacon Sargeant, who had 
been a justice of the peace when the 
commission conferred a dignity which it 
does not now possess, and had held 
the most important town offices, was one 
of the most influential inhabitants of the 
town. It was to him that the celebrated 
instructions of 1776 were addressed. He 
died, June 29, 1S10, at the age of eighty- 
one years. 

Nathan Holden was the colleague of 
Deacon Ramsdell until 1818, when he 
removed to Sweden, Maine, and Josiah 
Richardson was chosen in his stead. 
A meeting was held, April 13, 1825, 
"to supply the place of our venerable 
friend and brother (Dea. Ramsdill) who 
has ceased from his labours and gone 
to rest," when Dr. Ephraim Buck was 
chosen to the office and Silas Sargeant 
was elected to fill the place of Deacon 
Richardson, "if he does not signify his 
wish to return to us, at or before our 
next communion." Deacons Buck and 
Sargeant were in office at the time of 
the separation of the church and parish 
and followed the former in its exile. 



66o 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



Samuel Grover, 
James Kettell, 
John Grover, 
Thomas Wait, Junr, 
Jacob Parker, 
Ebenezer Barrett, 
Amos Upham, 
John Parker, 
Isaac Wait, 

Female members in full Communion. 

Mad™ Mary Emerson, 
Deborah Wait, 
Mary Lynde, 
pt Mary Shute, 

Elizabeth Howard, 
Mercy Pratt, 
Mary Wait, 
Mary Perkins, 
Lydia Howard, 
Deborah Wait, Jun r , 
Joanna Dexter, 
Lydia Harnden, 
Rachel Lynde, 
Rebecka Bucknam, 
Esther Harnden, 
Abigail Grover, 
Abigail Grover, Junr, 
Elizabeth Sprague, 
Anna Howard, 
Phebe Howard, 
Rebecca Emerson, 
Ruth Emerson, 
Lydia Porter, 
Winifred Howard, 



Samuel Wait, 
Will" 1 . Wait, 
Samuel Sargeant, 
Joseph Wait, 
Nathan Shute, 
Titus Quonso, 
Joseph Howard, 
John Ramsdale. 



Sarah Pratt, 
Mary Sprague, 
Sarah Wait, 
Sarah Wait, Jun r , 
Mary Lynde, Junr, 
Lydia Kettle, 
Mary Wait, Jun!, 
Sarah Shute, 
Ruth Wait, 
Judah Wait, 
Huldah Hollowell, 
Elizabeth Floyd, 
Phebe Barrett, 
Abigail Jenkins, 
Abigail Knower, 
Lydia Lynde, 
Abigail Edmonds, 
Sarah Oliver, 
Hannah Howard, 
Phebe Hatch, 
Martha Barrett, 
Abigail Howard, 
Mary Parker. 



The prosperity which the church had enjoyed under Mr. 
Emerson appears to have returned on the settlement of Mr. 
Thacher; and it is not improbable that the eloquence and 
popularity of the " Chelce Shoolmaster " were very effective 
agents in the early years of his pastorate. Later there was 
a reaction, caused, perhaps, in part by a decrease in the inter- 



BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 66 1 

est which the young minister had excited, but in a greater 
degree by the condition of the country, and the poverty of the 
people. I cannot read between the lines to detect with cer- 
tainty the cause of the action of the parish in 1774, and the 
church record is silent. 

A meeting of the parish was held, January 10, 1774, " To 
see if the Parrish will Accept of the offer of the Revr"? M r 
Eliakam Willis his offer to come & preach at our meeting- 
house Every other Sabbath for some future time as they shall 
think fitt under our present Circumstances without any Pay; " 
or to consider the future supply of the pulpit. The meeting 
adjourned to the tavern of James Kettell, where it was " Voted 
to Accept of the Rever d : M r Eliakam Williss offer to Preach 
with us Every other sabbath without pay." A committee 
was appointed to wait on Mr. Willis " with the thanks of 
the Parrish for his Kind offer unto them," and to ascertain 
" whether It would be agreable to him to preach two sabbaths 
out of three & if so the Parish shall look on themselves under 
still Further obligations to him." The application was " refered 
to his Parrishener 5 " by Mr. Willis; but the result of the 
reference does not appear. A sickness of Mr. Thacher at 
this time does not seem improbable and it may have resulted 
in a weakness of long continuance. A letter written two years 
later does not weaken this conjecture. 

Maiden, June 4, 1776. 
Sir, I feel myself much honoured by the choice which the hon ble house 
of representatives have made of me to be their chaplain ; it would give 
me pleasure to comply with their request, but the distance at which I 
live from Watertown & my poor state of health forbid my doing it : 
I beg Sir, that you would be so kind as to present my thanks to the 
honble house & inform them of the contents of this Letter. 

I am, Sir, with very great respect y r most obed hum le Ser 1 

Peter Thacher. 33 
Honble James Warren Esq r . 
Speaker of the house of Representatives. 

A few months after the application to Mr. Willis the following 
entries were made in the record of the First Church : — 

33 Mass. Archives, cxcv. 33. 



662 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

May 29, 1774 after public Worship The Church stayed & Voted, to 
observe Wednesday next Iune 1, as a day of fasting & prayer to humble 
ourselves before God under the present frowns of his providence upon 
our public affairs, & to seek a gracious Return of his mercy & favour 
unto us. Voted also, To recieve our church Covenant upon that day, 
(which was done accordingly.) 

Iuly 7, 1774, after public Worship the Church stayed & Voted, 
To spend one afternoon in a month (the Tuesday after the Sac') in 
extraordinary prayer to God for a removal of his Iudgments from this 
Land. 

In August, 1774, delegates were chosen to attend the ordina- 
tion of Mr. David Osgood as " colleague Pastor" with the Rev. 
Ebenezer Turell of Medford ; and thereafter there is no record 
of church votes until July 9, 1776, when John Ramsdell was 
chosen a deacon. These were the early days of the Revolution 
and there were more weighty matters than church votes to be 
considered. 

As we tread the threshold of the Revolution it may not 
be unprofitable to inquire into the state of the town as it 
approached the close of the provincial period. Materials 
to satisfy such an inquiry, though scattered, are not insuffi- 
cient. 

In common with the great body of the people of New Eng- 
land, the inhabitants of Maiden were alive to the dangers which 
threatened them. They were heartily in sympathy with the 
cause of liberty and evinced their readiness to act in its de- 
fence. Their action in the earlier days of the struggle and 
the part which they took in the later military movements will 
be considered hereafter. In the meantime the material re- 
sults of a hundred years of existence and growth present them- 
selves. 

In the year 1759 an invoice of the inhabitants was made for 
the purposes of taxation. This list, as entered upon the town 
records, preserves the names of the owners of land south 
of Harvell's Brook, some of whom were non-residents and are 
starred in the following copy. The list for the northern sec- 
tion does not appear. 



BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 



663 



An invoice taken and a single rate made by the Assessors upon the 
inhabitants of Maldon in the year I7J<?. 



Wid w Sarah Baldwin 
Samuel Baldwin 
Benjamin Bucknam 
James Barret Ju r 
Ebenezer Barrett 
Dea Joses Bucknam 
wid Phebe Bucknam 
Aaron Bucknam 
Moses Bucknam 
John Bucknam 
John Burditt 
Wid Mary Burditt 
Jabez Burditt 
Zaccheus Banks 
Nehemiah Blany 
Benjamin Blany 
John Bechem 
James Bucknam 
"* Edward Bucknam 

* Edward Bucknam Ju r 

* John Batchelder 
Joseph Burditt 
Dea. Joseph Caswell 
Moses Collings 
Unite Cocks 
Nathaniel Cousens 

* Thomas Cutler 
Richard Dexter 
wid Sarah Dexter 
Nathan Dexter 
Ebenezer Doe 
Peter Edes 
Edward Fuller 
Benjamin falkner 
Benjamin Falkner Ju r 
Cristapher Forbis 

* Darious Green 
Ezra Green 
James Green 
Simon Grover 



John Green 
william Gill 

* Cap' Jonathan Green 

* John Green of Ston h . 

* Abraham Goold 
Jacob Green 

* David Goold 

* David Goold Ju r 
Benjamin Hills 
Thomas Hills 
John Hutchinson 
Dea James Hovey 

* Cap' Peter Hays 

* James Hays Ju r 

* Peter Hays Ju r 

* Anthony Hadly 

* John Gary 
Obediah Jenkins 

* Thomas Knower 
Jonathan Knower 

* Daniel Knower 
wid Mary Knower 
wid Phebe Knower 

* Joseph Knight 
John Nichols 

* William Oliver 
John Oliver 
Jonathan Oakes 
Widow Deb r Oakes 
Uriah Oakes 
John Pain 
Stephen Pain 
Stephen Pain Ju r 
Joseph Pain 
Ebenezer Pratt 

* Nathaniel Pain 
Jacob Parker 
David Parker 
William Pell 
Rebeckah Pratt 



664 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



* Daniel Pratt 
Wid° Eliz* Pratt 

* Caleb Pratt 

* Doctor Rand 

* Jchabod Richardson 

* Widow Richardson 
David Sargeant 
Samuel Svveetser 

* Stephen Svveetser 
Benjamin Sprague 
Phinehas Sargeant 
Thomas Sargeant 
Amos Stower 
Joseph Sargeant 
John Sargeant 
Jabez Sargeant 
Ezra Sargeant 
Silas Sargeant 

y John Shute 



yRichard Shute 
Amos Shute 

* John Smith 
Jacob Shute 

* Robert Temple Esq! 
Solomon Townsend 
widow Mary \\ 'heler 
Daniel Whitemore 
Daniel Whitemore Juf 
Jsaac Wayte 
Thomas Wayte 

John Winslow 
John Wayte 

* Samuel Watts Esq! 
Joseph Whitemore 

* Timothy Wright 
Timothy Wayte ]\i. 
Titus Freeman 34 



Six years later the inhabitants of the town were divided into 
one hundred and seventy-four families, dwelling in one hundred 
and forty-four houses. Of the aggregate of nine hundred and 
eighty-three, forty-eight were negroes — slaves or servants and 
a few free blacks; and four hundred and sixteen, of whom two 
hundred and six were males, were under sixteen years of age. 
Of the adults, or those above sixteen years of age, two hundred 
and thirty were males and two hundred and eighty-nine were 
females. 35 

An invoice of the taxable property of the inhabitants was 
taken in 1767, which adds to the information given in the " Ac- 
count " of 1765. It is that of a farming community, dependent 
upon its live stock and the products of its fields. The remark- 
able scarcity of swine I do not venture to explain. 



34 I suppose this person was a colored 35 Account of the Houses, Families, 

man and, perhaps, identical with Titus Number of White People, Negroes, and 

Quonso of the list of church members Indians, in the Province of Massachusetts 

in 1772. He did not pay a poll tax but Bay, taken in the year 1764 and 1765. 

was charged five shillings for "pers [Columbian Centinel, August 17, 1S22.] 
estate & faculty." 



BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 



66s 



[Valuation of Malden, i 7 6 7 . J 3 * 

191 polls ratable | 
22 L)° not D° j 213 polls @ 



127 dwelling Houses 


@ 80/ each 


^508 






7 work Houses 


@ 40/ d° 


14 




. 


5 Mills 


@ 6£ d° 


3° 




. 


13 Ser t5 for Life 


@ 40/ d° 


26 






244 jQ Trading Stock 


@ 6 p r c l 


14 


1 2 


9^ 


1 169 £. 6s. 8d. money at Jnf 


@ D° 


7i 


T 5 


7 


84 Horses 


@4/9 d 


!9 


T 9 




100 Oxen 


@4/- 


20 






486 Cowes 


@3/ 


72 


18 




328 Sheep &rc 


@3 d 


4 


2 




616 Cow Pastures 


@ 14/- 


43i 


4 




5839 bush of Grain 


@8 d 


194 


1 2 


8 


652 bar ls of Cyder 


@3/ 


97 


16 




234 Tuns of English Hay 


@ 14/ 


163 


16 




300 D° of Meadow D° 


@ 7 


io 5 







518 D° of Salt D° 


@8/ 


207 


4 




9 Swine 


@ I2 d 




9 





^1981 9 oy 2 

In 1776 the white population had increased to one thousand 
and thirty souls, including, perhaps, some persons who had 
come into the town upon the destruction of Charlestown. 37 
By these figures the sparseness of the population of the terri- 
tory now covered by Maiden, Melrose, and Everett, with a 
population of about sixty-seven thousand, may be understood. 
The simplicity of the condition of the people in this and the 
neighboring towns may appear in the following statement of 
the wheel carriages which were found sufficient for the wants 
of the community. 



36 Mass. Archives, exxx. 127. 

37 Abstract of the Census of Massachusetts, i860, 263. 



666 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 





T 753- 


1757- 




Chaises. Chairs. 


Chaises. Chairs. 


Chelsea 


1 3 


O O 


Lynn 


4 29 


I 28 


Maiden 


3 18 


I 14 


Med ford 


5 24 


7 25 


Reading 


4 14 


4 19 


Stoneham 





O 3 38 



In the latter year Medford enjoyed an added superiority in 
the possession of one chariot. Travelling was principally 
performed on foot or on horseback. Even chairs, a kind of 
open chaise, were not common ; and the ownership of a chaise 
might be a manifestation of inordinate pride or an indication 
of unusual wealth. The lost diary of the Rev. Joseph Emer- 
son recorded how the purchase of a " shay " was the fruitful 
source of disquiet in his soul. 

On January 24, 1735, the conscientious pastor wrote, " Some 
talk about buying a shay. How much reason have I to watch, 
and pray, and strive against inordinate affection for the things 
of the world." A week later he says, " Bought a Shay, £2j 
1 Os. The Lord grant it may be a comfort and blessing to my 
family." Before the close of the week he confesses, " Re- 
marked smiling upon my being drawn in a Shays. The Lord 
Jesus has the entire government of the church, and to his favor 
and power I am indebted for such a smile of Providence, so 
very unexpected." A realization of the great temptations to 
which he was exposed and a complacent pride in the important 
purchase were apparently in his mind as he wrote; and his 
enjoyment was doubtless intense when, in the following month, 
he " Had a safe and comfortable journey to York." But abase- 
ment follows pride, and soon the perils, which beset those 
who lust for the things of the world, began to gather around 
the devoted minister. 



38 Mass. Archives, exxi. 29S, 340. By wheel carriages for the encouragement 
an act passed in 1753 a tax was laid on of the manufacture of linen. 



BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 667 

[April 24] Shay overturned, with my wife and I in it, yet neither 
of us much hurt. Blessed be our gracious Preserver. Part of the 
shay, as it lay upon one side, went over my wife, and yet she was 
scarcely anything hurt. How wonderful the preservation. 

[May 4] Went to the beach with three of the children. The 
beast, being frightened when we were all out of the shay, overturned 
and broke it. I desire (I hope I desire it) that the Lord would teach 
me suitably to repent this providence, to make suitable remarks on it, 
and to be suitably affected with it. Have I done well to get me a 
shay ? Have I not been proud or too fond of this convenience? 
Do I exercise the faith in the Divine care and protection which I 
ought to do ? Should I not be more in my study and less fond of 
diversion? Do I not withhold more than is meet from pious and 
charitable uses? 

[May 15] Shay brought home; mending cost thirty shillings. 
Favored in this respect beyond expectation. 

[May 16] My wife and 1 rode together to Rumney Marsh. The 
beast frighted several times. 

It was, perhaps, not without a feeling of relief that he 
recorded at last, " Disposed of my shay to Rev. Mr. White." 
The new owner, remarks Dr. McClure, " doubtless, in his turn, 
experienced a similar succession of mental elations, conflicts, 
and depressions in consequence of his purchase." 39 

The habits and manners of the people were in accordance 
with their worldly estates. While in two or three families 
there may have been a slight real or fancied social elevation 
above their neighbors, there was no aristocracy here as in the 
neighboring towns of Charlestown and Medford. The flocks 
gave wool and the fields produced flax, which the hands of 
the women prepared and spun, and wove into cloth for clothing 
and other domestic uses. 40 The herds gave milk and flesh, 
which with the yield of the harvests furnished a plentiful sus- 
tenance. Little ready money passed from hand to hand. 
The necessary trade of the community was performed by the 
neighborly methods of exchange or a more intricate system of 
barter; and debts were cancelled by payments in kind. 

39 Bi-Centennial Book of Maiden, 219; place at Ell Pond, the brook at Hill's 

Atlantic Monthly, lii. 593. Bridge, and Harvell's Brook at Cross 

43 The preparation of flax required Street were the " flaxing places" for 

the aid of running water. The watering their several neighborhoods. 



668 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

The existence of slavery here during the provincial period 
and to a later day has been noticed. The system of appren- 
ticeship, by which minors were bound to service, was almost 
universal. The age of fourteen was considered to be a proper 
time for the beginning of that which was not infrequently a 
period of enforced servitude ; and a term of seven years was 
not too long for the apprentice to become skilful in the arts 
of a tailor, a cordwainer, a saddletree-maker, or a weaver. 
The rising and the setting of the sun marked the limits of a 
day's work; and he would have been thought an idle or a 
vicious man who proposed other limits to man's labor than 
the natural divisions of day and night. Let it not be thought, 
however, that idleness was unknown in a community where 
the tavern was always open and where moderate drinking was 
a general rule. 

The public inn was an ever-present feature in a New England 
town of the old time. I suspect there was more of shelter 
than of good cheer within the doors of the average tavern of 
the eighteenth century. " Indian corn roasted, and bread 
made of Indian meal, and sometimes a fowl or fish dressed 
after a fashion, but pretty good butter, and very sad sort of 
cheese," was the list of edibles which they furnished, as an 
English traveller found in 1740; and he could add, what was 
perhaps more important to the neighborhood, " generally a 
little rum to drink, and some of them have a sorry sort of 
Madeira wine." 41 

Maiden was well supplied with taverns, the principal of 
which was for many years that kept by the Hills, the origin 
of which has been noticed. Here met the selectmen to lay 
rates and direct the affairs of the little town, and here came 
the inhabitants to make and unmake the boards which man- 
aged them from one annual meeting unto another. Widow 
Sarah Hill, who, as has been seen, succeeded her husband on 
his death in 1670, renewed her license from year to year until 
1679, when her son, Jacob, was licensed to " Keep a house of 

n liennett, History of A r ew England [Mass. Hist. So. Proc, January, 1861], 125. 



BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 



669 



Publ. enterteinm 1 at Mauldon." 42 He removed to Cam- 
bridge in 1681, and his brother, Isaac, was allowed " to keep an 
ordarye and to Retale wine & strong liquo r ." At the same 
time Nicholas Salisbury was licensed to keep " at Charlstown 
peny ferry for horse & man & retaking cider & beere," and 
was fined for not having a previous license. 43 Isaac Hill died 




a little before February 23, 172^, having relinquished the 
business of an innkeeper in 1698, unless his entertaining 
ministers at his house in 1708, "when thay preached in 
maldon," 44 may indicate that he continued his vocation with- 
out the sanction of the court. His son, Moses, was a plain 
farmer, who, dying in 1743. left to his son, Isaac, his dwelling 
house and barn, the former of which, removed from its original 
site where now stands the City Hall, remains in a good state 
of preservation on Irving Street. 

Isaac Hill seems to have evolved the business of an innkeeper, 
very naturally, from that of a retailer of wine and spirits, for 
which he was licensed in 1747; and it was two years later that 

42 Midd. Court Records, iii. 28 1". 44 Maiden Town Records, in loco. 

43 Ibid., iv. 33. 



6 JO HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

he opened his house as a tavern. Thenceforth, Isaac Hill's 
became the public place of the town, its proximity to the meet- 
ing house, and its location at the junction of the several county- 
roads giving it great advantages over the house of Daniel New- 
hall, its competitor. Landlord Hill died, June 22, 1764, at the 
age of forty-one years, an early age for one who, like his wine, 
needed years to mellow his nature and fit him for his hospitable 
offices. His widow, Sarah (Haven), continued the business 
without interruption, and soon filled the place of the departed 
master, by marrying, in the next February, James Kettell, a 
deputy sheriff and jail-keeper, who became the landlord at the 
prophetic and patriotic sign of the Rising Eagle, which the 
old tavern assumed. It was during the rule of Landlord 
Kettell that John Adams visited Maiden. He says: — 

November 3, [1766.] Monday. Set off with my wife for Salem;, 
stopped half an hour at Boston, crossed the ferry, and at three o'clock 
arrived at Hill's, the tavern in Maiden, the sign of the Rising Eagle, at 
the brook near Mr. Emerson's meeting-house, five miles from Nor- 
wood's ; where, namely, at Hill's, we dined. Here we fell in company 
with Kent and Sewall. 

[June] 17, [177 1.] Monday. Set out upon the eastern circuit. 
Stopped at Boston, at my office, and nowhere else. Came over Charles- 
town ferry and Penny ferry, and dined at Kettel's, in Maiden, by the 
meeting-house. Kettel is a deputy sheriff; the meeting-house is Mr. 
J. Thacher's. 45 

Sarah Kettell, the umquhile wife of Isaac Hill, died December 
17, 1774, leaving of the name of Hill one son, Charles, a minor, 
and four daughters. The dealings of Kettell with the tavern 
property were not such as met the approval of the townspeople, 

and he was held to a strict 
account in his settlement of 
the estate of his predecessor. 
Charles Hill became of age in 1777 and assumed control of 
the tavern, which again was known as Hill's. " Charles Hill's 
House " became a favorite place with the citizens, and town 
meetings were often adjourned to its hospitable west room. 
At the annual meeting in March, 1778, it was 

45 Adams, Life and Works, ii. 199, 279. 



-&Ur4xM/0 



BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 67 1 

voted M r Ezra Sargeant Moderator. After the Reading of the Laws 
and Exhibiting the accounts of the Towns Expence the year past, 
voted to Indemnify Mr Charles Hill for Selling Licquor for the presant 
meeting the meeting was then adjourned for one hour and an halfe. 

Refreshed, undoubtedly, by the ninety minutes of intermission 
and the liquor of Charles Hill, the meeting reassembled and 
proceeded with its proper business. At a town meeting, held 
August 12, 1779, when the report of" a Committee to state the 
prices of the several articles of Commerce among ourselves 
which the Convention did not state " was considered, votes 
were passed which affected the prices of lodging and sustenance 
at public houses. It was then ordered that New England rum 
should be nineteen shillings a bowl, and West India toddy 
eighteen shillings a bowl with loaf sugar and sixteen shillings 
with brown sugar; and "that Tavern keepers for a Diner" 
might charge twenty-four shillings " with two Dishes one Roast 
one boyled and Suppers in proportion to the Dishes." Lodg- 
ing was to be six shillings and a breakfast eighteen shillings ; 
while the traveller's horse might be kept over night, with Eng- 
lish hay, for eighteen shillings, and six shillings would give him 
a mess of oats at noon. The prices of other articles of use and 
wear were fixed, and the town clerk was directed to post the 
votes in the several quarters of the town. 46 After this the town 
appropriately " voted to adjourn this meeting into m r Charles 
Hill? west Room," where the Rev. Mr. Thacher was chosen to 
meet with the delegates of other towns at Cambridge, " for the 

46 This was in furtherance of the acts accept of the Proceedings of the Con- 
of a convention which met at Concord, vention," and chose the committee men- 
July 14, on the recommendation of the tioned in the text. Besides the prices 
town of Boston. It was called to con- already mentioned as being fixed by the 
sider questions relating to the depre- town committee, sole leather was rated 
ciation of the currency and the inflated at eighteen shillings the pound and green 
prices of articles of necessity; and it hides at three shillings. Men's good 
was attended by representatives of most leather shoes were fixed at five pounds 
of the towns of the state, excepting and two shillings and women's shoes at 
those of the district of Maine and the three pounds and twelve shillings. Six 
county of Berkshire. Captain Benjamin shillings per yard was allowed "for 
Blanev was the deputy and it was weaving Common yard wide " cloth ; 
"voted unanomisly that Cap^ Blaney and oak wood was to be sold at ten 
vote for things in the above said Con- pounds, and walnut wood at twelve 
vention be lower'd in there prices." The pounds the cord, when delivered in the 
town afterwards "voted Unanimosly to middle of the town. 



6j2 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



sole purpose of forming a Convention for the purpose of fram- 
ing a new Constitution or form of Government." The annual 
meeting of 1799 apparently found the voters in a convivial 
mood, for having performed their duties by the election of town 
officers, they adjourned " to M r Stephen Waits 47 for one hour 
met & Adjourned to Mr Charles Hills West Room." Hill's con- 
tinued to be known as the principal tavern in Maiden until after 
the beginning of the present century. It is last mentioned under 
the date of March 14, 1804, when at a town meeting it was 
" Vol? To adjourn to Hills to Seal up the votes for Governor 
Lieu'. Governor & Senators & when done the Meeting Dis- 
olved." Charles Hill died April 29, 1804, and the line of land- 
lords of the Hill name was ended. 48 

James Kettell, who married Elizabeth Wilson soon after his 



47 Stephen Waite, Jr., innkeeper, was 
in 1798 the owner of a part of the house 
which then stood next south of the First 
Parish meeting house. Here was his 
tavern and in an ell on its north side he 
had a shop where he sold West India 
goods and rum. The house had been 
recently built by Daniel Waite, in part 
from materials of the meeting house of 
the South Precinct. In 1840 it was 
removed to Baptist Row, where at the 
corner of Salem and Ferry Streets it 
remained for many years, until 1892, 
when it was again removed. It now 
stands on Eastern Avenue, near Main 
Street. In its former condition it was 
a good specimen of the better houses of 
the latter years of the eighteenth cen- 
tury ; and its solid frame and brick lined 
walls bade fair to outlast many more 
modern buildings. It is said to have 
been the first house in Maiden with 
window blinds ; and its gratified owner, 
walking before it, is reported to have 
exclaimed, " Am I in Boston ? " 

It was not uncommon for town meet- 
ings to adjourn to private houses, as in 
1808, when an adjournment was made 
to the house of Ebenezer Herring on 
Wilson's, now Bailey's Hill, and in 1816, 
when the voters proceeded to the house 
of William IFaskins. 

48 He was the father of the late 
f'haiies, Isaac, and Benjamin Goodwin 



Hill. The former is remembered as the 
constable whose stentorian voice had 
many terrors for the evil-minded boys 
of a former generation. Hill's Tavern 
was occupied during his life by Isaac 
Hill, a son of the last landlord, who 
died June 12, 1S55. In 1857 the land 
was sold to the town, and the tavern 
gave place to the town house which is 
still occupied by the city. The old house 
was removed a short distance to Irving 
Street, where it now stands. Its age is 
not known, but it appears to belong to 
the early part of the eighteenth century. 
It was evidently not the first house 
which was built upon the land by the 
Hills or, perhaps, Coytmore, and which 
was doubtless the tavern of 1657. The 
present house has in it timbers which 
have. been used in an earlier construc- 
tion ; and it is very likely that it in- 
herited a portion of the material as well 
as the business of its predecessor. These 
timbers have been hewn to a surface 
upon one side only, otherwise they are 
still in the shape which nature gave 
them. Between the timbers the house 
is lined with clay, a prudent practice 
which gave way to the good old custom 
of "back-plastering," which in the recent 
undue cheapening of houses has nearly 
disappeared. The view represents the 
house as it appeared prior to its removal 
from Main Street. 



BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 673 

departure from the Rising Eagle, opened a rival tavern in the 
old house of Joseph Hills at the corner of the Salem and Read- 
ing Roads, in which his wife had an undivided half-right. His 
connection with the Hill estate was not a matter with which 
the Probate Court alone had to deal ; but it was carried before 
the church, into which he had been " admitted to the stated 
Enjoyment of christian Privileges " at the meeting which made 
choice of Mr. Thacher as pastor. A special church meeting 
was held, March, n, 1778, " to hear the complaint of Bro John 
Dexter against Bro James Kettle ' for fraudulent dealing in 
delaying and denying to produce for examination certain re- 
ceipts which he had heretofore implicitly acknowledged to be 
false, belonging to the estate of Isaac Hill deceased.' " After 
several meetings it was voted, " That Bro. Kettle has been 
guilty of fraudulent dealing in this regard. That he be sus- 
pended from the communion of the church till he shall give . . . 
christian satisfaction." It was six years before the church 
voted " 1. That Brother Kettel having produced the receipts 
mentioned in Bro r Dexter's complaint, hath given satisfaction 
to the minds of the church with respect to said complaint; and 
therefore, 2. That Brother Kettell be restored to the charity 
and communion of the church." 49 

Mrs. Elizabeth Kettell died in 1782; and Kettell's Tavern 
appears to have closed its doors in 1783. Dr. John Sprague 
purchased of James Kettell, in 1788, the easterly half of the 
house and the land adjoining, which was then described as con- 
taining about sixteen acres. He had previously bought the 
interest of the heirs of Tabitha Parker, the sister of Mrs. 
Kettell; and in 1797 he acquired of Kettell's administrator the 
westerly half of the house and the moiety of land connected 
with it. Here he resided until his death in 1803. 

Robert Foster, who married a daughter of Dr. Sprague, 
occupied the old house in 1807 as a tavern; and under his 
management it appears to have become more popular than in 
the days of Kettell. A town meeting in April, 1807, was 
adjourned to meet at " M r . Robert Foster's house forthwith;" 

49 First Church Records, in loco. 
43 



674 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

and again, in 1811, "the Select Men sold at public Vendue at 
the house of Robert Foster Sundry Articles of Warring Ap- 
parrel " to the amount of eleven dollars and seventy-two cents, 
which were " the effects of the late Elizabeth Fitz Jerrel." In 
1812 a town meeting was adjourned to Foster's Tavern, and at 
a meeting in April of the next year it was 

voted To adjourn to Fosters east room & Meet accordingly and seet 
up the Collectorship at Auction to the lowest bider for the ensuing 
year — and it was struck of to Cap' Uriah Oakes at two Cents eight 
Mils for the South part — and three Cents four Mills on a dollar for the 
North part of the town. 

Foster's Tavern is mentioned in connection with a town meet- 
ing in 18 1 5, and it may have been in existence several years 
later. The old house had by this time attained a good old age ; 
and it is described by those who remember it as showing many 
of the corrosive marks of time. It finally disappeared about 
1837. 50 

Not less important in the service of the public was the well 
which still remained with its sparkling waters as cool and pure 
as when they quenched the thirst of Joseph Hills and his com- 
panions ; and our sketch of the old house would be incomplete 
without the story of the old town pump. 

At the beginning of the present century most of the Wilson 
land on the Salem Road had been sold to Benjamin Faulkner, 
who thus came into possession of the land on which the Con- 
verse Memorial Building now stands, and the adjacent land to 
the present westerly line of Sprague Street. The house and the 
land at the fork of the roads passed into the hands of William 
Barrett, who, at his death in 1834, was in possession of a 
large tract of land both east and west of Main Street, including 
the water privilege on which, in 1804, he had established his 
dye house. 

In 1842 a committee of the First Baptist Society purchased 

50 In 188S the position of the cellar well, or in the centre of the roadway on 

of the house was shown while workmen the north side of the square. In 1894, 

were excavating for a line of water pipe when the well was filled in, the sidewalk 

to Wayte's Mount. It was found to be was moved a few feet northerly. For 

about twelve paces from the inner line the early history of this house, vidt 

of the sidewalk, a few feet east of the chap. vi. note 5. 



BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 675 

for two thousand dollars the one acre of land, more or less, on 
which the church now stands. Previous to the transfer by the 
committee to the society, a portion of the corner, " with a well 
thereon," was sold to the town for fifty dollars. The limits of 
the land conveyed to the town may be clearly ascertained by 
projecting the easterly line of Main Street from a point, " three 
feet north of the inside stoning of said well," forty-six feet and 
six inches southerly and continuing easterly to a point in the 
northerly line of Salem Street made by the westerly line of the 
land of the Maiden Public Library. By the deed in which this 
purchase was confirmed, the town was to " enjoy all the privi- 
leges of said well and land for the purposes of a watering 
place and as a common highway." 

At a meeting in June, 1843, the selectmen were authorized 
" to procure a pump and trough for the Foster well, such as 
they think proper." John T. Cram furnished a pine pump for 
sixteen dollars and sixty-seven cents ; and Simon Black was 
paid twenty dollars and twenty-two cents for " work, lumber, 
and [cash] paid for smithing for new pump." 

The establishment of a public watering place had become 
a necessity, as the ancient one on the north side of Hill's Bridge 
had been destroyed, as had also that on the Boston Road at 
Lewis's Bridge. The roadside border of the mill pond on the 
Medford Road was convenient for horses and cattle when the 
pond was full ; but the supply of water was precarious from the 
frequent drawing down for the uses of the grist mill at the dam 
where Middlesex Street now crosses the brook. Otherwise, the 
nearest watering place was at the old fiaxing place in Harvell's 
Brook Lane, where the Eastern Railroad now passes Cross 
Street; while the foot passenger could find access to a spring 
in Green's meadow, west of Main Street and south of Bell 
Rock. 

Thereafter, for more than fifty years, following its nearly two 
centuries of private use, the well of Joseph Hills ministered to 
the needs of a thirsty public — both of man and beast. Its cool 
water became known for miles around and few passed the old 
corner, by day or by night, during the warm season, without 



6y6 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

taking a draught from the town pump. Well wrote a Maiden 
lady: — 

With all the joy, with all the sorrow, during all hours of the day and 
night, for friend and foe, in time of peace, and in time of war, the well 
has remained unfailing and undefiled. 

An attempt was made to remove the pump in 1885, and an 
order contemplating such an action was passed by the common 
council; but at a meeting of the aldermen protests signed by 
nine hundred and twenty-nine inhabitants were presented and 
the order was refused. One of the protests was signed by two 
hundred and six women who said : — 

We, women citizens of Maiden, respectfully protest against the dis- 
continuance and closing of the Old Town Pump. It being a noted 
landmark of valuable historic relations and a fountain of beneficent 
hospitality and pure, unintoxicating drink, we beseech you to consider 
and heed this our protest and petition. 

The local papers teemed with rhymes in which the old well 
appeared alternately as a foul cesspool and a source of health 
and life. Analyses of the water were made which vindicated its 
purity. 

A substantial granite pump was presented to the city in 1887, 
by Walter P. Sheldon, which replaced the wooden pump which 
had been in service about ten years. It was said at this time 
that this well " is the only place in the centre of the city where 
one may slake his thirst with a drink of pure water fresh from 
the ground." 

The pump and well were destroyed by the action of the City 
Council in April, 1894. There was nothing in the surroundings 
of the well at that time to make its water less pure than in 1885. 
All cesspools 'and sewers were at a distance, and the lines of 
strata, so far as they are known by excavation, must have car- 
ried all contaminations, not immediately around the well, in 
other directions. 

The old well served us with honor and brought down to our 
day the memory of the fathers of Maiden. Born in the shade 
of a primeval forest, it saw the beginning of our municipal life 
when it was simple and rude. It had been a blessing to us and 



BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 6jj 

to our forebears, and it might have been preserved. It could 
have been preserved ; but there is neither sentiment nor pity in 
city councils and the demands of street railroads. 

The eldest and most important competitor of Hill's in its 
earlier days was Newhall's — the Half Moon, which stood on 
the Salem Road near the present easterly corner of Salem and 
Porter Streets. It is not improbable that it was occupied as an 
inn early in the eighteenth century by Thomas Newhall, Jr., 
who was licensed in 1707 and whose name appears as that of an 
innholder until 1 716, soon after which he removed to Leicester. 
The sixteen acres of land on both sides of the road, running 
from the hills, which were then a part of the town commons, to 
the watercourse since known as Harvell's Brook, were a part 
of the farm of sixty acres which Joseph Hills sold to Thomas 
Newhall, the husband of his granddaughter, Rebecca Green, in 
168 1. On the death of Lieutenant Newhall in 1728, although 
no record of the division of his estate is known, this portion of 
his farm appears to have passed into the possession of his son, 
Daniel, who may have previously improved it and who was 
licensed as an innholder in 173 1 . In 1736 Chief Justice Ben- 
jamin Lynde, riding to Cambridge, " Stopped and baited at 
Maiden, Half Moon." Five years later he records how he 
" went for Charlestown Court, and rid on our horses firmly over 
Penny Ferry, he [Coz. W m Browne, Esq.] having paid our ex- 
penses at the Half Moon, Newall's." A few weeks later he 
" oated and drank" at the same place. His last visit appears 
to have been in the following July, when, in going to Cam- 
bridge, he " got to the Half Moon, Newel's, baited horse, and 
had cyder syllabub and bread and butter." His son, Judge 
Benjamin Lynde the younger, was an occasional visitor at the 
Half Moon in his journeys from Salem to Boston or Cam- 
bridge. 51 The death of Captain Benjamin Blaney in i7$°/i, at 
or near this house, is noticed in another place. 

Daniel Newhall died February 3, 1760, aged seventy-five 
years; and his widow, Sarah (Fosdick), representing that "her 
said Husband was by the Court of Generall Sessions of the 

51 Diaries of Benj. Lynde and of Benj. Lynde, Jr., 78 et sea. 



6j8 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Peace . . . Licenced to be an Inholder and to sell Wine & 
Spirits distilled for a year ... in the House where he then 
and for many years before had keept a Publick Inn," petitioned 
the General Court, praying that she might " be impovvered to 
keep an house of Publick Entertainment during the Remainder 
of the Term." Her petition was granted, " Provided she first 
obtain the approbation of the Selectmen for that purpose and 
recognizes before two Justices of the Peace (Quorum Units) 
according to Law within fifteen days from this time for her 
keeping good Rule and Order and duly paying the Excise." 52 
Widow Newhall died December 12, 1763, and was succeeded by 
her son, Captain John Newhall, who maintained the hospitality 
of the Half Moon until 1769, when he sold the house to Dr. 
Jonathan Porter. Dr. Porter combined the exercise of the 
medical profession with the duties of a landlord until 1775, 
when the glories of a public house departed from the ancient 
tavern. Before its doors were finally closed to the public, they 
were opened to a number of wounded men from Bunker Hill, 
who were brought here for shelter and treatment at the hands 
of its master. 53 Dr. Porter died in 1783 ; and his homestead 
remained in the hands of heirs until 1826, when Uriah Chamber- 
lain became the owner of the house and the sixteen acres of 
Daniel Newhall. Two years later he sold the house, with four 
acres around it on the north side of the road, to William Waite. 
The old house, unpainted and weatherworn, remained until 
1844, when it gave place to a more modern dwelling, which has 
since been removed. 

There was another competitor to Hill's which outlived its 
more successful rival. John Bunker, the saddler of Cambridge, 
who, near the close of the seventeenth century, by inheritance 
and purchase, came into the possession of a large tract of swamp 
and upland in Scadan, sold to Samuel Waite, Jr., in 1706, with 
other lands, " all that ffarme or parcell of Land," containing 
eighty acres, with a dwelling house, lying south of the Salem 
Road and east of the county way now known as Cross Street. 54 

52 M.iss. Archives, cxi. 467. General 53 Bi-Centennial Book of Maiden, 176. 

Court Records, xxiii. 234. 64 Midd. Co. Deeds, xiv. 121. 



BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 6/9 

«> 
The house, which stood on the south side of the road in a loca- 
tion now unknown, had been built by the first John Bunker on 
the two hundred acres which his father, George Bunker, had 
deeded to him upon his marriage with Hannah Mellows. Here 
Captain Samuel Waite is supposed to have lived, and his name 
appears as a licensed innholder in the years 1719-24. After 
his death in \f&/ A o, the place was occupied by his son, William, 
until his removal to Marblehead in the latter part of his life. 
Tradition indicates, with some appearance of probability, that 
the house was open for public purposes just before the Revolu- 
tion and connects it with the story of Christopher Forbes and 
the British officer — which is related elsewhere — although I 
have found no record of a license for that purpose. 55 About this 
time, on a Sunday forenoon, the old house was burned to the 
ground with all that was in it, while the family were at the 
meeting house. It is said that they were much surprised when 
they returned and found " everything fiat." 56 A new house was 
built upon the north side of the road, which the second William 
Waite occupied as an inn in 1789 and perhaps a few years ear- 
lier. The town record says : — 

Capt William Wait deceased on the 26 th day of July 1809 aged 
70 years he was driving a team with a load of hay from Medford in a 
shower of rain and was found dead on the [cause] way between Med- 
ford & Maiden it was supposed he was sitting on the spire of the 
waggon and fell into a sleep & piched under the wheel which passed 
over his neck and shoulder as appeared on examination. 

Waite's Tavern remained open a few years longer and was 
finally closed by its owner, Aaron Waite, an eminent merchant 
of Salem and a brother of the late landlord. From him it 
passed through the hands of William Richardson and Joshua 
Webster to Levi W. Rockwell, by whom it was demolished in 

55 Here came Benjamin Peirce, of while engaged in firing upon the enemy. 

Salem, on the eventful morning of April This incident was used by the late Dr. 

T 9> 177 5- Being on horseback, he had Arthur D. Corey as the subject of a 

preceded the Essex Regiment and legendary poem. Vide Corey, Arthur 

stopped a few moments to greet his Deloraine Corey, a Memorial, 210. 
relatives, he having married Mary, 5<; Information of the late Augustus 

daughter of Samuel and niece of William D. Rogers of Salem, and tradition. 
Waite. He was killed in the afternoon 



68o 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



the winter of 1891. Its position on Salem Street was nearly 
opposite Webster Street. 



1 

: 




Besides the taverns already mentioned others existed at 
various times. One at an early date stood upon the old county 
road in Scadan and may have been that which was kept by 
Jonathan Sprague in 1701-06. Traces of its cellar and well 
might have been seen a few years ago in the field on the south 
side of Granite Street. Samuel Parker was an innholder in 
1703 and Joses Bucknam was licensed in 1726-30. In 1731 
the latter, in a petition to the General Court, represented that 
he had 

for many Years past kept a Tavern in the s' 1 Town to the general 
Approbation & without being ever charged with any breach of Law, 
That he has this Year had the Consent of the Select men of the said 
Town for the Continuance of his License but the Iustices were pleased 
to disallow him without any just Reason that he knows of which is 
greatly to his Damage, And therefore praying that this Court would 
Grant him Liberty to keep a Tavern at Maiden as He has done for 
many Years past. 57 

For some reason his petition was disallowed and his license 
was never renewed. Samuel Sweetser was licensed in 1726-31 

67 Genera! Court Records, xv. 126. 



BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 68 1 

and was succeeded by Benjamin Svveetser in 1733-36; and 
Samuel Stower, who was at first a " retailer," was an inn- 
holder in 1736 and 1738, and was followed by his brother, John, 
in 1739-46. Bucknam, the Sweetsers, and the Stowers were 
inhabitants of the southern portion of the town. 

Besides that of the innholders there was another class of 
licenses for those who were known as " retailers " — those who 
sold wine and spirits by authority. These were mostly of 
those who sold more important articles of subsistence; and 
their names are those of the earlier shopkeepers and traders 
of the town. Captain Ebenezer Harnden was licensed in 
1744-51 and Jacob Bucknam in 1748-50. There w r as another, 
one Rudge, who in a perplexing way appears as John and 
Thomas at different times and places. As Thomas Rudge 
he was licensed in 1750 and so continued until 1758, when he 
appears both as John and Thomas in a petition to the General 
Court in which he made the following statement: — 

Some Years Since being a Miller in the Town of Maulden aforesaid 
(in which duty he humbly Concieves he behaved to Good Satisfaction) 
never the less by an unlucky accident was so wounded in One of his 
Leges that he was Obliged to Submit (by the advice of Surgeons) to 
have the Same Cut off which Cost your [petitioner] almost all his 
Living and after all remained very much disabled for that or any 
other business whereby to Get his livelyhood must have Suffered 
Greatly had not the Town of Maulden and Mr. Whealright the owner 
of the mills been very Charitable. 58 

Representing that " an Opertunity now offers of Retailing 
Liquors Coffee and Tea in the Town of Maulden," he asked 
for a license, and the court so far answered his prayer as to 
refer him to the Court of General Sessions of the Peace, by 
which he was licensed as Thomas Rudge.* His " Opertunity " 
was of short duration, for the next year, as Thomas in one 
record and as John in another, he was drowned between 
Boston and Winnisimmet, as is elsewhere related. His widow, 
Katharine (Welch), succeeded to his business and " retailed " 
to the inhabitants of Maiden until 1765, when she was married 
to Isaac Townsend of Boston and retired to private life. 

58 Muss. Archives, cxi. 415. 



682 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Israel Cook, of Boston, who is said to have been a peddler at 
first, married Widow Hannah Upham in I74 4 /Si occupied the 
house of his foregoer, which long stood at the corner of the 
present Green and Howard Streets in Melrose, and opened 
there the first store for the sale of rum and groceries in that 
part of the town. 59 He was licensed in 1757 and was in bus- 
iness in 1775 and perhaps later. Widow Abigail Barrett was 
contemporary with Rudge and Israel Cook and was in business 
in 1760 and as late as 1772. These names, with those of 
Nathaniel Sargeant and Jacob Upham, whose careers were 
of no long duration, are those of the rumsellers and shop- 
keepers of the provincial period. They divided with the 
innholders the doubtful honors of the grogshop, and with the 
more substantial farmers and mechanics, who bartered with 
their neighbors the surplus of their private stores of West 
India goods, the more honorable distinctions of a useful though 
humble business. 

59 This house, built by Phineas Up- pounds, " the profits of which Stock in 
ham, is noticed in chap. xii. note 39. trade," she wrote, "with my other La- 
Hannah Cook died October 3, 1789, bour neets me a Comfortable Suport." 
and Israel Cook, January 14 [or 20], The old house passed into the posses- 
1790, after which John Haskins, a siou of Ezra Vinton in 1S11 and con- 
nephew of Israel Cook and the husband tinned in his family until 1S70, when it 
of Hannah Upham, a daughter of was sold at auction and torn down. 
Hannah Cook by her first husband, A small field near by, still known as 
appears as the owner of the Upham " the potash pasture," recalls the manu- 
house. Here his daughter, Sarah Inman, facture of that useful product of the 
occupying a portion of the house in fallen forests by Israel Cook, in con- 
1792, continued the business of Israel nection with his other business. Melrose 
Cook with a stock valued at eighteen Journal, September 27, 1873. 




CHAPTER XX. 



MILITARY AFFAIRS AND THE FRENCH NEUTRALS, 

1690-1775. 

IN a former chapter we have followed the military affairs of 
the town to the beginning of the provincial period. In the 
numerous alarms and expeditions which followed, at intervals, 
the men of Maiden bore their part; and the forests of the 
western frontiers or the bleak and inhospitable shores of Acadie 
and Cape Breton witnessed their toils and privations or their 
heroic deaths. 

In 1690 Lieutenant Joseph Wilson was nominated and 
chosen a captain in the unfortunate expedition of Sir William 
Phips, 1 which sailed from Boston in August, and after a fruitless 
demonstration before Quebec, and a disastrous voyage on its 
return, resulted in loss and distress. This expedition was the 
immediate cause of the first issue of a paper currency, which 
under the name of bills of credit and their varieties of old and 
new tenor, cursed the Colony for more than two generations. 2 

1 Mass. Archives, xxxvi. 135, 170. iv. 58. Felt, Historical Account of Massa- 

2 Palfrey, History of New England, chusetts Currency, 49 et sea. 



684 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

The peace of Rysvvick, which followed the ten years' war of 
King William, was soon broken in America by the war with the 
French and Indians, which is known as Queen Anne's War, dur- 
ing which for another ten years the people of the New England 
provinces were continually disturbed by calls to military service. 
Agriculture declined, the usual vocations of life were neglected, 
and discouragement and general depression prevailed. Little 
is known of the part which Maiden performed in this disastrous 
and troublesome war. Edmund Chamberlain, who was born 
six weeks after his brother and namesake, Edmund, fell at the 
great Swamp Fight in Philip's War, was in the company of 
Captain Abercrombie in the expedition which, in 1710, wrested 
Port Royal from the French and gave the province of Nova 
Scotia to the British crown. Returning to Maiden he soon 
died and his widow, like many other hapless women, remained. 
Her rates were forgiven by a vote of the town, December 7, 
171 1 ; and in the meantime she had been the object of legisla- 
tive action. The following letter is characteristic of the time : — 

maiden y e 7 of June 1 7 1 1 

Sr : Aftar my saruic presented to your self: These may jnform you: 
That : we haue a poore woman liueth jn our Town : whose name js 
margret Chaimberlin : : her husband hauing ben sent To port : royal 
upon y e late expedition : and came horn : again aliue : Tho uery 
weakly : and soon dyed Aftar his return : : now Sr : y e Cause js thus 
this woman neuer Resaiued her husbands wages : Tho she might haue 
had jt : jf she would Administer on her husbands estate : : but the 
estate beeing so uery little and y e charg would be Great she dare 
not doe jt : 

This pore woman hauing discour'd with m r James Taylor The Tresurer 
about this mattar : he said to her jf she would desier y e help of y e Re- 
presentitiue of her town which was my self: and jf when y e Generall 
Cort sate : J would come to him : he would go with me to the honord 
m r Addington : he did not questen but make it bare y l this pore 
wooraan might haue her money This was befor y e last sessions y e last 
year : but y' sessions begun and ended jn 4 days : And now jt has 
plesd god To lay his hand on me y 1 J am still so weake J darnot go 
out of my dors : 

now Sr : you understand this mattar as well as my self and jf you please 
to be a frend to her as J question not but you are : and discours with 



MILITARY AFFAIRS AND FRENCH NEUTRALS. 685 

m r Tayler : about y e raattar J hope your saruic will be well exepted jn 
y e sight of all which is y L ' desier of your frend 

John Greenland. 
for : Cap'. John barrel of lyn : 

Edm d : Chamberlain under Cap! Abercrombie 2 : o. 7: in y e Roll. 
In the House of Representatives June 12 : 1711. 
Ordered That the wages due to Edmund Chamberlain upon Capt 
Abercrombies Roll, be paid Margret Chamberlain widow, relict, of the 
s^ Edmund Chamberlain. 
Sent up for Concurrence 

John Burrill Speaker. 
In Council die prozdicto Consented to 

Samuel Sewell/'' Order? 

The name of James Hovey of Maiden is on a " Roll of 
English Prisoners in the hands of the French and Jndians at 
Canada," 4 which was brought by the messengers of the French 
Governor Vaudreuil in the winter of iyi°/i ; and it seems prob- 
able that he was taken in the year 1707. 

The treaty of Utrecht, which closed the war in 171 3, though 
not creditable to the English government in all respects, gave 
peace to the harassed inhabitants of New England, until the 
breaking out of Father Rasle's War by the burning of Bruns- 
wick and other depredations of the Indians in Maine. This 
war, which lasted four years [1 722-1726], was prosecuted on 
the English side by volunteers, whose principal incentive was 
the bounty which the government offered for Indian scalps. 
There is no record of Maiden men in this war, though some of 
the more uneasy may have found their way to the frontiers. 

Peace ensued for nearly twenty years, during which time the 
people of Massachusetts were troubled by the small-pox, the 
paper currency, and a quarrel with their governor, Jonathan 
Belcher, which had begun during the term of the preceding 
governor, William Burnet. This quarrel arose from the ques- 
tion of a fixed salary for the representative of the king, which 
the General Court refused on the ground that " settling a salary 
would deprive the people of their rights as Englishmen." 5 
The home government instructed Governor Belcher to insist 

3 Mass. Archives, lxxi. 7S5- 5 Hutchinson, History of Massachu- 

4 Ibid., 369, 765. setts-Bay, ii. 376. 



686 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

upon the measure, declaring that the Massachusetts representa- 
tives " for some years last past, have attempted by unwarrant- 
able practices to weaken if not cast off the obedience they owe 
to the crown and the dependence which all colonies ought to 
have on their mother country." 6 At the same time the House 
claimed a right to audit public charges, which was stoutly re- 
sisted by the Governor, and on these issues the people were 
aroused. In the midst of these controversies the town of 
Maiden held a special meeting, at which the only business trans- 
acted was the passage of the following vote : — 

[September 15, 1731.] voat. that y e Town will stand for there privi- 
lidges acording to y e charter. 

Alike spirit animated the whole province, and the representa- 
tives, supported by the country, firmly maintained their position. 
In the end the Governor was pleased to receive his annual 
grants in the form which the Province might allow, and they 
were not illiberal when the principle was fixed ; but after the 
treasury had lain empty two years, the claim of the House to 
audit charges was disallowed and the representatives acquiesced 
in their own defeat. 7 In such ways did the rising spirit of 
liberty assert itself and foreshow the events of later years. 

The breaking out of the Old French War in 1744 introduced 
a new era of arms and arrested in a measure the growing 
opposition to the established government. This war, which 
was European in its causes, was opened in America by the 
destruction of the English fishing and trading station at 
Canseau, and was signalized by the reduction of the strongly 
fortified town of Louisburg by the farmers, the fishermen, and 
the artisans of New England in an expedition which was 
planned by a lawyer and led by a merchant. 

The expedition against Cape Breton, under William Pepper- 
rell, sailed from Boston, March 24, 1745; but it was the last 
day of April when the hundred vessels of New England 

6 Hutchinson, History of Massachu- sentatives may be studied to advantage 
setts-Buy, ii. 372. in Hutchinson, History of Jlfassae/uisetts- 

7 The rise and progress of the troubles Bay, ii. 332 et sea. ; and Palfrey, History 
between the governors and the repre- of New England, iv. 497-549. 



MILITARY AFFAIRS AND FRENCH NEUTRALS. 687 

entered the Bay of Chapeaurouge — the Gabarus 15ay of the 
provincials — and the fortress was invested. The siege con- 
tinued through forty-nine toilsome and weary days, and was 
ended by the capitulation of the town on the seventeenth of 
June, a day which, thirty years later, was rendered doubly 
memorable by the sons of those who fought at Louisburg. 
The hearts of the sturdy men of New England sank within 
them when, as they entered the town, they beheld the strength 
of its fortifications and realized the greatness of the victory 
which they had won. I have no knowledge of those who 
returned to their Maiden homes; but the town records furnish 
a list of those who remained upon the field of their glory, 
" All of them Deceased in the year 1745 in and after the Seage 
when Cap brittan was taken by the Newengland forces." 8 
They were : — 

Josiah Hovey, an apprentice to Solomon Tovvnsend. 

John Nichols, son of Nathaniel and Sarah, and husband of Agnes. 

Samuel Nichols, son of Nathaniel and Sarah, and husband of Jemima. 

John Stower, son of John and Sarah, ae. 24. 

Nathan Stower, son of Samuel and Abigail, ae. 25. 

Jonathan Sweetser, son of John and Martha, ae. 18. 

Ebenezer Wayte, son of Thomas and Deborah. 

Benjamin Wheeler, an apprentice to Jacob Parker. 

Joel Whittemore, son of James and Mary, ae. 23. 

The next year an expedition projected against Canada 
caused a gathering of troops on the seaboard, of which about 
thirty-five hundred men were raised in Massachusetts. A vote 
taken in the General Court at this time relates to the disposi- 
tion of a portion of them. 

Mercurii 6. Die Augusti, a.d. 1746. 

This House being informed that the Soldiers now arrived in Town 
from York may be subsisted at Maiden at five Shillings per Week : 

Voted, That Mr. Hubbard, Mr. Williams, and Mr. Foster, wait 
upon his Excellency the Governour, and acquaint him the House 
desire he would be pleased to give Orders that such Soldiers as are 
now in Town may be forthwith sent to said Town of Maiden? 

8 I have corrected the erroneous date made in the regular course, but long 
of the records. The entry reads, " in after the time to which it refers, 
the year 1735," anc ^ was evidently not 9 Journal House of Reps., in toco. 



688 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

At the close of the war the roll of a troop of horse under 
Captain Caleb Brooks of Charlestown [at Mystic Pond] shows 
a list of men drawn mostly from the towns of Stoneham, 
Medford, and Maiden. From the latter we may distinguish 
the names of William Pratt, Jr., Samuel Shute, John Harnden, 
Ezekiel Jenkins, Nathaniel Jenkins, Joseph Waite, Solomon 
Shute, Phineas Sprague, Samuel Upham, John Nichols, 
Stephen Paine, Benjamin Sprague, Joses Bucknam, and Samuel 
Green. Perhaps Cornet Ebenezer Harden [Harnden?], Cor- 
poral Thomas Lynde, and Trumpeter William Pratt, with 
several privates, who cannot be distinguished from their name- 
sakes in the adjoining towns, may also have been of Maiden. 10 

The wretched peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, which restored 
Cape Breton to the French, was ratified in the fall of 1748. 
It was a cause of vexation and disappointment to the people 
of Massachusetts, who found themselves burdened with a large 
public debt, while the results for which they had labored were 
cast away when fairly won, and their hopes of a permanent 
peace upon the eastern frontiers were destroyed. 11 Yet though 
the results of the war were temporarily lost, it was productive 
of great and far-reaching consequences. The provincials had 
won their first great victory. They began to rely less upon 
the mother country, and the seed which bore fruit in the 
Revolution began to be sown. This war and that which soon 
followed were the nurseries of a race of soldiers who were to 
sever the British empire; and from thenceforth the people 

10 Mass. Archives, xcii. 37. eral Court adopted the unusual course 

11 A leading result of the heavy ex- of sending it to the towns for their opin- 
pense which had been borne by the ion. The result was so doubtful, in the 
Province was a rate of taxation on polls divided state of public feeling, that the 
and real estate, which was considered, Court was obliged to take the responsi- 
not without reason, to be oppressive, bility; and the bill was passed, with 
To lighten the burden, an excise on some alterations, and signed by Governor 
spirits was proposed, which was gener- Shirley. 

ally advocated by the interior towns and The opinion of Maiden was expressed 

opposed by those upon the seaboard, in the following vote : — 

An unpopular feature of the bill was "[May 13, 1754.] The question was 

that which gave officers authority to en- put whether the town apprehend the 

ter and search dwelling houses on sus- excise bill on spiritous liquors latly pased 

picion. The governor refused to sign by both houses be an equitabill and ben- 

the bill in its original form ; and as but a ificial to the province, and it past in the 

small majority was in its favor, the Gen- affirmative." 



MILITARY AFFAIRS AND FRENCH NEUTRALS. 6S9 

began to be acquainted with the theory and practice of arms. 
Moreover, a spirit of ardent patriotism, which had at times 
broken out in flashes rather than in gleams of steady light, 
began to illumine the military ardor which pervaded the land. 
In the movements which then began the men of Maiden were 
still found with their fellows, and their services and lives were 
freely offered wherever duty or danger called. 

The brief interval of peace was distinguished by the retire- 
ment of the paper currency, which had been a bane to the 
Province for sixty years, 12 and the resumption of specie pay- 
ments ; and it was broken in 1754 by depredations of the 
Indians and the encroachments of the French upon the eastern 
and western frontiers. An expedition which was futile in its 
results, though costly, was planned by Governor Shirley and 
sent against the enemy on the Kennebec in the summer of 
this year. For this service six companies, with an aggregate 
of eight hundred men, were raised and placed under the com- 
mand of Captain John Winslow, who received a commission as 
major-general. A conference with the Indians at Falmouth, 
the establishment of two forts which were useless in the 
succeeding operations either as a defence or for aggressive 
purposes, and a fruitless march into the forests beyond the 
Kennebec were effected with little danger, and the expedition 
returned to Boston. In this service the following Maiden men 
were engaged : In the company of Captain William Pierce of 
Stow were Corporal John Martin, Drummer Jabez Howard, 
and centinels [privates] Christopher Forbes and William 
Pratt; 13 and with Captain Joseph Wilson of Boston were 
centinels Ebenezer Tarbox and Samuel Wheeler. 14 

Early in the ensuing year an expedition was proposed in 
which the regular troops then in Nova Scotia and a contingent 

12 Cf. Felt, Historical Account of Mas- which he styles "a fallacious and de- 

sachusetts Currency, 11S et sea. Hutchin- signed cheat," never failed to rouse the 

son, History of Massachusetts-Bay, ii. sarcastic doctor's deepest ire. 
435 et sea. The numerous digressions 13 A/ass. Archives, xciii. 132. Dr. 

on the subject of the currency in Doug- Ebenezer Marrow of Medford was first 

lass, Summary, Historical and Political, lieutenant of this company, 
may be read with amusement not un- li Ibid., 134. 

mixed with profit. Paper currency, 

44 



690 



HISTORY OF MALDEX. 



from New England were to operate against the French forts at 
Beau Sejour and upon the St. John's River. The provincial 
troops, who were volunteers and mostly from Massachusetts, 
consisted of two thousand men and were formed into a regi- 
ment of which Governor Shirley was the nominal commander. 
Its two battalions were under Lieutenant-Colonels John Wins- 
low and George Scott, the former having the immediate com- 
mand of the whole. They sailed from Boston, May 20, and 
arrived at Annapolis Basin five days later. Here they were 
joined by a force of two hundred and seventy regulars under 
Colonel Robert Monckton, to whom was given the chief com- 
mand. The expedition was successful at all points ; and the 
French were driven from the province of Nova Scotia into Cape 
Breton, where a strong force had reoccupied the fortifications 
of Louisburg. In the returns of the regiment thus " raised for 
removing the French Incroachments From his Majesty's Gov- 
ernment of Nova Scotia," the names of the following men,, 
natives or residents of Maiden, are preserved. 10 



William Pratt 
John Martin 
Nathan Cursens 
Christopher Forbas 

[Forbes] 
Ebenezer Foster 
David Howard 
Benjamin Hallowell 
Samuel Wheeler 
John Writeson 

[Richardson] 



Major Benjamin GoldthwaW s Company. 

Corporal ae 37 born Maiden res. Maiden 

33 Plymouth [Eng] " 

26 Maiden " 

21 Boston " 



Private 



17 


Maiden 


18 


Holliston 


21 


Maiden 


45 


Dartmouth 



Daniel Floyd 
John Coleman 



Isaac Day 



Stephen Payne 



Captain Thomas Speakman's Company. 

Private 26 Maiden Maiden 

24 

Captain Abijah Willard's Company. 
Private 17 Maiden Harvard 

Major William Bourn 's Company. 
Private 42 Maiden Cambridge 



Cordwainer 
Weaver 
Cordwainer 
Laborer 

Cordwainer 

Weaver 

Blacksmith 

Cordwainer 

Reedmaker 



Laborer 
Cordwainer 



Cooper 
Housewright 



The departure of the French forces from Nova Scotia left 
a population of several thousand inhabitants, who, while they 



15 Winslow,/<w;-«tf/, 17 55-56 ; i. 28 etseq., in the library of the Mass. Historical So. 



MILITARY AFFAIRS AND FRENCH NEUTRALS. 69 1 

were French by birth and of the Roman Catholic religion, 
affected a neutrality between the conflicting powers. They had 
been allowed to assume this condition after the reduction of the 
Province in the reign of Queen Anne, and had observed or 
neglected its obligations as honor, self-interest, or inclination 
prevailed. Nearly, if not quite, exempt from taxation and 
retaining their own language and religion, they had prospered 
by industry and the influence of their simple manners; and 
their farms and scattered villages were the abodes of a thriving 
and contented people. Nevertheless, their sympathies were 
with the French, and their intercourse with the Indians was 
constant. Cases were not unknown in which material or timely 
aid had been rendered the enemy in time of war. Fifteen 
hundred men had been found in arms at the fort upon the 
Gaspereaux ; 16 and "it was the general opinion, that, if an 
attempt should be made by the French to recover the prov- 
ince of Nova Scotia, the whole body of the Acadians, some 
from inclination, others from compulsion, would join in the 
attempt." 1T 

Under the circumstances it was determined to remove the 
people from the Province and disperse them among the Eng- 
lish colonies ; and the execution of this design was intrusted 
to Colonel Winslow and the forces of New England. The 
unfortunate Acadians were gathered together by an ambiguous 
proclamation and surprised without a chance of resistance or 
hunted into the woods. Their houses and barns were burned, 
their crops destroyed, and their herds and flocks wantonly 
slaughtered or left without care and shelter. The rigors of 
winter, privations, and poverty, with the separation of friends, 
sickness, and death, followed that which man had done unto 
this afflicted people; and the story of the French Neutrals in 
romance and verse has excited the sympathy and moved the 
tears or anger of the world. Nevertheless, the verdict of history 
sustains the measure as one of necessity in the settlement of 



16 Haliburton, Historical and Statisti- 17 Hutchinson, History of Massacha- 

cal Account of A T crva-Scotia, i. 168. setts-Bay. iii. 39. 



692 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

a great and important question, while it deplores the suffering 
which followed its execution. 18 

In the process of removal and distribution, about a thousand 
of the hapless French were landed upon the shores of Massa- 
chusetts Bay. Alien, both in language and religion, and lack- 
ing the necessities of life and means to procure them, they 
were thrown upon the mercies of a people who were not over- 
merciful even to their own poor, in an inclement season, and 
under circumstances which deserved pity even if sympathy 
were denied. One of them, speaking of his own case, said, " it 
was the hardest which had happened since our Savior was 
upon earth." 19 

It was late in 1755 when the vessels crowded with the despair- 
ing and heart-sick Neutrals arrived at Boston. The General 
Court was sitting; and after several days' delay, a resolve was 
passed distributing them among the several interior towns, and 
a law was made by which they practically became common 
paupers. Hutchinson says, " Many of them went through great 
hardships, but in general they were treated with humanity." 20 
That they were housed and fed is true, and some of the more 
elderly and those who had previously enjoyed superior circum- 
stances received, by the favor of the authorities, support with- 
out enforced labor; but the general tone of the records, in 
which they receive a scanty notice, and the petitions which they 
made show a condition of things which was neither honorable 
to the charity of the Massachusetts towns nor pleasant at this 
day to contemplate. They were everywhere considered a 
burden which it was desirable to shift upon some other town ; 

18 Mrs. Williams in her novel, The library of the Mass. Historical So., and 

Neutral French (1841). Longfellow in is printed in Nova Scotia Hist. So. Coll., 

Evangeline (1847), and other writers iii. Richard, a descendant of the Aca- 

gave a direction to popular opinion dians, in Acadia, Missing Links of a Lost 

which has not been adopted by the his- Chapter, dissents from the views of 

torians. Many writers have explained, Park man and others, and his book, 

with more or less fulness, the reasons though needlessly severe, is worthy of 

and have related the effects of the ex- notice for the light which it throws upon 

pulsion. The story can be followed with a transaction which may never be fully 

advantage in Maliburton, L/istory of understood. 

Nova Scotia; Hannay, History of Acadia; 19 Hutchinson, History of Massachu- 

and Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe. setts-Bay, iii. 40. 
The MS. Journal of Winslow is in the 20 Ibid., 41. 



MILITARY AFFAIRS AND FRENCH NEUTRALS. 693 

for though the Province reimbursed the towns to a certain 
extent, there were extraordinary expenses and a good deal of 
trouble, which were things of importance to the vigilant town 
officers of the last century. 

Among those who were cast upon the mercies of the Maiden 
selectmen, we may recognize in the distorted names which have 
come down to us, Jean Deshon [Deschamps?] and his wife; 
Pierre and Eleanor Tibodo, with their five children ; and 
Germain Tibodo with his wife Madeleine. There was also 
" another french woman." Two of the women were sick, one 
with a fever, and required the attention of Dr. Simon Tufts of 
Medford, whose bill for two pounds, seven shillings, and eight- 
pence, was among the items which the town charged to the 
Province. The sick women were cared for by Stephen Tufts, 
who seems to have had an asylum for the poor at his farm on 
the west side of the North River, near Sandy Bank, where he 
kept the Widow Zibiah Sherman in 1764. Jean Deshon and 
wife, with the other ' french woman " were apparently sent to 
Stoneham in the spring and troubled Maiden no more. Pierre 
Tibodo died, July 24, 1756; and his widow presented the 
following petition to the General Court soon after. 

To his Excellency the Governour, etc. 

The Petition of Eleanor Tibaudau formerly an Jnhabitant of Nova 
Scotia humbly sheweth : That your Petitioner with her Husband and 
Family was plac'd by the Government at a Town called Maiden where 
she now continues to dwell : 

That her Husband died about four Weeks since leaving her a dis- 
consolate Widow with five small Children the youngest an Jnfant in her 
arms and the eldest but twelve years old, so that she was intirely desti- 
tute of help in her afflicted Condition : 

That her Niece, a young Woman grown, hearing of her lonely Cir- 
cumstances, came to her from Dorchester, and is willing to tarry with 
her, which would be very much to her Comfort, and assistance in a 
Strange Land, where all are strangers around her, except her poor, for- 
saken, fatherless Babes, but the Select men of the Town will not suffer 
it alledging that it will be a new Charge brought upon them : 

Your Petitioner therefore prays that your Excellency and Honours 
would so far compassionate the Widow and Fatherless, as to cause that 



694 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

she may not be denied the Small Request she makes of having her 
Niece to live with her : 

and your Petitioner shall ever Pray 

The Mark X of Eleanor Tibaudeau' 21 Boston Aug 1 : 23 d : 1756. 

To the honor of the Court it may be said that the prayer of 
the poor woman was allowed and approved by Governor Shir- 
ley. In the fall and winter of 1756 the town was at the 
" Charge of Soporting nine French," who " By Reason of their 
Being Sick was Devided into Two familyes which augmented 
the Charges of house Rent and fireing and other Charges for 
there Sickness." 22 Of these, Germain Tibodo was consumptive 
and six of the nine were children, the eldest of whom was not 
over twelve years old. There were two others, a nurse and 
Catherine Preshon, the latter living in a hired house with her 
sister, "the sick french woman," Madeleine Tibodo. It is not 
altogether clear that this young woman was not the niece men- 
tioned in the petition of Eleanor Tibodo. It appears that she 
came to Maiden for the purpose of nursing her sister and she was 
then about twenty-six years of age. She is referred to as " that 
person [who] hath ben here Six or 7 months Came from Dor- 
chester named Caty Presher." 23 Others were apparently put 
to service and so the town and Province were saved from ex- 
pense. There was a " french Woman at Cap f [Ebenezer] Harn- 
den's," and a " french Boy at [Isaac] Wheeler's." 24 The 
charges of the town from August 17, 1756, to March 15, 1757, 
were fifty-one pounds and threepence, of which amount five 
shillings and eightpence were for " Rum Sugar and Biskit." 
From this claim, which was presented to the Province, the 
amount of thirteen pounds, being one-third of that paid for 
board, was deducted ; 25 but it was afterwards allowed on the 
following petition of the town representative : — 

To the Honourable his majestys Council of the Province of the Massa- 
chusetts Bay sitting at Boston April 20 th . 1757. 

The Memorial of Benjamin Hills in behalf of the Selectmen of 
Maiden 

21 Mass. Archives, xxiii. 187. 23 Ibid., 370. 25 Ibid., 370. 

2 - Ibid , 370. 24 Ibid., 543. 



MILITARY AFFAIRS AND FRENCH NEUTRALS. 695 

Humbly Sheweth That whereas the said Selectmen have Exhibited 
an account of their Cost and Charge for the Support of a family of 
French people Destined in Said Town at three Shillings per week for 
each person : and they are informed that your Hon rs have reduced 
the said Sum to two Shillings per week. Now your Memorialist begs 
leave to inform your Hon rs that the said family Consists of one man 
and three women and seven [six] Children two of which are Jnfants 
the man is a Consumptive man and not able to do any thing (Consider- 
able) for his Support and the rest are very Sickly and weakly and 
necessarily obliged the said Selectmen to be at Cost of three shillings 
per week as aforesaid for victuals, Drink, house, wood and Candles 
Your Mem 5 .' therefore Humbly prays That your Hon r : would be pleas 
to Reconsider the Case and allow the said Town to Draw out of the 
Publick Treasury the full Sum as is mentioned in the said account or 
otherwise as your Hon rs in your great wisdom shall think fit & proper 
and your Memo st as in Duty bound shall ever pray 

Benja Hills. 26 

Having succeeded so well in recovering the third shilling, the 
selectmen, who, whatever their private feelings may have been, 
were evidently inclined to save the last penny for the town, 
petitioned the Court still further, as follows : — 

Province of the To His Excellency Thomas Poivnall, Esq". : etc. 

Massachusetts Bay. . . . in General Court assemble the 23 d Day 

of Nov br . 1757. The Memorial of the Selectmen of Maiden in the 
County of Middlesex in said County Humbly Sheweth That your 
memorialists had by order of a Committee of this Court Eleven of the 
French, lately Inhabitants of Nova Scosuia sent to them viz' being two 
families one family, a widow with five young Children and a Single 
Woman the Other a man of Jll helth sick the Most of his time with a 
wife and child also a single woman that is Now Sick and hath been for 
Some times. When they Came To the Town of Maiden they were 
Very pooly on it for Clothing and household furniture and we belive the 
most unable to help themselves as any family in the Province Your 
Memorialists further shew that the Town of Maiden is so Situated that 
the Necesseries of Life viz! firewood house rent and provisions are much 
Dearer there then in the Towns that are further in the Country and for 
that reason the Charge of Supporting said French riseis to a greator 
sum for the Province to pay then need be if they were removed to 
some Town where wood and provisions are plentious and as there are 
many Towns in the province which have none 

20 Mass. Archives, xxiii. 392. 



696 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Your Memorialists Humbly pray that the whole or part of the 
said French may be removed to some other Town And Your Memo- 
rialists as in Duty bound shall Ever Pray 



Joseph Lynd \ Selectmen 

John Dexter _j 

Eben r Harni 
Ezra Green 



John Dexter 

Iarnden j Maiden* 



I know of no action upon this petition, and the unreasonable 
French lived on in their enforced dependence in spite of the 
selectmen. They ate pork at three shillings and fourpence the 
pound and beans at thirty-five shillings and forty shillings 
the bushel. Nor were they content with these simple articles 
of diet and the added items of rye at twenty-eight shillings and 
indian corn at twenty-four shillings the bushel; but eleven per- 
sons, including the young children, consumed, in three months, 
"one Bushel of Pettaters @ 3/-." 28 During the next year 
they ate five bushels and half a "pect" of " pertates; " and 
strangely enough were weak and sickly — ■ pining for their own 
homes and the religion of their fathers. They were a simple, 
honest folk, in whom the love of kindred and a yearning after 
old associations were strong; and their weaknesses and pains 
were the visible signs of a heart-sickness which the bleedings 
and purgings of Dr. Marrow and Dr. Tufts could never reach. 

In 1759 the French colony in Maiden still consisted of two 
families; and the town claimed of the Province for bills paid 
" Isaac Whealer for house Reant for Jeriamiah Debuto and his 
famiely to Live in," and Thomas Burditt for house rent for 
" the wido Debuto and her famiely." The bill for the year 
ending March 6, 1759, was for forty-five pounds, eight shillings, 
and sevenpence ; but it was reduced to forty-two pounds and 
eight shillings by the Province. At this time the selectmen 
again endeavored to obtain the removal of a portion of the 
burden ; and their relation of the " Surckcormstances " is 
contained in the following paper: — 

[March 6, 1759.] To the Hono d Committ of the french Nutorles : 
The may Inforem you Jentelmen : as to the Surckcormstances of the 

27 Mass. Archives, xxiii. 531. apparent high prices were based on 

28 Ibid., 600, 631, xxiv. 154. The values in old tenor currency. 



MILITARY AFFAIRS AND FRENCH NEUTRALS. 697 

french Nutorls in Maiden That are put theire by order: as to Iermiah 
Debuto and wife and two young Children : the oldest of them is 
about three years old : the man is often aiding and not abale to 
mantan his famile : his wife is analding women : They ware both 
of them Sick Last Spring of the year almost two monthes : and under 
the Doctors hands : it cost the Select men Two Shillings and Eight 
pence per week for a french women to be with Them whilst they 
ware Sick 

as to the wido Debuto and five Children : the oldest is about 
fifteen years old : The next about nine years old The next about Six 
or seven years old : The next oldest is about five years old and the 
youngest Child is about three years old : and it is a much or more 
then the women can Do to find her Self and Children In Close : 
The garl that is nine year old is a wekely garl : so that we are abliged 
to find them all they want Excpting Close Their is but one amongest 
the french that is put to Maiden that is able To mentain them Selves : 
and that is the widow Debuto 5 Son that is about fifteen years old : we 
have twelve of the french Nutrels in Maiden : two : of Them was not 
put their by order : a women Caled Catan pershon She came from 
Dogester : and a boy about Six years old caled gredle Debuto : that 
Jerimiah Debuto brought from Boston last Somer and he will keep 
them both in his famiely we are not at any charge for the women : 
we have more of the french Nutrels : in Maiden then is our perposhon 
by one half: according to other towns: Their is the town of Reading 
which is as Beg as two of Maiden : that has but about thirteen of the 
french and Medford has about five of the french : and Charlestown 
has not one of the french nutrels : we Should be glad to have apart 
of them moved to Sum other town : Their is the wido Debuto and 
her four [five] Children we Should be glad to have moved out of 
Said town 

Edward Wait 

Sam ll Green 



Select men 
Samuel Grouer > 

T7 c ( of Maiden .» 

Edward Sprague I J 

Benj a Sprague. j 

The next year the town charge for thirteen persons amounted 
to fifty pounds and ten shillings, of which three pounds were 
for house rent for the two families, and thirty shillings for 
" tending & nursing Catherine Pershen when sick." 30 Soon 
after the family of the widow Tibodo was transported to 
Boston and Eleanor Tibodo disappears, unless she may be 

29 Mass. Archives, xxiv. 156. 30 Ibid., 260. 



6Q 8 HISTORY OF MA L DEN. 

found under the name of " La veuve aintoine thibodot 7 de 
sa famielle " in a list made in 1765, which begins: " Voilas la 
listes de tout ceux qui vicullc passe au Colouis franscs ainsis 
Sigue." 31 

After this the burden was somewhat lighter. In April, 1761, 
seven Neutrals remained in the town. They were Germain 
Tibodo, aged twenty-six years,* with his wife Madeleine, aged 
twenty-four years, and their children, Marie and Isaac, aged two 
and one-half years and one year, respectively. With them 
were the boy, Gregoire Tibodo, aged seven years, and the 
single woman " from Dogester," Catherine Preshon, aged thirty 
years. Paul Miers, aged nine years, son of Francois and Jeanne 
Miers, who were detained at Reading, was with the Tibodos 
or at service. If the homely English name of Isaac had been 
given to the Tibodo baby in kindly remembrance of Isaac 
Wheeler, in whose house they lived, it shows that the foreigners 
were not wholly outside of the circle of human sympathy. 

Little more is known of the French in Maiden. "Jermain 
Tibodot & Madeliche " were on a list of the French who desired 
to go to France in August, 1763, where they appear with 
three sons and three daughters. If they were of the Maiden 
family they had doubtless taken others under their protection, 
as they did the boy, Gregoire. Whether they went to France 
or to Canada with others of their brethren, I know not. Their 
feet last pressed our soil at the river's side ; and as the clumsy 
boat of Aaron Bucknam passed Beacham's Point or White 
Island they left behind the fields of Maiden and disappeared 
from her history forever. Only this remains concerning their 
departure : — 

To Cap' Ebenezer Harnden town treasurer you are desired to pay 
unto Aaron Bucknam twelve shillings and eight pence out of the town 
vStock in your hands in full for his transporting the french people from 
hence to Boston in the year 1760. And again in the year 1764 for 
his carrying goods down to the water side and boat[ing] them and 
the French people to Boston Dated in Maldon the 25 day of march 
1765 By order of the Select men: 

John Shute town Clerk 3 ' 2 

81 Mass. Archives, xxiv. 514. 3 ' 2 Maiden Town Records, in loco. 



MILITARY AFFAIRS A AD FRENCH NEUTRALS. 699 

" Ever since I have been Governor of this Province," wrote 
Governor Bernard in 1766, " I have had great compassion for 
this people, as everyone must who has considered that it was 
by the exigencies of War rather than any fault of their own 
that they were removed from a State of ease and affluence and 
brought into poverty and dependence." 33 

During and after the operations in Nova Scotia in 1755, 
troops, consisting for the most part of Massachusetts men, 
were engaged in enterprises beyond the Hudson. A portion 
under Governor Shirley was directed against the French fort 
at Niagara and failed from unfavorable weather and lack of 
men. The other and larger detachment, under General William 
Johnson and General Phineas Lyman, was designed to attack 
the enemy at Crown Point and Ticonderoga, but was thrown 
upon the defensive by Dicskau and was productive of no great 
results. In 1756 a new expedition against Canada by way 
of Crown Point and the lakes was set on foot ; and Colonel 
Win slow, who was recalled from Nova Scotia, was placed in 
command of the provincial troops; but the campaign was 
unfortunate in every direction. Oswego was taken by the 
French ; and the small-pox, breaking out in the English army, 
destroyed more men than the arms of the enemy. 

The operations of 1757 tended as little as those of the pre- 
ceding year to advance the British cause in America. Early in 
the year enlistments were made for a third attempt upon 
Canada; 34 but it was delayed in consequence of a proposed 
attack upon Louisburg, which was finally relinquished. A por- 
tion of the Massachusetts levy, under Colonel Joseph Frye, 
proceeded to the lakes and formed a part of the garrison of 
Fort William Henry when it was attacked by Montcalm in 
August. The subsequent fall of the fort and the massacre which 
followed are matters of history. Here fell Lieutenant Simon 
Wade of Maiden. The fears of General Webb, who lay at Fort 

33 Mass. Archives, xxiv. 560. the Commistion officers to go upon any 

34 At the annual meeting, March 7, expedition against the enemy this year 
1 7S7> ^ was voted: — "That the town ten pounds per man." Edward Waite, 
will alow to those persons that may be Timothy Sprague, and John Wilson en- 
sent for by athority and draw'd out by tered their " discent " against this vote. 



700 HISTORY OF MA LB EN. 

Edward and might have prevented the disaster, magnified the 
danger; and a general alarm was sounded through the Province. 
The several regiments were put upon the march, but were stayed 
after a few days by the receipt of more reliable information. A 
company under Captain Michael Brigden of Charlestown, in 
which may be found the names of ten Maiden men, then 
marched from Cambridge to Worcester. 

New England took no part in the final reduction of Louisburg 
by General Amherst and Admiral Boscawen in 1758; but all 
its energies were directed against the enemy at the westward. 
Massachusetts raised seven thousand men, of whom forty-five 
hundred were from voluntary enlistments and twenty-five hun- 
dred were drafted from the militia; but the expedition under 
General Abercrombie failed of success; and the largest Euro- 
pean army which had yet been gathered in America was re- 
pulsed before Ticonderoga, with the loss of nearly two thousand 
men. The loss of men and the large expenditure of money 
were heavy burdens to the provinces ; but the success of 
Colonel Bradstreet in the surprise of Cadariqui, or Fort Fron- 
tenac, now Kingston, on Lake Ontario, raised the hopes of the 
people and incited the authorities to further exertions. 

Sixty-eight hundred men were raised by Massachusetts in 
the following year for the several expeditions against the enemy 
and for garrison duty at Louisburg and in Nova Scotia. The 
frontier posts of Niagara, Ticonderoga, and Crown Point fell 
into the hands of the English ; and an attack upon Quebec, in 
which the opposing generals, Wolfe and Montcalm, were killed, 
was followed by the surrender of that capital city of the French 
power in America. In the spring of 1760 the efforts to dis- 
lodge the enemy in Canada were renewed ; and on the eighth 
day of September in that year the surrender of Montreal by 
Vaudreuil included the capitulation of all Canada, which has 
ever since remained a part of the British empire. Thereafter, 
until the Peace of Paris in 1763, enlistments were made in the 
provinces for garrison duty in the conquered country; but no 
active military operations took place. 

In the expeditions and operations, which have been briefly 



MILITARY AFFAIRS AND FRENCH NEUTRALS. 70 1 

mentioned, the soldiers of Maiden participated in various 
organizations. From rolls and records and other scattered 
sources of information has been gathered the following list, 
which, though imperfect as it must be, is honorable to the town 
and worthy of preservation. 



Soldiers in the French War 



35 



Barnes, Thomas, son of William ; private with Capt. Moses 
Hart of Lynn, March-December, 1762. 

Barnes, William, private with Capt. Moses Hart, March- 
December, 1762. 

Batts, John, apprentice of Phineas Sprague; marched to 
Worcester with other Maiden men under Capt. Michael Brig- 
den on the Fort William Henry Alarm, August, 1757; private 
with Capt. Thomas Cheever at Fort Cumberland in Nova Sco- 
tia, March 31, 1759-November, 1760. 

BLANCHARD, Ebenezer, with Capt. Michael Brigden on the 
Fort William Henry Alarm, August, 1757. 

BREEDEN, JOHN, born in Maiden, but then of Chelsea or 
Lynn, aged 22, a matross in Col. Richard Gridley's artillery, 
May, 1756; is on a roll of Capt. William Flint's company, in 
Col. Plaisted's regiment, in camp at Fort Edward, July 26, 1756, 
as having deserted from Brookfield ; and again on a roll of 
Gridley's artillery, February, 1757, as being dead. His father, 
Samuel Breeden of Maiden petitioned, April 12, 1757, shewing, 
" That Iohn Breden jun r . the son of your Petitioner was a Sol- 
dier in the Expedition against Crown Point in the year 1756 in 
the Company of Capt. Edward Burbank in Col. Gridley's Regi- 
ment and as he the said John was Returning home he Died at 
Plymouth in his Passage from Albany to Boston." 36 The fol- 
lowing petition explains the report of desertion. 



3o This list does not include the is given as nearly as circumstances will 

names of those who served in the expe- allow, and it sometimes represents that 

dition to Acadie in 1755, unless they of the company rather than that of the 

were in service in later campaigns, individual. 

Those who have been already mentioned S6 A/ass. Archives, lxxvi. 674. 

are starred (*). The period of service 



702 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

[April 14, 1757] The Petition of Elisabeth Breeden of Maiden 
Humbly Sheweth That your Petitioners Husband John Breeden was 
Jmpressed and sent into the Expedition against Crown Point in the 
last Summer and was taken sick at Brook field on his Journey and 
obliged to return home to Lynn and lay sick a Considerable time and 
your Petitioner paid to Docf Henchman for visits and medicines ad- 
ministred to the said sick thirteen shillings and four pence — and the 
said John on his recovery (as he thought it his Duty) he went to Fort 
Edward and took his place in the Army and there was taken sick and 
Died — and that after his Decease his Gun was Returned into the 
Fort by Lieu' Eleazer Lindsey : and four pounds hath been Deducted 
out of the wages of the said Deceased for the said Gun Your Petif 
Therefore most humbly prays that she may be allowed to receive 
four pounds out of the Treasury as also the s d Thirteen shill s & four 
pence or otherwise releive your Petitf and as in duty bound shall Ever 
pray 

Ellesebeth Breden. 

In the House of Rep rs April 22, 1757. 

Ordered That the Treasurer pay to M r Benjamin Hills for the use of 
the Petitioner the full wages of y e said John Breeden his Arms not being 
returned notwithstanding. [Passed both branches and approved by the 
Governor^ 37 

BREEDEN, Joseph, brother of the preceding, aged 26, was 
in the company of Capt. Moses Hart in Nova Scotia in 1762. 
The General Court allowed three pounds and two shillings on 
the following petition : — 

[December, 1763.] The Memorial and Petition of Joseph Breedeen 
of Molden in the County of Middlesex Laborer, Humbly Shews, that 
he was a Soldier in the Service of said Province in the Year 1762 
Under the Command of Cap 4 Heart at Nova Scotia, and was Regulerly 
Discharged and Returned for New England, and in his Return he was 
Taken Sick With a Violent Feavor, while he was at seea That he 
arived at Salam sometime in November the Same Year, That His Father 
Samuel Bredeen Came to Salem and helped him home, That he was 
Extreem bad for about four Weeks at a Great Cost and for more then 
Eight weeks more Unable to help him Self to any Support, That his 
Extriordinery Costs was ^5. 9 : 4. that he is Unable to pay the same. 
etc 38 

37 Mass. Archives, lxxvi. 690. 38 Ibid., lxxx. 401. 



MILITARY AFFAIRS AND FRENCH NEUTRALS. 703 

BROWN, JOHN, private with Capt. Ebenezer Marrow of Med- 
ford, 39 March-November, 1758. 



39 It is to be regretted that so active 
a man as Dr. Ebenezer Marrow, who 
served as a commissioned officer in at 
least three campaigns and was a prac- 
tising physician in Medford, should have 
been entirely overlooked by the two 
historians of that town. A neighborly 
feeling prompts me to admit him here. 

He appears as a lieutenant in the 
regiment of Colonel John Winslow, 
" for the defence of the Eastern Fron- 
tiers," April 23-November, 1754, in 
the expedition which established Forts 
Halifax and Western upon the Kenne- 
bec. Mass. Archives, xciii. 132. The 
next year he was again serving as lieu- 
tenant under Winslow, in the campaign 
which resulted in the removal of the 
Neutrals. He was at Beau Sejour, 
July 2, " under Indisposition of Body," 
and was granted leave to return to New 
England ; but he returned to duty at 
Fort Cumberland, August 19. Winslow, 
MS. Journal in Mass. Hist. So. Library, 
105, 1S6. In 1757 he was in the prac- 
tice of his profession at Medford. Mass. 
Arcliives,xxm. 543. His services in the 
campaign of 1758 are best described in 
the following petition. 

" [May, 1764.] Humbly sheweth, The 
Petition of Ebenezer Marrow of Med- 
ford, That in the Year 1758 he went in 
the Expedition to the Westward as a 
Capt 1 ? in Col: Jonathan Bagley's Regi- 
ment, & was ordered to march from 
hence with his Company to Albany in 
the Month of May — 
That he carried with him a Quantity of 
Med'cines to the Value of Twenty 
Pounds two Shillings & one penny 
lawful Money, and when he came to 
Albany some of the Soldiers fell Sick, 
& the Surgeons of the Regiments being 
without medicine (having put the Med'- 
cine Chests on board a Vessell not then 
arriv'd) Col Bagley order'd him to de- 
liver them what Med'cines they wanted, 
which he did — And, that afterwards 
he (your pet r . ) marched to Fort Edward 
where he found the other Surgeons in 
want of Med'cine also, having the Sick 
& infirm of Seven Regiments left there, 



some of them ill with the Small Pox : 
& those Surgeons not having had the 
Small Pox themselves, General Aber- 
cromby order'd your Petitioner to remain 
there with that Command, & order'd 
the Surgeons up to Ticonderoga with 
the Army — That he attended all the 
Sick there at said Encampment while 
the Army was gone to the Lake, & 
dressed near 300 of the wounded when 
they came down from the Lake ; & con- 
tinued in Said Service from the begin- 
ning of June to the last of November : 
in which Time he exhausted all his 
medcine (excepting a small Quantity as 
appears by his accot) & bought more at 
Albany, having Col. Bagley's Promise 
that he would endeavour the Province 
should pay him for them, & his Trouble 
also — That the Reason of his not 
petitioning y Hon rs before the last Ses- 
sion was the Absence of Col Bagley, 
whose Assistance he very much wanted 
for informing your Honours of the whole 
Affair, nothing doubting but that your 
Honours were ever ready to do him 
Justice, as soon as he should shew the 
justness of his Cause, tho' at never so 
great a Distance of Time — He ■there- 
fore at the last Session at Cambridge 
presented y T . Excelly & Hon^ with a 
Petition (of which the present One con- 
tains the Contents) w"; h petit'? passed 
the lower House, & was sent up for 
Concurrence ; but before it was con- 
sidered by the Council, it was unfortu- 
nately consum'd in the late Fire, so that 
your pet"; r is under a necessity of pre- 
ferring another ; the which he hopes 
will meet with the like favourable Re- 
ception ; and humbly prays that y\ Ex- 
celly & Honours wou'd be pleas'd to 
grant him such Allowance for his Medi- 
cines & extraordinary Service, as in your 
great Wisdom & Goodness you shall 
think proper & your petitioner as in 
Duty bound shall ever pray. 

Eben? Marrow." 
Mass. Archives, lxxx. 476. 

In answer to this petition, he was 
allowed £z\ 2s. id. Of his after life I 
have no knowledge. 



704 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Bunker, Philip, private, in place of Ebenezer Waite, with 
Capt. Moses Hart, March-December, 1762. 

BURDITT, JOHN, Jr., husband of Jemima (Green) ; enlisted 
with Capt. Ebenezer Marrow, May 2, 1758, aged 35; died in 
service, September 23, 1758. 

BURDITT, Joseph, private with Capt. Ebenezer Marrow, 
March-November, 1758. 

BURDITT, Samuel, ensign in the company of Capt. Samuel 
Clarke of Braintree, September 15, 1755-January 1, 1756, ser- 
vice above Albany; was first-lieutenant, with Second-Lieu- 
tenant Darius Green and thirty-three non-commissioned officers 
and men of Maiden in the company of Capt. Ebenezer Marrow, 
Col. Jonathan Bagley, " for the Reduction of Canada," March- 
November, 1758. This company was engaged in the disastrous 
attack on Ticonderoga, July 8. 

Chenery, John, private with Capt. Thomas Cheever, Col. 
Joseph Frye, in garrison at Fort Cumberland in Nova Scotia, 
after January 1, 1760, paid to November 25, 1760. 

Clewlv, Isaac, private with Capt. Ebenezer Marrow, March- 
November, 1758. 

Coburn, Patrick, private with Capt. Ebenezer Marrow, 
March-November, 1758. 

*COLEMAN, JOHN, aged 27, enlisted with Capt. Joseph Bil- 
lings, for the expedition against Canada, before May 23, 1758. 

CONERY, DANIEL, private with Capt. Ebenezer Marrow, 
March-November, 1758. 

*Cousens, Nathaniel, private with Capt. Ebenezer Mar- 
row, March-November, 1758. 

Emery, Jonathan, drawn from Capt. John Dexter's com- 
pany, and served in the company of Capt. Thomas Cheever, 
Col. Richard Gridley, in the expedition against Crown Point, 
September 15-December 16, 1755. 

Evans, Daniel, aged 21, laborer, born in Maiden, now of 
Hopkinton, enlisted with Capt. William Jones, Col. Joseph 
Thacher, 1756. 

FLOYD, EZEKIEL, son of Daniel and Margaret (Jenkins) 
Floyd, aged 28, enlisted with Capt. Ebenezer Marrow, May 2, 



MILITARY AFFAIRS AND FRENCH NEUTRALS. 70$ 

1758. A muster roll reports him as having died before Octo- 
ber 25 ; but the town record makes him to have died October 
28, 1758. A committee of the General Court reported an allow- 
ance of two pounds and twelve shillings on the following 
petition : — ■ 

[January 2, 1760.] The Petition of Margaret Floyd of Maldin in 
the County of Middlesex — Humbly shews that her Son Ezekiel Floyd in- 
listed into his Majesty's Service in the Year A. D. 1 758. in the pay of this 
Province in a Company under the Command of Cap' Marrow, of Col° 
Bagley's Regiment and proceeded with the Said Company to the West- 
ward & there faithfully performed his duty in said Company until the 
return of the s d Company from the Service of the said year — That in his 
return home he was taken Sick of the Camp Fever or Distemper, and 
not able to travel on foot and sent to me the Petitioner to send him 
a man & Horse to assist him in getting Home — That your Petitioner 
accordingly Sent Ezekiel Ienkins with a Horse to his Assistance, and 
that the s d Ienkins proceeded on his Iourney to Number one, so called, 
& there found the s d Ezekiel Floyd very Sick & unable to travel or be 
removed — and contined so for five Day's and then died there & That 
the s d Ezekiel Jenkins was fifteen Day's in performing the s d Journey 
and attending on the s d Sick Soldier — for which Said Iourney & Ser- 
vice including Horse hire & Some expences the s d Jenkins hath Charged 
your Petitioner with the Sum of three Pounds fifteen Shillings & five 
pence. 40 

*Forbes, Christopher, private in the company of Capt. 
Ebenezer Marrow, March-November, 1758; in the company 
of Capt. Moses Hart of Lynn, March-December, 1762. He 
went from Maiden to Samuel Waite's house in Charlestown 
in 1770; but he returned to Maiden, and was here in 1775. 
A story concerning him is related elsewhere. He died here, 
April 2, 1815. 

Fullerton, Nathaniel, private with Capt. Ebenezer Mar- 
row, March-November, 1758. 

Gill, William, sergeant with Capt. Ebenezer Marrow, 
March-November, 1758. 

Green, Darius, second-lieutenant with Capt. Ebenezer 
Marrow, March-November, 1758/ 

40 Mass. Archives, lxxviii. 724. 
45 



7©6 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

GREEN, Jacob, private with Capt. Ebenezer Marrow, March- 
November, 1758. 

GROVER, BENJAMIN, private with Capt. Ebenezer Marrow, 
March-November, 1758; was among those victualled by Beza- 
leel Eager of Westborough, innholder, " on their Return from 
the Province Service at Lake George In the Year 1758; " private 
with Capt. Moses Hart, March-December, 1762. 

Hallowell, Calvin, son of Edward, drafted from Capt.. 
John Dexter's company on order of April 15, 1756, for service 
against Crown Point under Capt. Hanners ; and was in camp at 
Fort Edward in the company of Capt. William Flint, July 26, 
1756. The General Court allowed thirty-one shillings, the next 
year, on the following petition : — 

[May 25, 1757.] The Petition of Huldeth Holloway of Maulden 
Widow humbly Shews That her Son Calven Holloway Aged Seventeen 
years was a Soilder in the Company under Capt" Flint in the Regim' of 
Coll° Platsteed in the Crown Point Expedition and Joynd the Army at 
Lake George in y e year 1756 where he was Taken Sick but Tarried 
untill the Army was dismissed That on his Return he Sold his Gun by 
reason whereof four pounds are witholden of his wages. 

Now your Petitioner is a poor widow Ineed having Eight Children 
and Some but young and no Real Estate, etc. 41 

His name appears in a list of deserters from the company of 
Capt. Thomas Cheever, Col. Joseph Frye, August 12, 1757; 
and he received no pay on the final settlement. The offence 
was probably constructive rather than real. He was private in 
the company of Capt. Ebenezer Marrow, March-November, 
1758, then called apprentice of William Pell; and again in the 
company of Capt. Moses Parker of Chelmsford, April, 1761- 
February, 1762, probably at Halifax. 

HALLOWELL, EDWARD, born and resident in Maiden, aged 
49, was in camp, with his son Calvin, at Fort Edward in the 
company of Capt. William Flint, July 26, 1756; had enlisted 
and was hired by Lynn. He died before May 25, 1757. 

Hallowell, Joseph, son of the preceding, and apprentice 
of William Pell, aged 17, private with Capt. Ebenezer Marrow,, 

41 Mass. Archives, lxxvi. 754. 



MILITARY AFFAIRS AND FRENCH NEUTRALS. 707 

March-November, 1758; with Capt. Moses Parker, probably at 
Halifax, April, 1 76 i-February, 1762; with Capt. Benjamin 
Edwards at Crown Point, March-November, 1762. 

Hay, John, drafted from Capt. John Dexter's company on 
order of April 15, 1756, for service against Crown Point under 
Capt. Hanners. 

* Howard, David, apprentice of Timothy Sprague, marched 
with Capt. Michael Brigden on the Fort William Henry Alarm, 
August, 1757; private with Capt. Ebenezer Marrow, March- 
November, 1758; and with 'Capt. Moses Hart, March-Decem- 
ber, 1762. 

HOWARD, JOHN, born in Maiden, enlisted, as of Lynn, with 
Capt. William Flint, and was in camp at Fort Edward, July 26, 
1756, aged 22. 

HOWARD, Thomas, private with Capt. Israel Davis, Col. 
Jonathan Bagley, "serving Eastward," March 31— November 17, 
1759; with same captain in service at Antigua, November, 
1759-November 17, 1760, when he is entered as a deserter; 
was private with Capt. Moses Hart, March-December, 1762. 

Jackson, David, 42 apprentice of Phineas Sprague, private 
with Capt. Moses Hart, March-December, 1762. 

JENKINS, JOHN, with Capt. Thomas Cheever, Col. Joseph 
Frye, at Fort Cumberland in Nova Scotia, March 31, 1759- 
November 26, 1760. 

JENKINS, JOSEPH, husband of Jemima (Sprague), with Capt. 
Michael Brigden on the Fort William Henry Alarm, August, 
1757 ; enlisted, May 2, 1758, then aged 56, with Capt. Eben- 
ezer Marrow ; died " at William Henry in the service," August 

27, I758- 

JOHNSON, THOMAS, in list of men drafted from Capt. John 
Dexter's company, September, 1755, " Designed upon the Ex- 
pedition against Crown Point ; " and served in the company of 
Capt. Thomas Cheever, Col. Richard Gridley, September 15- 
December 16, 1755. 

Knower, Daniel, with Capt. Thomas Cheever at Fort Cum- 
berland, March 31, 1759-November 26, 1760. 

42 Phineas Sprague, Jr., notified the days ago I took into this town a boy 
selectmen, March 24, 1758, that "ten from Stoneham named David Jackson." 



/Oo HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

KNOWER, EDWARD, private with Capt. Ebenezer Marrow, 
March-November, 1758; with Capt. Sylvanus Bourne of Barn- 
stable, November, 1759-January 20, 1760; enlisted in the 
company of Capt. Giles Harris for the expedition against 
Canada, February 15, 1760, then aged 18; in service until De- 
cember 2, 1760; enlisted with Capt. Henry Young Brown of 
Haverhill and was in service at Halifax, April, 1 761 -February, 
1762. 

KNOWER, John, son of John, aged 35, enlisted in the com- 
pany of Capt. Ebenezer Marrow, "April 24, 1758, and died in 
service September 14, 1758. His widow, Phebe, married, Feb- 
ruary 7, 1760, Amos Shute, who was by her husband's side 
when he was shot and brought the news of his death when he 
returned. 43 

KNOWER, JONATHAN, brother of Daniel, private with Capt. 
Ebenezer Marrow, March-November, 1758; with Capt. Nathan 
Brigham of Southborough, March, 1762-January, 1763. 

Lincoln, William, private with Capt. Ebenezer Marrow, 
March-November, 1758. 

LYNDE, JACOB, private with Capt. Ebenezer Marrow, March- 
November, 1758; mustered, March 20, 1760, in company of 
Capt. Moses Hart, " for the total Reduction of Canada," then 
aged 43 ; served until December 8, 1760. "Titus Negro," his 
slave, was in service with him. 

LYNDE, Nathan, with Capt. Michael Brigden on the Fort 
William Henry Alarm, August, 1757. 

[LYNDE,] TlTUS, negro, servant of Jacob Lynde, aged 45, 
enlisted February 28, 1760, in the company of Capt. Moses 
Hart, and was in service until December 8, 1760. 

Manser, John, son of Thomas, aged 25, is on a roll of May, 
1756, as a matross in Col. Richard Gridley's train of artillery, 
having been drafted from Capt. John Dexter's company on the 
order of April 15, for service against Crown Point with Capt. 
Lord; and he remained in the army until December, 1756. 
He afterwards petitioned for the payment of four pounds 
stopped from his pay for the loss of his arms, stating that he 

43 Information of William B. Shedd. 



MILITARY AFFAIRS AND FRENCH NEUTRALS. 709 

was a Soldier in the Expidition towards Crown point in the year 
1756 in the Company Commanded by Cap' Chadwick in colon 1 
Gridleys Rigenv : and was taken Sick at a place called y e half moon : 
and was obliged to Leave his Gun & Bayonet their : which he Deliv- 
ered into y e storehous there. 44 

He is on a list of deserters from Capt. Thomas Cheever's 
company, August 12, 1757, and received no pay on the final 
settlement ; but his offence, which may have been one of record 
only, was overlooked, as he returned to Maiden and served the 
next year with Capt Ebenezer Marrow, March-November, 
1753. 

* Martin, JOHN, born in Plymouth, Eng., living in Maiden, 
was drafted from Capt. John Dexter's company on the order 
of April 15, 1756, for service against Crown Point under Capt. 
Lord, and was a matross in Col. Richard Gridley's artillery, 
May, 1756, being in that service until the following December. 
He was a corporal in the company of Capt. Ebenezer Marrow, 
March-November, 1758; enlisted "for the Protection and 
Security of His Majesty's Dominions and Conquests in North- 
Amarica, 1761," being mustered April 24, 1761, then aged 38; 
and was private in the company of Capt. Leonard Whiting of 
Westford, March, 1762-January, 1763. He afterwards be- 
came sexton of the North Parish and died in 1793. 

Mower, Ebenezer, apprentice to Richard Dexter, corporal 
in the company of Capt. Benjamin Johnson of Woburn in the 
expedition against Crown Point in 1755. A petition in his 
behalf is given in the notice of Benjamin Shute. 

MUDGE, Samuel, son of John and Mary (Waite) Mudge, 
who had removed to Lynnfield soon after 1748, was in the 
army and died in service in 1758. 

Newhall, Ezra, son of Lieut. Samuel, removed to Lynn; 
was ensign in the company of his brother, Joseph, in the 
regiment of Col. Timothy Ruggles, February 20, 1760, then 
aged 27. He was a lieut. -colonel in the Revolution. 

Newhall, John, son of Daniel, the innholder, removed to 
Leicester. In August, 1757, he was a captain in the regiment 

44 Mass. Archives, lxxvi. 673. 



/IO HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

of Col. John Chandler, and marched with his company to 
Sheffield on the Fort William Henry Alarm. He returned to 
Maiden and was the landlord of the Half Moon Tavern here 
from 1764 to 1769. He probably died in Spencer. 

Newhall, Joseph, son of Lieut. Samuel, removed to 
Charlestown, and in 1755 was an innholder at Newbury; was 
a captain in the regiment of Col. Jonathan Bagley, March 13- 
December 10, 1758, and in the regiment of Col. Timothy 
Ruggles in 1760. He died in 1761. 

NICHOLS, Samuel, apprentice of David Parker, aged 19, 
enlisted May 2, 1758, with Capt. Ebenezer Marrow; was in 
service until November, 1758. 

PARKER, David, apprentice of Nathan Waite, private with 
Capt. Moses Hart, March-December, 1762. 

PARKER, Ezra, son or apprentice of John Parker, private 
with Capt. Ebenezer Marrow, March-November, 1758; private 
with Capt. Thomas Cheever at Fort Cumberland, March 31, 
1759-November 26, 1760. 

Paine, Nathaniel, aged 54, enlisted April 24, 1758, in the 
company of Capt. Ebenezer Marrow, and was in service until 
November, 1758. 

PELL, William, came to Maiden from Boston. His first 
service is stated in the following petitions, on the first of which 
the General Court granted him an allowance of three pounds; 
and on the latter he received twelve shillings " for the use of 
his Gun." 

[April 1, 1757.] The Petition of William Pell of Maiden Humbly 
Sheweth That your Petitioner was a Soldier in His Majestys Service in 
the Expedition against Crown Point in the year 1755 in the Company 
of Capt. Moore in Col. Bagleys Regiment and Inlisted himself again 
under the Command of Lieut Joseph Chaddock in Col. Gridleys 
Regiment in the Expedition against Crown Point So early in the year 
1756 as to be Intitled (by the act of this Court) to half wages in the 
time of Intermission but yet was omitted that part of his wages in 
the Muster Roll, etc. 45 

[August 16, 1757.] William Pell of Maulden humbly Begges leave 
to shew, That being a Soilder in Capt Morses Company in y e Regem 1 of 

45 Mass. Archives, lxxvi. 504. 



MILITARY AFFAIRS AND FRENCH NEUTRALS. 7 II 

Coll° Titcomb In the Crown point Expedition in 1755 He provided 
his Own Gun for which he has Rec d no allowance 46 

He was drafted from the company of Capt. John Dexter, by 
order of April 15, 1756, for service against Crown Point, under 
Capt. Hanners ; and is on the roll as matross in Col. Richard 
Gridley's artillery, May, 1756, then aged 25 ; was in that 
service until December, 1756. He was in the company of 
Capt. Michael Brigden on the Fort William Henry Alarm, 
August, 1757; and was a corporal in the company of Capt. 
Ebenezer Marrow, March-November, 1758. 

Phillips, Francis, born in Boston and then resident in 
Stoneham, but afterwards a prominent inhabitant of Maiden, 
laborer, aged 17, enlisted in the company of Capt. William 
Peabody, Col. Plaisted, May 7, 1756, and was in service in the 
expedition against Crown Point until December 2, 1756. 

Phillips, James, aged 26, husband of Elizabeth (Clepson) ; 
was drafted from Capt. John Dexter's company, on an order 
of April 15, 1756, for service under Capt. Lord, and enlisted 
as matross in Col. Richard Gridley's artillery. He is on the 
roll of this regiment, February, 1757, as being dead, having 
died, apparently, in service. 

Pratt, Amos, marched with Capt. Michael Brigden on the 
Fort William Henry Alarm, August, 1757. 

PRATT, Ezra, aged 23, marched with Capt. Michael Brigden 
on the Fort William Henry Alarm, August, 1757; was in 
service with Capt. Simon Slocomb, Col. Joseph Williams, 
April 7-November 23, 1758; and was at the capitulation of 
Montreal, September 8, 1760. The following petition, on 
which he received an allowance of one pound and twelve 
shillings in full, relates his troubles in getting home: — 

[March 5, 1761.] The Petition of Ezra Pratt of Maldon in the 
County of Middlesex most humbly Sheweth — That your Petitioner 
was a Soldier in the late Expedition against his Majesties Enemies in 
Canada under the Command of Coll Richard Saltonson Esqr — That 
the Day after the Surrender of the Garrison at Mont Real he was 
taken ill of a fever and was by order thence transported Via Cart & 
Battoe to Crown Point where he continued sick above three weeks — 
46 Mass. Archives, Ixxvii. 197. 



712 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

That getting better he with difficulty got as farr as the Town of 
Sheffield where he had a relapse and lay more than 3 weeks longer ; 
and as soon as in any measure recruited, he sent home to his friends 
to aid him in getting home — 

That over and above his Charge of Doctor medicine &f he was at 
the expense of five pounds thirteen Shillings and four pence, as pf 
inclosed account in getting home which was some pounds old teny less 
than he cou'd have got home for had'nt his Brother William Pratt 
befriended him — 

That besides the above Charge he was a long time ill at home so 
weak that he cou'd do little or nothing for a subsistence. et c . 47 

Pratt, Timothy, enlisted for the reduction of Canada, 
mustered, March 8, 1760, then aged 33, and served with Capt. 
Moses Hart until December 8, 1760; private in the company 
of Capt. Moses Parker, in service, probably at Halifax, April, 
1761-February, 1762; and private with Capt. Moses Hart, 
March-December, 1762. 

* Pratt, William, private with Capt. Simeon Cary of Bridge- 
water, May 14, 1759-January 2, 1760. 

RAMSDELL, JOHN, apprentice of Edward Waite, private with 
Capt. Ebenezer Marrow, March-November, 1758. 

REED, Henry, born in England, apprentice of Nathan 
Sprague, private in the company of Capt. William Peabody, 
Col. Plaisted, in the expedition to Crown Point, April 14- 
December 2, 1756, having been drafted from the company of 
Capt. John Dexter on the order of April 1 5 ; was with Capt. 
Michael Brigden on the Fort William Henry Alarm, August, 
1757; private in the company of Capt. Ebenezer Marrow, 
March-November, 1758; enlisted, April 24, 1761, then aged 
18, if the return may be believed, and served with Capt. Edward 
Blake, apparently at Halifax, until April, 1762; and was with 
Capt. Moses Hart, perhaps in the same service, until the 
following December. 

Sawvkr, Henry, mustered from the company of Capt. John 
Dexter, September, 1755, "Designed upon the Expedition 
against Crown Point," and served in the company of Capt. 
Thomas Cheever, Col. Richard Gridley, September 15-Decem- 
ber 16, 1755. 

47 Mass. Archives, Ixxix. 574. 



MILITARY AFFAIRS AND FRENCH NEUTRALS. 713 

SHUTE, AMOS, brother of Benjamin and Daniel, marched 
with Capt. Michael Brigden on the Fort William Henry Alarm, 
August, 1757; was private in company of Capt. Ebenezer 
Marrow in the campaign of 1758, and was in service until 
October 9 of that year. Three days later his brother Daniel 
met him at Kinderhook " much indisposed " and " give him 
some refreshment, advised him to tarry till Ben came up." 48 
He is further mentioned in the notice of John Knower. A 
committee of the General Court reported an allowance of 
four pounds, ten shillings, and twopence on the following 
petition: — 

[April 14, 1759.] The Petition of Amos Shute of Maldon Humbly 
Shetveth That your Petitioner was in the Province service the last 
sumer in the Rigement of Collonal Bagley under the Command of 
Capt Marrow and continued in the service til the ninth day of October 
And then my health being impaired having liberty to repair homeward 
J had help by the teams in my way to Albany. And then not able 
to travel one of my fellow Soldiers procuered me a horse such a one 
as he was able to purchase and at the owners price. Said horse brought 
me home and that is all that he was worth to me. The first cost of 
said horse was one pound two shillings. 1. 2. o 

The provender he eat by the way and my extraordenary 
charge to my support being very weak and low is eight shill : o. 8. o 
when J came home J was very Sick and under the Docters 
hands the Docters bill is one pound thirteen Shillings 1. 13 2 

& two pence. Charge for nursing nine weaks two pounds 
fourteen shillings 2. 14. o 

The whole of the above Said charge is 5. 17. 2 

Therefore your petitioner humbly requests, etc. 49 

StlUTE, Benjamin, brother of the preceding, corporal in 
company of Capt. Benjamin Johnson of Woburn in the expe- 
dition against Crown Point in 1755. The following petition 
refers to his sickness at the end of the campaign. 

[December y e 6 th 1756] The Petition of Richard Dexter Jn 
behalef of his prentice Ebenezer Moor who was Jn the Companey of 
Capten Beniamin Ionson Jn the Regement of Collonel Plasted Jn the 
Expedition against Crown Point Jn [the] year 1755 Humbley Showeth 

48 Diary of Rev. D. Shute, in Essex 49 Mass. Archives, lxxviii. 439. 

Inst. Hist. Coll., xii. 150. 



714 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

that his the said Prentice Ebenezer moor was obliged to Tary at Fort 
William Henery one month after the Dismission of the Rest of the 
Company to Nurss one Benjamin Shute who was sick Nigh to Deth 
& the Jntreyteys of Said Shute was so Ernest & Strong that I would 
Stay to his asistence that I could not Deney him but to actualey Tarey 
& asiste my said Distresed frind for which servis I Never had one 
farthing your Pettioner therfore Humbley Prayes your Honour & 
Honours to alow him pay for one month for the servis above said as 
J n Dutey Bound shall Ever Pray &c. 

Richard Dexter 50 

We learn from the diary of his brother, the Rev. Daniel 
Shute, that he was at Albany in June, 1758, "being much 
oppressed at y e stomach," and at, or near, Kinderhook in the 
following October, probably being in the service. 51 

Shute, Rev. Daniel, who is noticed elsewhere, was pastor 
of the Second Church in Hingham when he was commissioned, 
March 13, 1758, "to be Chaplain of a Regiment of Foot 
commanded by Colonel Joseph Williams, raised for a general 
Invasion of Canada." He went with the regiment to Schenec- 
tady, where he remained during the unhappy expedition against 
Ticonderoga, and afterwards moved westward, where 

Being in Danger of the Small Pox & under apprehension that he 
had taken the Infection, [he] obtained leave at the Oneida Station of 
General Stanwicks by the Consent of Coll! Williams to retire to 
Schenactady for the greater Conveniency & better attendance of the 
Sick & soon after his Arrivall at Schenactady, viz : about the 20 th of 
September he was taken ill of a Fever & continued so ill that he was 
not able to ride until the 11"!' 1 of October when he left Schenactady & 
made the best of his Way home, etc 52 

Stapleton, Patrick, mustered from Capt. John Dexter's 
company, September, 1755, for service against Crown Point in 
company of Capt. Thomas Cheever. 

SWEETSER, Stephen, aged 18, marched with Capt. Michael 
Brigden on the Fort William Henry Alarm, August, 1757; 
enlisted with Capt. Nathan Brigham of Southborough, March 

50 Mass. Archives, lxxvi. 145. Shute's diary or journal kept in this 

51 Diary of Rev, D. Shute, in Essex expedition is given in Essex Inst. Hist. 
List. Hist. Coll., xii. 134, 150. Coll., xii. Vide, also, this vol., chap. 

62 Mass. Archives, xiv> 114. Mr. xvii. note 3. 



MILITARY AFFAIRS AND FRENCH NEUTRALS. 715 

17, 1762, and was in service at Crown Point and westward until 
discharged, November 17, 1762. 

Tarbox, Samuel, private on roll of Capt. Sylvanus Bourne 
of Barnstable, November, 1759 -January 20, 1760. 

Wade, Samuel, private in company of Capt. Moses Hart of 
Lynn, served five months and twelve days to January 1, 1762. 

Wade, Simon, lieutenant in the company of Capt. Samuel 
Clarke of Braintree, September 15 -November 26, 1755. He 
afterwards preferred the following petition, on which a com- 
mittee of the General Court reported an allowance of two 
pounds and six shillings in full. « 

[January, 1757.] The Petition of Simon Waide of Maiden Most 
humbly Sheweth, That your Petitioner was a Lieutenant in Cap" Iudu- 
than Baldwin's Company in Col" Bagley's Regiment in an Expedition 
against Crown Point on which he Entered the 28 th of November 1755 
— and received his Pay to y e 21 st day of May 1756 — Now f. Petitioner 
would most humbly Inform y? Honour & Honours That he received a 
wound in his Leg at Fort William Henry in December 1755 — which 
proved very Dangerous (as by the Surgeon's Certificates hereunto 
annexed will appear) and y r Petitioner was thereby rendered Incapable 
of Further Service to his Majesty and his Country until this present 
time — He therefore humbly Prays this Hon bl ? Court to take his Case 
into their wise consideration, and that they would be pleased to Grant 
him wages (as in his Majesty's Service) unto this time — as also an 
allowance for the Great charge he has been at to Doctor's Nurses &c 
occasioned by his wound received in his Majesty's service as aforesaid, 

etc. 53 

Andover Jan 5 : 19: 1757 
These may Certify Whom it may Concern that I John Kittredge of 
Andover afores d Sometime in the Month of August Last I Saw L; Simon 
Wade of Medford at the House of my Father in Tewksbury Which I 
found in Dangerous Circumstances by Reason of a Wound (as he En- 
formed me) he Received at Fort William Henry in the Late Expedition 
to Crown point my Father Enformed me that he was Doubtful whither 
he Would Recover of his Wound & to all Appearance his Wounds were 
Looked upon Incuraple about the Term of three weeks (as my Father 
Enformed me) he Continued with him — During which Term my 
Father Enformed me that the Canker had Taken his sore & it eat to a 
Great Degree & Caused his Sore to Bleed half a pint in One Night & 
that he Despaired of his Recovery & Sometime in the month of Septf 

Vi Mass. Archives, lxxvi. 239. 



yi6 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Last M' Wade put himself Under my Care (by Reason that my Father 
was Labouring under Bodily Indisposition) & from s? Month of Sept. 
To the Day of the Date hereof s? Wade hath been under my Care & 
for the Greatest part of the Time his Wound was Very Bad I was 
obliged to take Several pieces of Bone out of his Leg & even now I 
Judge him to be Quite Incapable of Military Duty. 

John Kittredg. 54 

He recovered his health soon after, and re-entered the service 
as lieutenant in the company of Capt. Enoch Bayley of New- 
bury, " which were in the Capitulation at Fort William Henry," 
August 9, 1757; and he is supposed to have been killed in the 
massacre which followed. 

Lydia Wade of Maiden petitioned the General Court in Jan- 
uary, 1759, for wages and allowance, '' shewing, that She is 
Mother and Heir at Law to Simon Wade, Lieutenant of a com- 
pany in the Expedition against Crown-Point, in the Year 1755." 55 

Waite, Nathan, son of Benjamin Waite, aged 30, from 
Capt. John Dexter's company, enlisted with Capt. Joseph 
Billings, Col. Joseph Williams, " in the Intended Expedition 
against Canada," April 3, 1758. He was a sergeant until 
August 17, then a private until October 27, when he " deceast 
in the army." He left one child, his wife, Dorothy (Pratt), 
having died in 1755. 

Waite, Stephen, with Capt. Michael Brigden on the Fort 
William Henry Alarm, August, 1757. 

Welch, James, with Capt. Thomas Cheever, in service at 
Fort Cumberland, March 31, 1759 -November 26, 1760. 

Wheeler, Isaac, mustered, with others from the company of 
Capt. John Dexter, in the company of Capt. Thomas Cheever 
to " reinforce the Army destined to Crown Point," September, 
1755. The First Parish refused June 6, 1759, to choose a col- 
lector " in the Room of m r Isaac Whellor who is an Enlisted 
Souldier in the present Expedition for Canada." His misfor- 
tunes in the service are related in the following petition, on 
which the General Court made him an allowance of twelve 
pounds and twelve shillings: — 

54 Mass. Archives, lxxvi. 241. 56 Journal House of Reps., January 12. 1759. 



MILITARY AFFAIRS AND FRENCH NEUTRALS. 71/ 

I April 1 6, 1760] The Petition of Jsaac Wheler of maiden Humbly 
Sheweth that on the 16 day of april 1759 J was drawn by the Capten 
of said maiden to go in an Expidition against Canadea: and J past 
muster on said day by the Hon 11 Cornal Brattel & J was amedetly sent 
down to the Cassel and theare Continued a few days and then ordered 
to Point Shearly and so itt was when J was there a few days J was taken 
Sick and under the Docters hand for upword of one month and the 
Armey J was to gow with saild before J was abel to goe and so J was 
left behind: and after J had recovered my helth the Cornal ordered 
me to march forth with to the Westard to Joyne the armey there which 
Accordinly J travld to Westfield and there sesed with the Rumeties 
and there remaind unabel to travil aney forther which was so Judged 
by the Docter and I taried thear to the 23 of October and then re- 
turnd horn : which tuck me seven days to git hom: and so by that 
means J never was maid upon aney muster rooal at all Where foer 
your Petitioner Humbly Prays your Exelency and Honers would take 
my Case into your wise consaderation and order the Treasuer to pay 
me my wages for said time, etc. 56 

WHITTEMORE, JAMES, husband of Mary (Sherman), private 
in company of Capt. Ebenezer Marrow; died in service, 
October 2, 1758, according to the muster roll, or October 18, 
1758, according to the town records. 

WHITTEMORE, JOSEPH, mustered from Capt. John Dexter's 
company for the expedition to Crown Point, and served in the 
company of Capt. Thomas Cheever, Col. Richard Gridley, 
September 15 -December 16, 1 75 5 . 

WHITTEMORE, Pelatiah, aged 47, enlisted with Capt. Ebene- 
zer Marrow, 1758. He was of Dunstable in the following year, 
when a committee of the General Court reported in favor of an 
allowance of twenty-six shillings on the following petition: — 

[November, 1759.] Humbly sheweth, The Petition of Pelatiah 
Whittemore of Dunstable That your Petitioner served in the Expedition 
against Canada the last year under Cap! Ebenezer Marrow, and That 
falling Sick & being unfit for Duty was on the 23'! Day of September 
permitted to return home. That on his way home his Sickness 
prevailed upon him to such a degree that he was oblig'd to lay by, & 
was till the 30 th of October getting home ; and after he got home was 
Sick, & under the Doctors care Six Weeks. That he was at consid- 
erable Expence in his Sickness for nursing, Horse hire home &c. 

56 Mass. Archives, lxxix. 112. 



71 8 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

That in Cap' Marrow's Muster Roll he was made up & received Pay 
to the 29"! of September and no longer. 57 

The organization of the Maiden militia had been continued 
from the days of Joseph Hills and John Wayte, as required by 
the colonial and provincial laws, with the exception of a brief 
period during the administration of Governor Andros. 5S By 
occasional references its line of officers may be ascertained, 
with more or less certainty, in the confusing array of captains, 
lieutenants, and ensigns which appear in the records. John 
Lynde appears to have been its captain about the beginning of 
the eighteenth century and to have been succeeded by Edward 
Sprague, who died while in command in 171 5. 59 He was fol- 
lowed by Deacon John Dexter, who died in 1722. For a period 
even conjecture fails, but Captain Samuel Waite, who died in 
i7J 9 /4o, is mentioned in 1729 and 1732. Benjamin Blaney was 
lieutenant in 174^, and I cannot distinguish his superior 
officer; but John Dexter, a son of the former captain, was lieu- 
tenant in IJ4J4, Lieutenant Blaney having become captain in 
May, 1746. Captain Blaney is mentioned elsewhere as having 
been engaged in the business of a tanner near the South Spring. 
He came from Lynn in 1724, and is said to have been a man 
of much energy and ability. The town records contain the fol- 
lowing in relation to his death: — Captain Benjamin Blaney, 
aged fifty-one years, " husband to Abigail Blany about seven of 
the clock in the evening of the eighth day of february 1 759 1, 
was taken up dead near Daniel Newhalls dore and it was 
thought by the Jury that he fell of his horse and that was a 
means of his death his scul by his temple was beat in." Tradi- 
tion says that he had stopped at the Half Moon Tavern of Daniel 
Newhall to assist in quelling a fight which was then in progress 

57 Mass. Archives, lxxviii. 638. of the Fountain in Mistick,' on Monday, 

58 November 6, 1696, Edward Sprague, the 27 Dec., 17 14, arose a brawl between 
town treasurer, received four pounds and Captain Edward Sprague and Thomas 
four shillings of the selectmen for "y e Newhall, jr., of Maiden, resulting in the 
use of y e Town or Miletary company-" Captain being sadly bruised about the 
Maiden Toivn Records, in loco. head, thrown to the floor, and barely 

59 Samuel Wade of Medford, who escaping from being pitched out of the 
married Lydia, daughter of Lieutenant window. As usual, both parties seem 
Thomas Newhall of Maiden, " was an to have been at fault." Waters, New- 
innholder, in whose tavern, ' at the sign hall Family of Lynn, 36. 



MILITARY AFFAIRS AND FRENCH NEUTRALS. 719 

and that the injuries which he received at the hands of the 
brawlers caused his death. 

After the death of Captain Blaney, John Dexter became the 
commanding officer of the Maiden company, which was a part 
of the first, or lower, Middlesex regiment under Lieutenant- 
Governor Spencer Phips, who was soon after succeeded by 
Colonel William Brattle. Ezra Green was commissioned as its 
lieutenant, October 1, 1751. The company itself was not called 
into service, but men were drafted out of it, from time to time, 
as they were needed for the army. No roll of its membership 
earlier than the Revolution has been found; but the following 
paper gives the names of a portion of its men. As by a law of 
the Province bayonets were to be carried by one half of the 
enrolled militia, it may be supposed that this list represents that 
portion of the company. Some of the names have been men- 
tioned as those of men in service. 

Maiden Nov r 30 th 1758. 
Province of the Massachusets Bay &c. D r . to John Dexter. 
1758. to 67 Bayonets which I procured by order and De- 



Viz 



;d to the men hereafter 


named. 


^23. 9.0 
1. 13. 6 

21. 15.6 


Amos Upham 




Nath" Waitt 


Darius Green 




Stephen Waitt 


Ezra Sargeant 




Nath n Dexter 


Uriah Oaks 




Ezekiel Ienkins jnr 


Benf Waitt jnr 




Richard Shute 


Benj a Bucknam 




William Waitt jnr 


Nath" Howard 




Iohn Green 


Ioseph Ienkins 




lames Bucknam 


Edward Sprague 




Amos Pratt 


Will"; Linckorn 




Tho s Waitt jnr 


Solomon Townsend jnr 




Eben! Pratt 


Vnite Cox 




Iohn Nichols 


John Tufts 




David Sargeant 


Isaac Wheeler jnr 




Tho 5 Sargeant 


Iohn Pain 




Eben r Barritt jnr 


Sam 1 ! Baldwin 




Nehemiah Blany 


Daniel Knower 




Nath" Sprague 


Ioseph Whittemore 




Ionathan Howard y e 3I 



720 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



Silas Sargeant 
Will™ Pratt 
Nath" Lynds 
Benonj Vinton 
Phinehas Green 
Iohn Harnden 
Will™ Pell 
Iohn Chinere 
Iabez Lynds 
Iohn Howard 
Sam". Waitt 
Ezra Green 
Timothy Waitt 
Iohn Caide 
Will"; Gill 
Patrick Coburn 
Amos Shute 



Iohn Grover 
Sam". Sprague 
Ezekiel Floyd 
Iohn Burditt jnr 
lames Whittemore 
Ioseph Paine 
Tho" Burditt J nr 
Sam". Grover 
Iohn Knower 
Benj? Sprague 
Richard Pratt jnr 
Iohn Colman jnr 
Ebenl Blanchard 
Iohn Dexter 

Errors Excepted p* me 
Iohn Dexter, Capt. 



-Wj/roj tt02n^A^ny^^Jt 






-? 



Ebenezer Harnden, who was lieutenant in 1755, is called cap- 
tain in 1756 and afterwards, but his office may have been tem- 
porary or in connection with some other organization. In 
December, 1763, an official roll makes the officers of the Mai- 
den company to have been, Ezra Green, captain ; Jabez Lynde, 
lieutenant; and Thomas Hills, ensign. In September, 1765, 

commissions were 
issued to Jabez 
Lynde, captain ; 
Amos Upham, 
lieutenant; and 
Benjamin Blaney, ensign ; and in 1774 the officers were reported 
to be Captain Benjamin Blaney, Lieutenant Nathan Lynde, 'and 
Ensign William Waite. 61 These were the last to hold the king's 
commissions ; and on the nineteenth of April, 1775, they led the 
eager men of Maiden by the house of their former captains, 
the John Dexters, and over the Medford plains to intercept 
the British troops at Menotomy. When they returned to their 
homes, for a brief season, a new era had dawned; the Revolu- 
tion had begun, and an empire of free states was about to be 
born. 

00 Mass. Archives, Bayonet Rolls. 61 Ibid., xcix. 72, 403. 







CHAPTER XXI. 



THE OPENING OF THE REVOLUTION. 



IT is my purpose to relate, in their own words, when possible, 
the story of the part which the people of Maiden took in 
the political and military strife out of which came the inde- 
pendence of the American Provinces. I shall not overstep the 
bounds of local history to relate the details of battles or to 
explain the plans of campaigns, nor will events of national 
importance, if mentioned at all, receive more than a passing 
notice. They who lived in the scattered dwellings of this coun- 
try town were simple farmers and mechanics. They were 
neither statesmen nor warriors, and they were not always in 
accord on the great questions which, being of present moment, 
did not at all times appear to them as they appear to us, now 
that time has magnified them by showing the greatness of their 
results. Sometimes, led by the zeal and fire of their pastor and 
their own inclinations, they were ready to stand in the van of 
the opposers of oppression ; sometimes they were ready to 
halt and were in doubt and perplexity. Tradition says that 
they were sometimes divided in their assemblies and that pru- 
dent or timid men were often alarmed and advised caution to 
their more patriotic or reckless brethren. So, in the rapid and 
often-shifting current of events they moved ; and the records of 

4 6 



722 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

their doings remain — records of patriotism and unflinching 
assertion of their inalienable rights, made sometimes with 
doubting hearts, but fearless in their declarations and still fresh 
and glowing after the lapse of years. 

The attempted enforcement, in 1760, of the old Sugar Act of 
1733, which, oppressive in its inception, had fallen into desue- 
tude or been evaded for a generation, and the publication of the 
intercepted letters of Sir Francis Bernard, the royal governor of 
Massachusetts, soon after, were the first notes of warning to the 
American colonies. Later the odious excises on sugar and 
other articles were made perpetual; and in 1765 the tyran- 
nical and unwise Stamp Act was passed by the British Parlia- 
ment. Then wrote Benjamin Franklin, " We may still light 
candles. Frugality and industry will go a great way towards 
indemnifying us." " I much fear, instead of the candles you 
mention being lighted, you will hear of the works of darkness," 
replied Charles Thomson of Pennsylvania. 1 

The passage of the Stamp Act, although it had been fore- 
seen, caused a storm of indignation to sweep over the land. 
Resolutions favoring non-intercourse during the continuance of 
the obnoxious laws were passed. Even associations were 
formed to forbear the use of black clothes in mourning and 
of lamb's meat for food. This was to curtail the importation 
of cloth from England and to promote the growth and manu- 
facture of wool in the colonies. As a practical measure it was 
of little moment, but it served to indicate the course of public 
opinion. In Boston a mob, which was increased by men from 
the neighboring country towns, broke out at last into open vio- 
lence and destroyed much valuable property. They burned 
the records of the Vice-Admiralty Court, sacked the house of 
the Comptroller of the Customs, and left that of Lieutenant 
Governor Hutchinson in ruins. Such lawless acts, however, 
were condemned by most men ; and the mob, itself, when 
sober, became quiet. 

How to obtain the repeal of the obnoxious laws and guaran- 
tees for the future by peaceable and constitutional means was. 

1 Sparks, Life of Be7ija»iin Franklin, 294. 



THE OPENING OF THE REVOLUTION. 723 

the absorbing object. To few, if to any, did a serious thought 
of separation and independence come in those early years. 
The people of Maiden, true as well to their ancient as to their 
more recent reputation, were slow to act; and when they spoke 
their utterance was one of patriotism and peace. It was not 
until the middle of October, seven months after the passage of 
the Stamp Act, that the town by any act of its own gave evi- 
dence of the interest of its inhabitants in the condition of the 
country. Then was voted the following letter of instructions to 
its representative. 

At a Publick town meeting in Mai Jon the iy ih day of October 176J 
Voted that the following instructions be given to Cap 1 Ebenezer 
Harnden of said Maldon our present representative in General Court 
(viz) That you promote and readily join in such dutifull remon- 
strances and humble Petitions to the King and Parliment and other 
decent measures as may have a tendency to obtain a repeal of the 
stamp act And of the heavy Burdens thereby imposed on the American 
British Colonies we are of opinion that the act of parliment called the 
stamp act by which a very burdensome and in our opinion unconstitu- 
tinal tax is to be laid upon us all and we subjected to numerous and 
Enormous Penalties to be prosecuted sued for and recovered at the 
option of an informer in A Court of admiltray without A Jury Sir these 
are our sentements of the stamp act we therefore the inhabitants of 
said town being legally assembled for this purpose must injoin it upon 
you not to comply with any measures or proposals for countenancing 
the same or assisting in the Execution of it but by all lawful! means 
consistant with our Allegency to the King and relation to Great Britain 
to oppose the Execution of it til we can hear the sucsess of the crys 
and petitions of America for releife And we would inculcate upon you 
our desires that all extraordenary grants and Expensive measures may 
upon all occasions as much as Possible be avoided at this time And we 
would recommend perticulerly the strictest care and the utmost firm- 
ness to prevent all unconstitutinal draughts upon the Public treasurey. 

The Stamp Act went into effect on the first day of November, 
amid the tolling of bells and . 

other signs of sorrow. The &eff/tl* jAjLLflC 

opposition was deep and wide- & s{<fnrtV L/^K, 

spread. Its effect was not un- 

felt in England; and, joined with the petitions of the Con- 
tinental Congress, which now came into existence, and an 



724 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

opportune change in the ministry, it brought about a repeal of 
the hated law in the following spring, a repeal which was 
hailed with extravagant expressions of joy, although with it 
was coupled the declaration that "parliament has a right to 
bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever." 

It was now proposed to compensate the losers by the riots of 
the preceding year. This measure, though at first refused, was 
finally granted by a small majority of the General Court, in a 
manner which was not entirely pleasing to the imperial govern- 
ment; for the act which relieved the sufferers carried a pardon 
to those who caused their losses. The inhabitants of Maiden 
were at first disinclined to favor the sufferers; and at a meet- 
ing held, October 27, 1766, they refused to "make up the Town 
Stock of powder," which had been spent in the recent rejoicings, 
and " Voted that Cap*. Eben 1 : Harndin their Representetive shall 
not act in feavour of the provinces paying the Losses that the 
Suffirers have Sustained by the Late Disturbances at Boston in 
the year 1765." Five weeks later, by a chance which often 
occurs in town meetings, a change took place ; and a loyalist or 
Tory element, which seems to have possessed a little strength 
in the town at first, appeared and obtained a majority. It was 
then " Voted to Reconsider their Vote passed on the Twenty 
Seventh of Oct? last Respecting their Jnstructions to Cap 1 . Harn- 
den their Representative," and 

Voted Doc r Porter Cap' Dexter Esq r Green Capt Chittenton m* Kittle 
be a Committe to Draw Instructions & Report 

then the Town ajorned for two hours to meet at mT Kittles 

Att the ajornraent the Committe made Report, and the Town 
Voted the Following Jnstructions be given to Cap! Eben! Harnden 
the Present Representative 

That he Do use his Jnterest that full and ample Compensation be 
made to his Honour Tho s Hutcherson Esq! for his Losses & Sufferings 
in the Late time of Disturbance and in the most Equitable manner 
the General Court in their Great Wisdom shall see meat & as to the 
Other three Gent™ (Viz) the Honourable Andrew Oliver, Benj a 
Hollowell j ur & Will™ Storror Esq rs we Leave the consideration thereof 
Respecting their Sufferings at said time to the above Representative 
to act as he shall think meet and proper. 2 

2 Hutchinson received a grant of sufferers received in the same proportion. 
,£3,194 17s. 6d. for his losses, and other N. E. Hist, and Geneal. Register, i. 306. 



THE OPENING OF THE REVOLUTION. 725 

At the next annual meeting the town, influenced by Tory 
sympathy or an unpatriotic parsimony, refused to " pay for 
the powder spent at the Rejoyceing for the Repeal of the 
Stamp act " by its more public spirited citizens. 

There is little to indicate the course of private opinion or of 
public action in the town for the next year or two. We cannot 
doubt, however, that the events which were steadily preparing 
the way for a new empire were closely watched, with eagerness 
or keen regret, and that the idea of a national independence 
was slowly taking form in the minds of many as a thing possible 
and to be desired. Two entries, only, in the records of 1768 
contain allusions to the condition of the country or evince an 
interest in its welfare. The town refused to " build a work 
house to imply the poor in," laid out roads, and warned 
strangers away from its borders as if no public danger existed ; 
but it was voted 

[March 7, 1768] That Ezra Green, Esq! m r Kettel Docter Porter 
Cap 1 : Dexter & Cap! Harnden shall be a Committee to draw up how 
far they shall think proper that this town should comply with what 
the town of Boston have don in their incourriging manufactures in 
this Province and the preventing the importation of goods into it. 
And make report at may meeting in order to the towns coming to a 
vote upon it. 

It does not appear that this committee ever made a report; 
and no further action was taken except that 

At a town meeting in Maldon the 21 st day of Sep! 1768 Voted Cap. 
Ebenezer Harnden To be a Committee man to Joyn in a convention 
with those Gentlemen that have been chose by the town of Boston 
and may be chose by other towns to consult what may be for the 
safty of our king and the wellfair of his subjects in this Province in 
this dark and difficult season. 3 

3 The convention met in Faneuil ruleth according to his pleasure, with 

Hall, September 22, and continued in unerring wisdom and irresistible influ- 

session until September 29. The mem- ence, in the hearts of the children of 

bers voted an address to the governor, men," and dissolved the convention, 

which he refused to receive, and derided "I doubt whether they have been guilty 

the message, which he returned. They of an overt act of treason," said the 

repeated a former protest against unjust Solicitor-General of England, "but T am 

taxation and other grievances, and re- sure they have come within a hair's 

newed a petition to the king. They breadth of it." Cf. Hutchinson, His- 

committed themselves to "Him who tory of Massachusetts-Bay, hi. 208-212; 



726 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Nor in 1769 was there any important public action in relation 
to the great questions which were being discussed ; and the 
business of the little town went on in its humble way, as it had 
gone on for many years. Only at "a publick Town meeting 
in maiden the 18 th of May 1769," taking to themselves the 
instructions of Cambridge, which are to the historian of that 
town unknown, though worthy of preservation, the inhabitants 

/ oted, Capt. Ebenezer Harnden to represent the Town at y e Great 
& General Court ; and voted y e same Jnstructions which the Town of 
Cambridge have voted their Representative which are as follows First. 
We expect that you will to the utmost of your Power, Support, main- 
tain, and defend His most Sacred Majesty George y c Third, our 
rightful Sovereign, his Crown, Dignity & Family. Secondly, You are 
to use your best Endeavors, that our invaluable Charter Liberties, 
Priviledges & Immunities, dearly purchased by our Ancestors, and all 
the Rights derived to us from y e invariable Law of God and Nature, 
be transmitted inviolable to the latest Posterity. Thirdly We appre- 
hend, that no Power on Earth can justly deprive us of our essential 
Rights, & that no Man can be safe either as to his Life, Liberty or 
Property, if a contrary Doctrine should prevail ; therefore we recom- 
mend to you a firm but prudent Opposition to all unconstitutional 
measures. Fourthly, We enjoin that by no Means you vote for the 
Draft of any money out of y e publick Treasury, unless the Occasion 
be emergent and warranted by the Maxims of Equity, the Princi- 
ples of our happy Constitution, & Precedents justly resulting from the 
same. 

A greater interest and a more patriotic spirit seemed now 
to animate the people, although the allusions in the records 
to matters outside of the local affairs of the town for several 
years are few and far between. The attempted enforcement of 
the revenue laws added a fresh excitement. Non-importation 
leagues were formed and measures were discussed by which 
home products and manufactures were to be fostered and 
sustained. In Boston the merchants met in Faneuil Hall and 
voted to cease the importation of British goods and to publish 
the names of those importers " who audaciously continue to 
counteract the united sentiments of the Body of Merchants 

Bancroft, History of the United States, ham. Life and Times of JosepJi Warren, 
18th ed., vi. 202-206; and Frothing- 91-93- 



THE OPENING OF THE REVOLUTION 727 

throughout North America." 4 It was in allusion to this meet- 
ing that the town at its annual meeting, March 5, 1770, 

Voted, That this Town do give their Hearty Thanks to y e Merchants, 
for their prudent & spirited Measures pursued by them for the good 
of this Province & Land. 

Voted, That we will not by our Selves, or any for or under us, 
directly or indirectly, purchase any Goods of y e following Persons, 
viz. John Bernard, James MacMasters, Patrick MfMasters, John Mein, 
Nath! Rogers, William Jackson, Theophilus Lillie, John Taylor, & 
Anne & Elizabeth Cummings, all of Boston ; or of any other Person 
whatsoever that shall import Goods, contrary to y e Agreement of y e 
Merchants, till a general Jmportation takes Place. 

Voted, That we will not use any foreign Tea, nor countenance y e use 
of it in our Families, (unless for Sickness) till y e Revenue Acts are 
repealed, 

The next morning strange rumors were heard in the quiet 
lanes of the town. Excited horsemen, sent by the patriots of 
Boston, had come out at midnight into the country; and as 
the day wore on rumors became certainty, and it was told how 
honest patriots had been shot down by British soldiers and 
that the life-blood of Americans stained the snow in the streets 
of Boston. It was the morning after the Boston Massacre; 
and thenceforth the spirit of patriotism was strengthened and 
an unswerving determination carried the men of Massachusetts 
and of the colonies steadily onward to the end, which many in 
secret began to foresee. Little could country folk, situated as 
were those of Maiden, do at this period of the political strife. 
But that little they did. They fanned the fire in their own 

4 The town of Boston, at a meeting, portance ; who not only deserted but 

October 4, 1769, "solemnly Voted that opposed their Country, in a struggle for 

the Names of those Persons few indeed the Rights of the Constitution, that 

to the Honor of the Town, viz'. John must ever do it honor : And who with a 

Bernard, Nathaniel Rogers, Theophilus design to enrich themselves, took Ad- 

Lillie, James McMasters and Company, vantage of the generous self denial of 

John Mein, Thomas Hutchinson Junr their Fellow Citizens for the Common 

and Elisha Hutchinson — be entred oti Good." Boston Town Records, in loco. 

the Records of this Town, that Posterity A list of the obnoxious importers 

may know, who those Persons were that printed in Edes and Gill's A T orth Ameri- 

preferred their little private advantage can Almanack for 1770 is identical with 

to the common Interest of all the that in the Maiden vote. Drake, History 

Colonies, in a point of the greatest Im- and Antiquities of Boston, 767. 



728 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

town, and they could make their voices heard in the councils 
of the Province through their representative, Captain Ebenezer 
Harnden. Always patriotic and true, for ten years he held 
his office with honor to himself and the men of his town, and 
in him they trusted. So, little appears in the records of the 
town at this time, though the people were alive to the knowl- 
edge of the great questions which were being thrust upon the 
provinces. Their new minister added the fire of his courage 
and youthful zeal to their inclinations and they were preparing 
for the struggle which was to come. 

At length, November 2, 1772, Samuel Adams, standing on 
the floor of Faneuil Hall, offered that celebrated motion which, 
in the words of a recent writer, " gave visible shape to the 
American Revolution, and endowed it with life and strength." 5 
In the words of the record 

It was then moved by M r Samuel Adams, That a Committee of 
Correspondence be appointed to consist of twenty one Persons — to 
state the Rights of the Colonists and of this Province in particular, 
as Men, as Christians, and as Subjects ; to communicate and publish 
the same to the several Towns in this Province and to the World as 
the sense of this Town, with the Infringements and Violations thereof 
that have been or from time to time may be made — Also requesting 
of each Town a free communication of their Sentiments on this 
Subject. 6 

" The end in view," says Bancroft, " was a general Confederacy 
against the authority of Parliament; the towns of the Province 
were to begin ; the Assembly to confirm their doings and invite 
the other Colonies to join." 7 

On the twentieth of November the report of the committee 
was presented to the town of Boston and the addresses were 
adopted. That to the towns was masterly and convincing, and 
the towns responded with enthusiastic ardor. Committees of 
Correspondence were chosen in most of the towns in the Prov- 

5 Porter, in Memorial History of Bos- 6 Report of the [Boston] Record Com- 

ton, iii. 42. Bancroft, History of the missioners, xviii. 93. 
Ciutcd States, 18th ed., vi. 429, says that 7 Bancroft, History of the United 

this motion "included the whole revolu- States, iSth ed., vi. 429. 
tion." 



THE OPENING OF THE REVOLUTION. 729 

ince, and their replies to the Boston letter were energetic and 
their purpose was not to be mistaken. 8 On the fifth of January, 
1773, the men of Maiden met to consider the letter of Boston 
and their own duties in the crisis. "It is more than time to be 
rid of both tyrants and tyranny," Samuel Adams had written. 9 
" With our best blood and treasure," said the farmers of Mai- 
den. The record which follows contains the first in that series 
of patriotic papers in which the fearlessness and fire of Peter 
Thacher may be traced — a series of which Maiden may well 
be proud to her latest day. 

At a legal Town meeting in Maiden y f 5" 1 Jan y . ifjj. Voted, Capt 
Ebenezer Harnden Moderator 

Voted Capt. John Dexter, M r Thomas Hills, M' James Kettell, M" 
David Sargeant, M' Ezra Sargeant, jVP Samuel Sprague, Ens" Benj* 
Blany, Ml John Grover ]u". M! Ezekiel Jenkins, M 1 . Joseph Howard, & 
M r . Samuel Waitt, Be a Committee to take into consideration the re- 
quest of the town of Boston respecting y e late alarming report that 
Stipends are affixed to the offices of y e judges [of the] Superiour Court 
of Judicature in this Province, added to many other grievances under 
which this people have for some years groaned ; & also to draw up 
instructions for their Representative, and lay y e whole before the town 
for their acceptance. 

Voted, That this meeting be adjourned to Thursday y e 14 th instant at 
2 o'clock p. m. 

Jan 5 : y e 14 th Being y e time to which this meeting stands adjourned. 

Voted, Nemine eontradieente, To accept the report of the committee, 
chosen to take into consideration the request of y e town of Boston, 
respecting our late grievances, and that the same be recorded in the 
Town Book. 

Voted, Nemine eontradieente, To accept the instructions drawn up 
by the committee for their Representative, & that y e same be recorded, 
and a copy thereof transmitted to him. 

Voted Capt. John Dexter M r James Kettell My Thomas Hills M r Sam- 
uel Sprague & Capt. Ebenezer Harnden Be a committee of Corrispond- 

b See the addresses in Report of the brought into a state of contention, dis- 

[Boston] Record Commissioners \ xviii. 95- order, and general dissatisfaction ; or, as 

108. Hutchinson, History of Massacku- others would have it, were roused from 

setts-Bay, xu. 370, says : "Thus, all on a stupor and inaction, to sensibility and 

sudden, from a state of peace, order, activity." 

and general contentment, as some ex- 9 Bancroft, History of the United 

pressed themselves, the province, more States, iSth ed., vi. 431. 
or less from one end to the other, was 



730 HISTORY OF MALDEX. 

ence to communicate & correspond with the committee of y e Town of 
Boston, & any other towns on y e Subject of our present difficulties. 10 

Voted, That this meeting be adjourned to thursday next at 5 o'clock 
i». m. in order for the Selectmen to prepare a letter of thanks to the 
town of Boston. 

Jan 5 : the 21 st Being the time to which this meeting stands adjourned : 
The Moderator & Clerk being absent, 

Voted, M r Ezekiel Jenkins Moderator for this time. 

Voted M r Ezra Sargeant to serve as Clerk. 

The following letter was then read. 
To the Respectable Inhabitants of the town of Boston. It is with the 
utmost satisfaction & pleasure, that we have from time to time observed 
your sollicitous care and prudent endeavours to suppress all appear- 
ances of tyranny & oppression, & to maintain the just rights and priv- 
iledges of a distressed people ; And particularly of late, that you have 
not been intimidated by y e alarming reports that have reached our 
ears ; but as our fears and distresses increase, your zeal and resolution 
abounds. We give you our hearty & sincere thanks for all the salutary 
measures you have adopted for the common safety. And we heartily 
wish and desire, that every town in this Province, and thro' the land, 
may have such a sense of danger & of duty, as readily to lend a helping 
hand in this time of need. By the papers transmitted to you herewith, 
you will find that a committee has been chosen by this town to cor- 
rispond with yours on matters of publick concernment. We trust you 
will always find them and us as ready to receive any intimations of this 
nature from you, & to join in such measures as may be tho't best. 
And may the great overruler & disposer of all events, so direct & suc- 
ceed your wise endeavours, as that y e yoak of tyranny may be entirely 
broken, and New England yet enjoy her invaluable priviledges inviolate 

10 The Committee of Correspond- James Kettell, 1773-77 ; 1783-86. 

ence, or, as it was finally called, of Captain Jonathan Oakes, 1782-84. 

Correspondence, Inspection, and Safety, Francis Phillips, 1777-7S ; (Lieut.) 1784- 
existed until the annual town meeting in 86. 

March, 1786, when no provision was Dr. Jonathan Porter, 1779. 

made for its continuance. Its members David Sargeant, 1778-79. 

were: Amos Shute, 1777-82. 

Jonathan Sprague, 1777-80. 

Captain Wymond Bradbury, 1782-84. Samuel Sprague, i773~77; J 779- 

Captain John Dexter, 1773-76. Dr. Elisha Story, 1775-76. 

William Dexter, 1780-82. Rev. Peter Thacher, 1775-76. 

I ieutenant Bernard Green, 1779-82. John Tufts, 1777-78; 17S0-S2. 

John Green, 1777-79. Lieutenant John Vinton, 1779-S0. 

Captain Ebenezer Harnden, 1 773— 77- Micah Waite, 1777-79; 1780-82. 

Thomas Hills, 1773-77; 1784-86. Samuel Waite, 1777-78. 

John Jenkins, 1779-80. Captain William Waite, 1782-83. 



THE OPENING OF THE REVOLUTION. 731 

to the latest generations. May all vice and immorality be suppressed, 
& piety and virtue reign triumphant. And may you in particular, the 
respectable Jnhabitants of Boston, thro' the propitious smiles of heaven, 
see the happy fruits of your unwearied diligence, in the cause of liberty. 
May you always be deemed among the early projectors and constant 
pursuers of those legal & constitutional methods, which may establish 
our charter rights on a basis durable as the foundations of the earth ; 
and may posterity yet unborn rise up and call you blessed. 

Voted, That the above letter be accepted. 

Voted, That a copy of the proceedings of this meeting be sent by the 
town Clerk to the committee of Corrispondence in Boston. 

At a legal meeting by adjournment of the Jnhabitants of y* Town of 
Maiden Jan? 14 th 1773 the committee who were chosen by y e town at 
their meeting Jan 3 ? 5 th to consider what is best for y e town to do in this 
day of darkness, & cruel oppression in which almost everything worth 
living for is in danger of being wrested from us, report as follows. 

Having taken into serious consideration the state of y e rights of y e 
Colonists, & of this province in particular, as men as christians, & as 
British Subjects ; and also the list of the infringements & injurious 
violations of those rights transmitted to us from the vigilent and 
patriotick Jnhabitants of y e town of Boston, by their committee of cor- 
rispondence, 

Resolve, as far as we are capable of judging, that y e said rights, & 
also y e list of infringements, and violations of those rights, are exhibited 
in a just point of light ; and therefore with hearts deeply penetrated by 
the cruel oppressions & indignities, with which we are treated by our 
elder brethren at home, and with y e shuddering prospects before us, 
under y e present critical situation of our publick affairs ; the alarming 
inquisitorial Court appointed at Rhode-Jsland ; also replete with deep 
concern for our posterity, 

Resolve, That we will at all Times and upon all just occasions, with 
our best blood & treasure, in conjunction with our brethren of this 
province, & y e other provinces pursue every justifiable and constitu- 
tional measure for the obtaining a redress of our insupportable burdens, 
& in y e defence and support of our invaluable rights, Civil and Relig- 
ious, purchased by our ancestors, at y e expence of their treasure & their 
blood : and therefore, 

Resolve, that our Representative be instructed to use his utmost 
endeavours in the General Assembly that the Honourable Constitu- 
tional Judges of the Superiour Court of Justice in this province, should 
have a support equal to their importance, Also that our Representative 
use his endeavours that an address be again made to our gracious 
Sovereign, for the restoration of our invaded rights & priviledges, & 



7 3 2 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

that this people may be treated, as indeed they are, loyal subjects of 
Great Britain. Moreover, Since it hath pleased the great Governor of 
y e Universe, of late to answer y e prayers of this people by terrible things 
in righteousness, 

Resolve, That our Representative be instructed to use his endeavours 
that a day of humiliation be appointed, for our many & great iniquities ; 
and to seek of him a right way for us, & for our little ones, and for all 
our substance : and that a letter of grateful acknowledgments be sent 
to our worthy Brethren the inhabitants of Boston, for their vigelence & 
spirit, upon this & many other occasions ; with hearty good wishes and 
prayers that they may see good days, according to the time in which 
they have, in a peculiar manner, seen insult and massacre. 

John Dexter /<?;- order. 

To Capt Eben? Hamden 

Sir, The right of choosing a Person to represent us in the General 
Assembly carries in y e nature of the thing a right to instruct him. 
And tho' we reposed the highest confidence in you when we chose you 
into this office, yet we then reserved this right to our selves, to be 
made use of on extraordinary and alarming occasions. Such an occa- 
sion we esteem that to be on which we now instruct you : This is the 
late rumour which has prevailed of salaries being affixed to the Hon- 
ourable judges of y e Superiour Court &c. paid to them by the King inde- 
pendent of y e people, out of a revenue unconstitutionally raised upon us. 
This we esteem an intolerable grievance, a grievance which strikes at 
y e root of our Liberties. We now Sir, desire & instruct you to make 
use of every legal method in your power to obtain redress hereof. 
Particularly to exert your utmost influence in y e General Assembly that 
an ample & honourable support be offered to them, out of y e treasury 
of this province, that those who are inimical to us may not have it to 
alledge, as a reason for this grievous proceeding, that they have not 
such a support from y e people of this province. We also instruct you 
to forward in y e General Assembly an humble adress and remonstrance 
to our gracious Sovereign, begging from his royal clemency & justice, 
relief under this unconstitutional proceeding. This, we hope will 
reach not only y e royal ear, but heart also ; & will be followed with 
y e best effects. When we chose you to represent us in y e General 
Assembly, we did it esteeming you a stanch & firm friend to our civil 
cS; religious liberties. We have no reason to alter our sentiments con- 
cerning you in this regard. Yet that your own opinion & sentiments 
may be confirmed by having these of your constituents, we now, Sir, 
instruct you to exert your self to the utmost, in order to obtain a 
redress of our present grievances, & a confirmation of those rights &: 
priviledges, which to enjoy without molestation, induced our fore 



THE OPENING OF THE REVOLUTION. 733 

fathers to emigrate from their native land, and plant that in which we 
now dwell. We trust, Sir, we shall always find you in the number of 
those members of the General Court, who, while they feel & express 
the warmest loyalty to their Sovereign, steadily & firmly maintain y e 
rights of their constituents. 

As we cannot but think that the prevailing iniquities of our land have 
induced a righteous God to permit men of violence thus to harrass us, 
so, Sir, we instruct you to use your utmost influence in the General 
Assembly, that some effectual measures may be taken, in order to carry 
y e good & wholesome laws of this province, for y e suppresion of imor- 
ality into more full & complete execution ; & also that a day of humilia- 
tion may be observed thro' y e province on account of his frowns upon 
us in these regards, to deprecate his displeasure & ask his divine inter- 
position in favour of our sinking land. 

John Dexter per Order. 

The replies of the towns evinced the tenacity with which the 
people of Massachusetts held to the idea of local government, 
and indicated most plainly a drifting towards a future indepen- 
dence. A union of the colonies, which had been foreshadowed 
by the first meeting of the Continental Congress, became an 
immediate object; and its furtherance or hindrance divided the 
two great parties of Whigs and Tories. 

The non-importation agreements, beside other effects upon 
British interests, had caused large quantities of tea to gather in 
the storehouses of the East India Company; and to relieve that 
company, and to enforce its own pretended rights, Parliament 
passed an act by which tea could be exported to America free 
of all English duties. Large cargoes were accordingly shipped 
to several ports, but a uniform sentiment animated the Ameri- 
can people. If the cargoes were landed the duty would be 
paid ; and that duty, though small, was a tax which represented 
the principle that the colonies might be taxed without their 
consent. Therefore, it was determined that the tea should not 
touch the American soil and that it should return to England 
in the ships which brought it. The first ship, the Dartmouth, 
arrived at Boston, November 28, 1773, and two others followed 
a few days later. The men of Boston now stood between the 
country and the danger which became more imminent day by 
day. " Brethren," they had written to the other towns, " we 



734 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

are reduced to this dilemma, either to sit down quiet under this 
and every other burden, that our enemies shall see fit to lay 
upon us, or to rise up and resist this and every plan laid for 
our destruction as becomes wise freemen. In this extremity 
we earnestly request your advice." n 

To this appeal the towns replied with spirit; and Maiden, 
after a while, with characteristic slowness, followed their exam- 
ple. " Now that danger was really at hand," says Bancroft, 
" the men of the little town of Maiden offered their blood and 
their treasure ; for that which they once esteemed the Mother 
Country, had lost the tenderness of a parent, and become their 
great oppressor." 12 Their answer was as follows : — 

At a legal Meeting of the Jnhabitants of the Town of Maiden the jj"' 
of Decern*. 1773. 

To hear and consider sundry papers received from the Town of 
Boston, relating to the Jmportation and landing the Article of Tea, & 
to act thereon as they should find occasion : 

Voted Capt. John Dexter Moderator. 

The said Papers being read & attended to, it was voted, that a com- 
mittee of nine Persons should be chosen to draw up a report for the 
Town's Acceptance : and accordingly, 

Voted, that Capt. John Dexter, M' Ezra Sargeant, Capt Eben! Ham- 
den, Doctor Jonathan Porter, M r Thomas Hills M r Ezek! Jenkins, Mf 
James Kettell, Ensign Benjf Blany & Capt. Naler Hatch, be a Com- 
mittee for said Purpose. 

The Meeting was then adjourned, for one Hour. 

Said Term being expired, & the Jnhabitants again convened, the 
Committee brought in the following Report : 

The Town of Maiden, alarmed at the present melancholy Aspect of 
our public Affairs, & esteeming themselves bound to give the utmost 
Support & Countenance to the patriotic Town of Boston in their 
strenuous exertions to oppose the progress of despotism, At a legal 
Meeting by adjournment Dec r 13 th 1773, came into the following 
Resolutions ; 

Resolved 1. That this Town does cordially & entirely approve of the 
Resolutions entered into by the town of Boston, & the measures taken 

11 This appeal to the country towns iSth ed., vi. 476; Frothingham, Life ami 

was authorized by the joint committees Times of Joseph IVarren, 252-253. 
of the towns of Boston, Dorchester, 12 Bancroft, History of the United' 

Roxbury, Brookline, and Cambridge. States, iSth ed., vi. 482. 
Bancroft, History of the United States, 



THE OPENING OF THE REVOLUTION. 735 

by that town relative to the landing of certain Teas, sent by the East 
India company into the port of Boston, & which are subject to an 
unjust and unconstitutional duty. 

Resolved 2. That the Inhabitants of this Town are ready at all 
times, and upon all occasions to shed their best blood and treasure, 
in defence of their just rights & priviledges, & to support the town of 
Boston in the late stand they have made, & in any other constitutional 
one, which they may hereafter be called to make against the illegal 
oppressions & exactions laid upon us by that which we once esteemed 
our mother country, but which now seems at least to have lost the 
tenderness of a parent and to have become our great oppressors. 

Resolved 3. That as this Town cannot but be of opinion, that the 
success of the measures now taking by the colonies, to prevent the 
baneful influence of these acts of parliament, by which we esteem our- 
selves aggrieved, depends in a great measure upon individuals, there- 
fore they would express their wishes and desires, that every inhabitant 
of the town would prevent the consumption of tea in his family, and 
discourage as much as lies in his power the use of that herb, so long as 
it shall be subject to the duties laid upon it ; and all those persons that 
shall hereafter be concern'd in buying or selling the same, while subject 
to duty, shall be esteemed enemies to their country, and treated as 
such. 

Resolved 4. That the committee of correspondence of this town be 
directed to transmit a copy of these resolutions to the town of Boston 
forthwith. 

The report being read, it was accepted by a full and general vote. 

The Meeting was then dissolved. 

The events which followed the arrival of the tea ships in 
Boston Harbor have become a part of the history of the 
country, and they need not be recited here. The execution 
of the Tea Act was defeated, as had been that of the Stamp 
Act ; but it was followed by the Boston Port Bill. The offend- 
ing port was closed to commerce ; its harbor was guarded by 
British men-of-war; and both rich and poor, together, saw 
their usual means of support destroyed. This oppressive act 
was followed by others. A Regulating Act placed the appoint- 
ment of the Council in the hands of the Crown, authorized 
the Governor to appoint and remove judges of the inferior 
courts and other minor officers, and, lastly, forbade the 
assembling of town meetings, except for the choice of officers, 



7 $6 HISTORY OF MAIDEN. 

without the permission of the Governor; while another, 
known as the Murder Act, provided for the transporting of 
offenders and witnesses to other colonies or to Great Britain 
for trial. 

It was now that discontent changed to vigorous action, and 
forcible resistance began to appear as inevitable. The prohi- 
bition of town meetings was unheeded by men who had begun 
to act as well as to think for themselves. They continued to 
be held, and patriotic resolutions, addresses, and instructions 
multiplied ; but of more importance than patriotic votes and 
addresses and of sterner significance were the replenishing of 
military stores by the towns and the mustering and drilling 
of the militia. The action of Maiden during the summer and 
fall of 1774 was taken in a series of meetings, the records of 
which are here copied in full. 

At a Town Meeting August 25"'. IJ74 ; 
To know the mind of the Town, whether they will act any thing 
concerning our Grievances, which we now are labouring under, with 
respect to Great Britain's Conduct with the Colonies, and to act on 
all other matters & things that may come before them : And in 
particular, 

To see if they will choose a Committee or Committees to act on 
any measures relative to the Town, County or Province affairs, respect- 
ing our Grievances ; and that they should act as occasion may require. 
Voted, M r Ezra Sargeant Moderator. 

It was then put to vote, whether the Town will act any thing upon 
this warrant respecting our grievances ; & it passed in the affirma- 
tive. 

Voted, That it is the opinion of this Town, that the late acts of the 
British Parliament, & particularly those by which the Charter of this 
Province is vacated, are very unjust, unreasonable and cruel ; and by 
no means to be submitted to ; And that it is the indispensable duty 
of all persons of every denomination to use their utmost endeavours 
in their several Capacities, by all proper and Constitutional ways, to 
prevent as far as may be, said acts taking place. 

Voted, That the Committee of Corrispondence for this Town, viz ; 
Capt. John Dexter, M' James Kettell, M' Thomas Hills, 1VP. Samuel 
Sprague & Capt. Ebenezer Harnden, or any three of them, shall 
attend a general meeting of the Committees of the several Towns in 
this County, to be conven'd at Concord the thirtieth instant, to con- 



THE OPENING OF THE REVOLUTION. 



737 



•suit and determine what is expedient to be done at this very critical 
Juncture of affairs ; and that the said Committee of Corrispondence 
shall from time to Time, as there may be occasion consult and 
advise with the Committees of any other Towns in this County, or 
Province, on the affairs of our publick grievances. 
The meeting was then adjourned to friday the 2 nd day of Sept r at 
4 o'clock p. m. 

Sept' 2 nd 1774. Being the time to which this meeting stands 

adjourned, the Jnhabitants being convened, 

Voted, That this meeting be adjourn to friday next, at 4 of Clock p. M. 

Sepf 9 th Being the Time to which this Meeting stands adjourned, the 

Resolves of the Committees for this County convened at Concord the 

30 th & 31 st of August being read, 

Voted, Unanimously, that the Town does accept of said Resolves. 

The Meeting was then adjourned to Sept! 20 th at 3 of Clock p. m. 

Sepf 20 th The Jnhabitants being convened 

t r . j ( Capt. Ebenezer Harnden ) „ . , . , 

voted, \ r \ Delegates to attend a provincial 

I Capt. John Dexter j & * 

Congress to be holden at Concord the second Tuesday in October 

next. 

Voted, In consideration of the expediency of a good understanding 

& agreement between the members of society, especially at such a 

critical time as this, that there be a standing committee of advice 

chosen, who may hear & consider any matters of controversy that 

may arise in this Town between man & man, between party & party, 

& use their wise & prudent endeavours for an amicable & pacifick 

accommodation of such differences, and if possible promote that love 

peace & friendship, which will so much strengthen the common cause, 

as well as prevent unnecessary and expensive lawsuits ; and that the 

town will support said committee in their determinations, so far as 

they shall appear to be just, & in such manner as shall be tho't proper. 



Voted, 



Be 



Capt. John Dexter, 
Capt. Ebenezer Harnden, 
Deacon Joseph Perkins, 
My Ezra Sargeant, 
Mf John Grover juT, 
. Mf John Waitt, 

a Committee for said purpose, & that seven of them shall be a 

Quorum. 

The meeting was then adjourn to this day four weeks at 4 of 

Clock p. m. 

47 



M r David Sargeant, 
Capt. Benj? Blany, 
Ml Joseph Howard, 
M r . John Bucknam, 
Mf Ezekiel Jenkins, 
Leu! Amos Upham, j 



Be a Committee to draw up Jn- 
structions for the Representative. 



738 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

At a Legal Town Meeting the 20 th . of Sept. 1774.™ 

To see if the Town will choose one or more persons to represent 
them in a great & general Court according to the precept, & give him 
or them particular Jnstructions. 

Voted, Capt. Ebenezer Harnden Representative. 
Voted. The Rev? Peter Thacher 
Capt. John Dexter, 
M' James Kettell, 
M r Thomas Hills, 
Doctor Jonathan Porter, 
M r Ezra Sargeant, 
My Samuel Sprague, 
The Meeting was then adjourned to Friday next a 5 of Clock in 
the afternoon. 

Friday Sept r 23 rd 1774, Being the Time to which this Meeting 
stands adjourned. 

Voted To accept the following Jnstructions. 

To Capt. Ebenezer Harnden, 

Sir, The trust devolved by your fellow Citizens upon you at this 
time is the greatest & the most important which you could at any time 
receive. Our all now lies at stake, & if the Machinations of the ene- 
mies to our publick happiness should succeed we may bid adieu to all 
these flattering prospects we have hitherto indulged of enjoying our 
selves & transmitting to our posterity these rights & liberties, which our 
Illustrious ancestors purchased at the greatest expence, & which they 
transmitted to us an ample a fair Jnheritance. 

The Subversion of the Charter of this province, & the usurpation of 
Seats round the Council board, by a number of men, whose ambition 
& avarice (we are constrained to say) have induced them to betray 
their Country, & stain their own names with indelible infamy, demands 
our most watchful attention at this day, and it is upon these heads that 
we now especially instruct you. And, Sir, we give it you in most Solemn 
charge, as you would not act a part abhorrent to your Constituents, as 
you would not bring upon your self the execrations of millions that in 
no sence nor manner whatever, acknowledge these men as Councellors 



1!! It will be noticed that a "legal December 4. In the town records the 

Town Meeting " and an adjournment of entries relating to the latter meeting are 

the meeting of August 25 were held on in ii. 67, 68, 70, and those of the former 

the same day, September 20. The for- on pages 71, 72. In the text I have 

mer was adjourned to September 23, given them their proper chronological 

when it was dissolved ; and the latter sequence, 
was continued from time to time until 



THE OPENING OF THE REVOLUTION. 739 

of this province, that you do not give them the smallest degree of 
Countenance, but that you treat them with that contempt, indignation 
& abhorrance, which their unparalled perfidy most justly deserves. We 
do not, we are perswaded, feel or express an undue resentment of 
these unhappy men, but to see men acting such a part as they have 
acted towards their native Country, calls forth the highest Jndignation 
of every virtuous, of every brest. 

We also instruct you, if it shall be agreeable to the sentiments of 
your respected fellow senators (in whose wisdom & integrity we have 
the highest confidence) that you desire the members of the constitu- 
tional Council of this province, to resume their seats, to meet together, 
& proceed to such acts of advice & authority, as they shall deem meet, 
to which we promise to yield the same regard as though the hand of 
power had not driven them from their seats, or the mean the contempt- 
ible wretches we but now mentioned had not usurped them. 

We need not inform you of our firm, our deliberate resolution, rather 
to risque our lives & fortunes than to submit to these unrighteous acts 
of the British Parliament, which pretend to regulate the government of 
this province : Nor need we instruct you in your legislative capacity, to 
make the utmost opposition to them. Had we not had full confidence 
in you, that you detested these acts of power & injustice, we should 
never have chosen you to represent us in the general Asembly. The 
people in this province are a free and a brave people, & we are deter- 
mined in the strength of our God, that we will, in spite of open force 
& private treachery, live & die as becomes the descendants of such 
ancestors as ours, who sacrificed their all that they and their posterity 
might be free. 

Oct r 18 th Being the time to which this meeting stands adjourned : 
Voted, That it be recommended to all the Jnhabitants of this Town, 
whom their age or other infirmities do not incapacitate, to make them- 
selves acquainted with military discipline. 

Voted, That all the Jnhabitants be desired to turn out on the muster 
the i st of Novem r next. 

Voted, That there be a Committee chosen to wait upon the Commis- 
sion Officers in this Town, and_ desire them to muster the Jnhabitants, 
not disqualified, as afore said, the following winter, as often as they 
shall think convenient. 

Voted, The Rev d Peter Thacher, D r Elisha Story, M r Ezra Sargeant, M r 
James Kettell & M r Ezekiel Jenkins be a Committee for that Purpose. 
The meeting was then adjourned to friday Nov r 4. after lecture. 

Nov r 4 th 1774. Being the Time to which this Meeting stands 
adjourned ; 



740 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Voted, To accept the following Report. 
To the Committee appointed by the Town of Maiden — 
Waited upon the Commision Officers of the Company of Foot in 
said Town, and request them to muster the soldiers under their Com- 
mand as often as they shall think convenient, during the following 
Winter : 

Said officers answer to the Request in the following manner. 
That they are willing to exert themselves to the utmost in the service of 
the Town, & of this oppressed Land, & are hereby willing to muster 
their Company, and attend upon their service once a Fortnight, until 
the latter end of December, & the remaining part of Winter once 
a Month, if the Weather is such as it will do to muster in, provided 
the Gentlemen in the Town will encourage said Officers & Company in 
their Muster Bent:* Blany 

Nathan Lynde 
Nov r 4, 1774. William Wattt. 

Voted, The Revl M 1 . Peter Thacher, Capt. Ebenezer Harnden, Capt. 
John Dexter, M r James Kettell, Doctor Elisha Story, Be a Committee 
to prepare an Agreement to be signed by all persons both in the Alarm 
list, & in the training list, respecting their obedience to their officers. 14 
The Meeting was then adjourned to Thursday next at 10 o'clock in 
the forenoon at the house of Ensign William Waitt in this Town. 
Nov r 8, 1774. The Town being convened according to Adjournment, 
Voted, To accept the Agreement drawn up by the afore said Com- 
mittee, which was immediately signed by the Commission Officers, 
& most of y e Jnhabitants present. 

The Meeting was then adjourned to Thursday y e 17 th instant at 
5 o'clock p. M. 

Nov r 17. 1774. The meeting was further adjourned to munday next 

at 5 o'clock in the afternoon. 

Nov r 21. 1774. The meeting was further adjourned to this day fortnight 

in the evening. 

Dec r 4. 1774. Very few persons attending, the meeting was dissolved. 

14 By a recent resolution of the Pro- hundred men as the number of the en- 
vincial Congress one quarter, at least, rolled militia of the town. This was 
of the militia was enlisted to "equip stated as the actual number by the late 
and hold themselves in readiness to James D. Green, of Cambridge, who de- 
march at the shortest notice." These rived his information from his father, 
were the minute men, who under Cap- Corporal Bernard Green, of the minute 
tain Blaney marched on the morning of men. Those who were not in the com- 
the Lexington Alarm. With the com- pany of minute men were placed upon 
missioned officers they numbered the alarm list. 
seventy-five men, which indicates three 



cxorr^o^t^ly 



THE OPENING OF THE REVOLUTION. 74 1 

The First Provincial Congress of Massachusetts convened 
at Salem, October 7, 1774, and was dissolved at Cambridge, 
December 10. In it Maiden was represented by Captain 
Ebenezer Harnden and Captain John Dexter. The former 
had been the town's >0/> /~-*n. 

representative in the C^t&sy)r £l 
General Court since 
1765. The latter had preceded him in that office, and both had 
commanded the Maiden militia. Each had reached the allotted 
age of man and they had long been known as among the 
ablest and most patriotic of the men of the little town. The 
Provincial Congress, in its several sessions, existed until July 
9> 1 775, when the occasions which had made it necessary 
were past, and it was dissolved, giving place to the House of 
Representatives, which resumed its sittings, July 19, and in 
which Maiden was represented by Ezra Sargeant. 

The long town meeting, which was dissolved December 4, 
1774, was followed by another, which held its sessions at times 
from December 19 to February 9. In January the town voted, 
" To accept the Resolves of the Continental & Provincial Con- 
gresses so far as they are come to the knowledge of the Town ; " 
and a strong committee, with the representatives at its head, 
was chosen to " Be a Committee of Inspection and Observation, 
who are to use their Endeavours to carry said resolutions into 
Execution." 15 Later it was " Voted, That the Town will adhere 
to the laws of the province, as if they could be executed, and 
discountenance those that violate them." 

About the same time a collection was made for the relief of 
those who were suffering from the operations of the Port Bill 
in Boston ; and the Rev. Peter Thacher, the Rev. Eliakim Willis, 
and Nathaniel Jenkins, Jr., were chosen " to take Care of the 
Money that may be collected for the Town of Boston, & to 
write a letter of apology, if the smallness of the sum shall render 
it, in their opinion neccessary." The contribution of the town 

15 This committee was composed of William Waite, Captain Benjamin 
Captain John Dexter, Captain Ebenezer Blaney, Ezra Sargeant, David Sargeant, 
Harnden, Joseph Howard, Ensign Samuel Baldwin, and Dr. Elisha Story. 



742 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

was received in Boston, January 24; and the records of the 
Boston committee present in detail the humble offering of the 
farmers of Maiden to their suffering brethren in Boston. 

Maiden, Rev. Mr. Willis' parish, 

2 loads wood, 1 pr. women's shoes, 1 Ton of hay, ^£3. 1. 
Maiden, Rev. Mr. Thacher's parish, jQg. 13. 16 

In the frequent meetings of the winter and spring votes in 
relation to military matters are common ; for the townsmen, 
like their fellows of the other towns, now saw that the days of 
remonstrance and petition had passed. 

[Jan. 6. 1775] Voted To recommend to the commission officers, 
(when they shall think proper) to make a critical review of the arms, 
ammunition & accoutriments, of every Jnhabitant of this Town. 

[Feb. 9.] Voted, To recommend to Capt. Blany, that he calls his 
Company together once next week for military discipline, & twice a 
week afterward till march meeting. 

Voted, That Capt. Blany shall regulate his list according to law, ex- 
empting none under 60 years of age, but those that are exempted by 
law. 

[March 13.] Voted, That each person who shall enlist to train one 
half day every week, till the first of May next, shall be entitled to one 
shilling for each muster, in Case he exercises three hours. 

Voted, That the Captain shall enlist any able bodied men above 16 
years of age & under 50, who for the service above said shall be entitle 
to said pay. 

[March 27.] Voted, That some part of the Town's stock of Ammuni- 
tion be made up in Cartrages. 

Voted, That if any Intelligence should arrive that shall render it 
necessary in the Judgment of the Selectmen for the town in general to 
be together at or before the adjournment that they order the Constables 
to warn the Inhabitants to attend. 

On Monday, April 17, the town again met, when Dr. Elisha 
Story 17 and the Rev. Peter Thacher were added to the Com- 

16 Abstract in N. E. Hist, and Geneal. he studied medicine, joined the Sons of 
Register, xxx. 376. Liberty, and was one of the Mohawks 

17 Dr. Elisha Story was a son of who destroyed the tea at Griffin's wharf. 
William Story, who was deputy-register Tn 1774 he removed to Maiden with his 
of the Court of Vice-Admiralty at the family, and took an active part in the 
time of the Stamp Act riots in 1765. affairs of the town, especially in those 
He was born in Boston, December 3, affairs which were connected with the 
1743, and was a pupil of John Lovell at political questions of the day. He 
the Latin School. After leaving school joined in the assault on the British 



THE OPENING OF THE REVOLUTION. 743 

mittee of Correspondence ; and the meeting was adjourned to 
the following Thursday. Before the voters met again the shot 
which severed the colonies from Great Britain was fired. Early 
on the morning of April 19, it is said, a horseman came furiously 
along the Medford Road, crying, as he came, in the stillness of 
the night : " The regulars are out ! " When he came to the door 
of Kettell's Tavern no one was stirring ; but in a short time its 
west room began to fill with the excited villagers. The meet- 
ing house bell was rung; messengers were hastily despatched 
to the other parts of the town ; and the horseman departed to 
spread the news farther away. The minute men were mustered, 
as they came, on the little green in front of the tavern, in which 
their officers were in consultation ; and during the morning 
they were ordered by Colonel Thomas Gardner to march to 
Watertown. Women and children, says tradition, followed 
them as they marched to the beats of Winslow Sargeant's 
drum across the bridge and up the hill which has now nearly 
disappeared. Along the same hill had marched their fathers 
to former wars, and over the same way have marched their de- 
scendants at a later day — all in defence of that which makes life 
a blessing. 



troops during their retreat from Lexing- upon new comers, by which the town 

ton, and was at the battle of Bunker escaped possible liabilities under the 

Hill as surgeon of Colonel Little's regi- pauper laws. 

ment. He passed the night after the " To M r . Joseph Lynde,j'u r . Constable of 
latter battle in caring for the wounded the Town of Maiden, Greeting. 
on Winter Hill. He took part in the "In his Majesty's name you are re- 
campaign around New York, and was at quired forthwith to warn Doctor Elisha 
the battles of White Plains and Trenton. -Story & Ruth his wife, who came into 
Removing his family from Maiden, he the Town from Boston about the middle 
settled at Marblehead, and was a sue- of June last, that they forthwith depart 
cessful physician until his death, August out of this town, & that they carry 
27, 1805. He was twice married, and with them their children, viz. John, 
had twenty-one children, of whom the Tabitha, Abiel, Elisha & William, that 
eldest was the celebrated jurist, Joseph none of them be any longer resident 
Story of the United States Supreme herein. And then make return of this 
Court. warrant with your doings hereon to me 
Although Dr. Story was a member of the Subscriber. Dated in Maiden y e 2 n( } 
an important committee of the town, as day of June 1775. By Order of the 
stated in the text, and was taking a Selectmen. 

prominent part in public affairs, the Nath l Jenkins Town Clerk:' 

selectmen did not hesitate to give him The warrant was served the next 

the warning which was usually served day. 



744 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



The Minute Men of Malden. 

A Role of the Company of the Militea that Went to Watertown By 
order of the Late Col° Gardner upon the alarm on the 19 Day of april 
1775 and from there to Resist the Ministeral troops under the Com- 
mand of Cap! Benj a Blaney. 

Benj a Blaney Cap! 

William Wait Second Liu! 
Nehemiah Oaks Serjant 
Jabez Lyndes Serjant 

Bernard Green Cor! 
Nathan Eaton Cor! 
Winslovv Sarsfeant Drum er 



Nathan Lyndes Lieu' 
y. Amos Shute Serjant 

Micah Wait Cor! 
Jacob Parker Cor! 



John Ramsdel 
Joseph Lyndes J n 
Ezra Howard 
John Vinton 
Jacob Sargeant 
William Sprague 
Benj a Lyndes 
John Pratt 
Eben r Payne 
John Grover y e 3 
John Wait ] n . 
David Wait 
William Dexter 
Jonathan Gardner 
Stephen Tufts 
Samuel Wait 
Unite Cox 
Benj a Grover 
EbeiV Wait 
Joseph Barret J n 
David Howard 



Ezra Sargeant 
Ezra Hawkes 
James Wade 
Robert Burdit 
Gidion Williams 
Jacob Pratt 
Daniel Chadwick 
Thomas Wait y e 3 
\\ llliam Upham 
Ezra Upham 
Ezekiel Jenkins J n 
Joseph Floyd 
William Low 
Joseph Hollowell 
John Jenkins 
Francis Phillips 
Bernard Newhall 
Nathan Parker 
Richard Dexter 
Timothy Tufts 
Samuel Hollowell 



Daniel Breeding 
Elnathan Breeding 
Benj a Brown 
Peter Brown 
Charles Hill 
Phinehas Sprague J n . 
Edward Newhall 
James Green 
Silas Sargeant 
Ezekiel Jenkins 
John Grover, J n 
John Gould 
Naler Hatch 
Daniel Waters 
Joseph Jenkins 
Phinehas Sprague 
David Bucknam 
William Gill 
John Grover y e 4 
Stephen Pain J n 
Benj a Sprague J n 
Joseph Lyndes 

Benj a Blaney cptii. 1 



18 Mass. Archives: Rev. Rolls., xi. 209. 
They were paid for one clay's service at 
the following rates: captain, 4s. 4c!.; 
lieutenant, 3s. ; second lieutenant, 2s. 
8d.; sergeants, is. Sd. ; corporals, is. 6d. ; 
drummer, is. 6d. ; and privates, is. 4d. 
The last fourteen names were allowed for 



twenty miles travel, " out and home," 
and the others for thirty-four miles. 
The total amount was ^15 4s., for 
which the Council ordered a warrant to 
be drawn, February 7, 1777. Captain 
Blaney's company was the fourth in the 
first regiment of Middlesex militia. 



THE OPENING OF THE REVOLUTION. 745 

It was late when the Maiden company marched from Kettell's 
Tavern; but small parties of exempts or of men who belonged 
to the militia, but were not enlisted with the minute men, pre- 
ceded them by several hours. When the company reached the 
bridge in Medford they were met by an officer who halted 
them for some time, to await, it is supposed, information of the 
movements of the troops ; and it was nearly noon when they 
were ordered to march to Menotomy, now Arlington, towards 
which the country people had been moving all the morning, at 
first from curiosity and later with the intention of cutting off 
straggling parties or annoying the troops on their return. 

During the forenoon reinforcements under Lord Percy had 
gone out from Boston to the assistance of the expedition, which, 
after the affairs of the morning at Lexington and Concord, was 
now threatened by the uprising of the country at all points. In 
their rear, too far for their safety as it proved, was a sergeant's 
guard of twelve men convoying two supply wagons loaded with 
ammunition and provisions. They became separated from the 
main body in Cambridge, and at Menotomy were brought to a 
stand by a number of country people, who are said by some 
authorities to have been led by the Rev. Phillips Payson, the 
pastor of Chelsea. Others, on the authority of town traditions, 
claim that Daniel Lamson, variously called a half-breed Indian 
and a mulatto, conceived the plan of capturing the guard. The 
Americans, however, were unable to accomplish more than to 
annoy and impede the men, who were bewildered and supposed 
they were out of their road. The wagons were halted near the 
meeting house, not far from the junction of the Lexington and Med- 
ford Roads; and although the men were confused, they held at 
bay the country people, who were indulging in desultory firing 
from behind a wall. They had been in this condition some time 
when the Maiden men coming up, unperceived until close at hand, 
made several prisoners and took their stores and arms with little 
difficulty. In this affair two of the guard were killed and several 
wounded by the country people before the minute men arrived. 19 

19 For the statements here made I of Cambridge, whose father, Bernard 
was indebted to the late James D. Green, Green, then a corporal of the Maiden 



746 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



The fugitives from Concord met Percy's command near 
Lexington about two o'clock; and after an hour's rest, of which 
they were sorely in need, the retreat was resumed. Their route 
was marked by butchery and pillage. They were pressed and 
harassed by the militia and farmers of Middlesex and Essex, 
who hung upon their rear, came upon them out of unexpected 
cross-roads, or fired upon them from fences, hedges, and trees. 
Tradition is silent as to the part which the Maiden men per- 
formed in the work of the afternoon, except that the minute 
men kept together and followed the retreating troops to Charles- 
town Neck. 20 As they passed over Winter Hill, the bayonets 



company, was an eye-witness of the 
events and a participator in them. The 
story of the capture of the guard at 
Menotomy has been told in many ways. 
The Pennsylvania Journal, May 24, 1775, 
says it was made by " a party of the 
militia," and later. August 2, it says, 
" The Rev. Mr. Payson, of Chelsea, in 
Massachusetts Bay, a mild, thoughtful, 
sensible man, at the head of a party of 
his own parish, attacked a party of the 
regulars, killed some and took the rest 
prisoners." These statements may be 
found in Moore, Diary of the American 
Revolution, i. 66. Gordon, History of the 
Rise, &*c, of the Independence of the United 
States, i. 313, a useful but often inaccu- 
rate author, gives the leadership to Mr. 
Payson; while Thaxter in The United 
States Literary Gazette, cited by Everett, 
Orations and Speeches, i. 102, claims it for 
the Rev. Edward Brooks of Medford. 
Everett, who was by marriage a relative 
of Brooks, does not credit the story. 
Frothingham, Siege of Boston, 75, repeats 
Gordon's statement and says that Lam- 
son, "a half Indian, distinguished him- 
self in the affair." Bancroft, History of 
tin-United States, 12th. ed., vii. 307, follow- 
ing Gordon, says that the wagons " were 
waylaid and captured by Payson, the min- 
ister of Chelsea." Smith, West Cambridge 
on the Nineteenth of April, 1775, 28, 29, 
gives the honor of the capture to twelve 
exempts, led by Lamson, who is now 
called a mulatto ; but his too circum- 
stantial account followed by the ridicu- 
lous story of the inglorious surrender of 



six grenadiers to " mother Batherick," 
who in the midst of the excitement was 
peacefully digging dandelions on the 
banks of Spy Pond, has not gained 
credit with later writers. Hudson, His- 
tory of Lexington, 199, says that while 
Lamson may have been the leader at 
Menotomy, Payson may "have been the 
instigator, and an active leader at some 
other point ; " while Paige, History of 
Cambridge, 411, alludes to the story only 
in a note of seven lines, and credits the 
exploit to "a dozen exempts." Almon, 
Remembrancer, 1775, 69, says : " At Men- 
otomy, a few of our men attacked a 
party of twelve of the enemy, (carrying 
stores and provisions to the troops) 
killed one of them, wounded several, 
made the rest prisoners, and took pos- 
session of all their arms, stores, provis- 
ions, &c, without any loss on our side." 
The Chelsea militia, under Captain 
Samuel Sprague, marched in a company 
on the Lexington Alarm, but a body of 
Mr. Payson's parishioners, with their 
pastor, may have joined themselves with 
the Maiden company and been at the 
attack. The story, as given in the text, 
is not inconsistent with the other ac- 
counts. Corporal Green was a man of 
intelligence and character, and his state- 
ment is entitled to credence. 

,J) Thomas, Timothy, and Ezra Vin- 
ton of the Vinton neighborhood, now 
Melrose Highlands, but then a part of 
Stoneham, marched with the minute 
men of the latter town. Some of the 
north end men marched with the minute 



THE OPENING OF THE REVOLUTION. 



747 



of the British advance were glinting in the rays of the descend- 
ing sun on the slope of Bunker Hill, and the regiment of 
Colonel Pickering was seen pushing rapidly along the Medford 
Road. Had the Essex men not been obliged to stop for rest 
and refreshment in Maiden, they would have intercepted the 
British force before it could have got around Prospect Hill, and 
the greater part of the troops, suffering as they were from ex- 
haustion, might have been captured. However, a merciful 
Providence may have averted a serious disaster to the American 
cause ; for the ease with which the British troops could have 
been reinforced from Boston and the exposed and helpless 
condition of the town of Charlestown suggest possibilities of a 
great calamity. It is thought that some such considerations 
influenced General Heath when he ordered the provincials to 
cease the pursuit at Charlestown Common. 

Some of the Maiden men returned to their homes that night. 
Others remained until the next day. They bivouacked on the 
Somerville hills or the plains of Cambridge, and formed, with 
others, the first of that rapidly increasing army which in a few 
days encircled Boston from the hills of Chelsea to Dorchester 
Point. 21 



men from Kettell's Tavern, while others 
took a shorter route across the country 
to the Lexington Road. After they had 
left the women filled saddle-bags with 
food and despatched Israel Cook, with a 
horse belonging to Phineas Sprague, 
after them. Meeting the British on 
their retreat his horse was killed ; but 
he shouldered the bags and wandered 
about until he met his friends, who were 
in need of the refreshments which he 
carried. 

Among those who went out upon the 
early alarm was John Edmunds, who 
lived in the north-east part of the town, 
near the Chelsea line, and a boy named 
Preeden, who was probably from 
Chelsea, near Black Ann's Corner. The 
latter was about eighteen years old, and 
was unarmed, but he said he would get 
a gun if they would let him go. While 
they were following the troops in the 
afternoon, he became so daring that 



Phineas Sprague, one of the minute men, 
called attention to him several times and 
remarked that he would be killed. Ob- 
serving one of the soldiers lagging, he 
borrowed a gun and followed him. 
When the others came up he had killed 
the soldier and was eating the ration 
which his dead enemy had provided. 
Artemas Barrett, in Melrose Journal, 
April 17, 1S75. 

When the Maiden companv passed 
the foot of Prospect Hill the bodv of a 
British soldier lay on the grass before a 
house in which he had been killed. lie 
was seen to enter the house and was 
followed by some Americans who de- 
spatched him with their bayonets. This 
is the story as told by Bernard Green. 
Frothingham, Siege of Boston, 7S, states, 
on the authority of William B. Shedd, 
that the soldier was " shot through the 
window as he was pilfering." 

21 Wright, Historical Discourse, 20, 



748 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

On the approach of the British troops in the afternoon, great 
consternation prevailed among the inhabitants of Charlestown, 
and many, especially women and children, fled along the marsh 
to Medford or across Penny Ferry to Maiden. Later others 
from Boston and Charlestown joined them, and many strangers 
claimed the hospitality of the Maiden people. Those who 
were able to do military duty were obliged to join the militia 
of the town for the common defence. 

When the time arrived to which the town meeting had been 
adjourned, it is said that those of the voters who had returned 
to their homes were too tired or too busy to attend to town 
matters ; and the clerk was obliged to make the following 
record ■. — 

April 20, 1775, Being the time to which this meeting stands ad- 
journed, Being but few persons present the meeting was further ad- 
journed till to-morrow morning at 9 o'Clock. 

On the morrow the town met, and the selectmen were 
instructed to " make provision for a military watch for a fort- 
night at the Town's Expence; " and a committee, composed of 
Deacon Joseph Perkins, Ebenezer Barrett, Captain Ebenezer 
Harnden, Lieutenant Amos Upham, Captain John Dexter, 
Joseph Lynde, and Thomas Waite, was chosen " to supply the 
military company of this Town with provision if called to 
action." 

This meeting, which was convened March 6, was not dis- 
solved until May 8. By it the Rev. Peter Thacher, Captain 
Benjamin Blaney, and Ezra Sargeant were sent to the Com- 
mittee of Safety at Cambridge " for directions in regulating the 
guard in this Town, and in any other matters that may concern 
our Safety." A guard was raised, composed of twelve men, 
who were to be paid at the rate of six dollars a month for their 
services ; 22 and Naler Hatch, who had followed the sea in his 

says that the alarm list, comprising and brethren in battle." This is absurd, 

about sixty men under Captain Naler The enemy was safe in Charlestown ; 

Hatch, was posted at Beacham's Point and the whole company was moving to- 

during the day. " Returning to town at wards Boston — not away from it. 
night, a number requested leave to go 22 This is the first mention of dollars 

to Concord; and before morning, they in the records of the town, 
were on their way to join their friends 



THE OPENING OF THE REVOLUTION 749 

early life and was already in command of the alarm list, " a 
stout built man, rather rash in temper, and fiery in zeal," was 
appointed its captain. 23 About the same time the provincial 
Committee of Safety passed the following resolution. 

[April 24, 1775-] Resolved, That the inhabitants of Chelsea and 
Maiden be, and hereby are, absolutely forbidden to fire upon, or other- 
wise injure any seamen belonging to the navy under the command of 
Admiral Graves, unless fired upon by them, until the said inhabitants 
of Chelsea and Maiden receive orders from this committee or the 
general of the provincial forces so to do. 24 

This was probably intended to prevent immediate hostilities, 
which the provincial leaders were hardly ready to meet, and 
which might have been brought on at any moment by a colli- 
sion between the inhabitants or the militia and small parties 
from the ships, which lay at the mouth of the Mystic, who 
might attempt to forage upon the neighboring shores. The 
Maiden men had occupied Beacham's Point to protect the town 
on the day of the Lexington Alarm, and still continued there. 

Two days later the Committee of Safety, being better pre- 
pared or assured that the people of Mystic Side and Winnisim- 
met could defend themselves, 

Resolved, That the resolve of the twenty-fourth instant, respecting 
the inhabitants of Chelsea and Maiden, be reconsidered, and Ordered, 
that it be immediately remanded ; also, 

Resolved, That the inhabitants of Chelsea and Maiden be hereby 
desired, to put themselves in the best state of defence, and exert the 
same in such manner, as under their circumstances, their judgments 
may direct. 25 

Soon after the inhabitants, in view of the exposed condition 
of the southern portion of the town, at a meeting, May 1, 

Voted, Revl Peter Thacher, Capt. Benj a Blany, Mr Ezra Sargeant, 
be a Committee to go with the Committee of Chelsea, or without them, 
to the Committee of Safety, & request of them some assistance for our 
Safety. 26 

23 Wright, Historical Discourse {\%i 1 ), tween the inhabitants of Maiden and 
2 4- those within the British lines as late as 

24 Journals Committee of Safety, 522. the last of May. The following paper 

25 Ibid., 523. relates to a pass which had been ob- 

26 Some communication was held be- tained from the English admiral for 



75o 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



The answer to this request is given in the following: — 

In Committee of Safety May j d . iyjj Cambridge. Voted, that two 
Companies be raised in the Towns of Maiden & Chelsea for the defence 
of the Sea Coast of said Towns, the said Companies to be Join'd to 
such Regiments in future, as they may be ordered to, should there be 
occasion or discharge them from service as soon as the publick good 
will admit of it and that Capt Benjamin Blaney [of Maiden] & Capt 
[Samuel] Sprague [of Chelsea'] be furnished with a set of beating 
Orders each for said purpose. William Cooper Seel 21 

In accordance with- this vote a second company was raised 
in Maiden, which, under the command of Captain Hatch, was 
posted at Beacham's Point, watching the landing places there 
and at Penny Ferry. Under the date of May 15 the Com- 
mittee of Safety 

Voted, That Capt. Naler Hatch [with the] Maiden company be 
assigned to Col. Gardner's regiment, but they are to remain in Maiden 
until the special order of Col. Gardner shall be received for their at- 
tendance elsewhere. 28 



some purpose. From the situation and 
condition of the recipients, it is not im- 
possible that they were engaged in fur- 
nishing supplies to the inhabitants of 
Boston ; yet it seems hardly reasonable 
to suppose that such could be the case, 
as the provincial leaders had already de- 
termined to take the live stock from the 
islands and destroy such supplies as 
could not be removed. Ebenezer Pratt 
was a boatman by occupation and lived 
nearMoulton's Island; and John Nichols, 
Jr., occupied one of the houses at Beach- 
am's Point which were vacated to make 
room for the men of Captain Hatch. 

" To the Honourable Committee of 
Safety sitting in Cambridge. 

Gentlemen This may Certify you that 
M r . Ebenz 1 : Pratt M r John Nickols, M r 
John Barrett & M r . John Nickols Jun r 
are persons who may be confided in, 
that they will not take any advantage 
of a Pass which has been obtained for 
them from Sam 1 Graves, Vice Admiral 
of the Blue, to the disadvantage of the 
Common cause in which we are all 
engaged, desiring at the Same time that 
you will lay them under such restric- 
tions in every respect as you shall Judge 
necessary. 



Signed by order & in the name of 
the Selectmen, the Committees of Cor- 
respondence & Inspection of the Town 
of Maiden Peter Thacher 

Benj4 Blaney 
Elisha Story. 
Maiden, May 25 t . h , 1775." 
Mass. Archives, exxxviii. 76. 

27 Ibid., cxlvi. 39. 

- 8 Journals Committee of Safety, 548. 
A roll of this company shows the fol- 
lowing list of officers and musicians. 

Cap 1 . Nailer Hatch Maulden 

Leu'. Nathan Eaton do 

Ensign John Vezee Boston 

Serg'. Elijah Caswell Maulden 

Serg 1 . Benj a G rover do 

Serg"; Barnabas Newhall do 

Serg*. Unite Cox do 

Corp 1 . Edward Thompson Lynn 

Corp 1 . Charles Hill Maulden 

[Fifer] Naler Hatch do 

Drum: Oliver Donnell Lynn. 

Of the privates from other towns, there 
were two each from Boston, Charles- 
town, and Reading, including " Baccus 
a Negro " from the latter place, and one 
each from Stoneham, Newbury, and 
Townsend. 



THE OPENING OF THE REVOLUTION. 751 

At a meeting of the Committee of Safety, held May 14, it was 

Resolved, as the opinion of this committee, that all the live stock be 
taken from Noddle's island, Hog island, Snake island, and from that 
part of Chelsea near the sea coast, and be driven back ; and that the 
execution of this business be committed to the committees of corre- 
spondence and selectmen of the towns of Medford, Maiden, Chelsea, 
and Lynn, and that they be supplied with such a number of men as 
they shall need, from the regiment now at Medford. 29 

The expedition which marched to the islands during the fore- 
noon of Saturday, May 27, to carry into execution the deter- 
mination of the committee, was not entirely a military one, as 
it required the services of drovers as well as soldiers, and many 
Maiden men were with the party in the former capacity; while 
the militia company of Captain Blaney is said to have formed a 
portion of the small detachment which supported it. Later a 
reinforcement of three hundred men under General Israel Put- 
nam, who was accompanied by Dr. Joseph Warren, with two 
pieces of cannon, was sent to Winnisimmet. This affair, which 
continued until Sunday forenoon, has been dignified by the 
name of the battle of Noddle's Island, of Hog Island, or of 
Chelsea. Bloodless on the side of the Americans, with the 
exception of four wounded, it resulted in the recovery of three 
or four hundred cattle, the burning of a house and barn and a 
schooner, the taking of twelve swivels and four small cannon 
from the enemy, and a major-general's commission for General 
Putnam. 30 Its success increased the ardour of the troops and 
contributed not a little to prepare the way for the attempt to 
fortify and hold the heights of Charlestown. 

During this eventful year the town met often, continuing its 
meetings from time to time by adjournment that the helpful 
machinery of the town meeting might be always in order. Thus 
the meeting, the transactions of which we have followed unto 
May 8, was succeeded by one which continued from May 20 to 
July 6, and that was followed by another, which held its sessions 
at times from July 10 to September 1. At a meeting, June 8, it 

29 Journals Committee of Safety, 545. ican Revolution, i. 85. Cf. Frothingham, 

30 See a contemporary account of History of the Siege of Boston, 109; and 
this affair in Moore, Diary of the Amer- Sumner, History of East Boston, 371-389.- 



752 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 




'^mew 1 * 




was recorded that in view of an adjournment, " Rev d W. Thacher 
be desired to mention it on Sabbath evening." At the same 
time, as the necessity seemed imminent, Samuel Sprague, 
Samuel Sprague, Jr., and Bernard Green were chosen " to make 

part of the 
Town's Stock 
of Ammuni- 
tion into Car- 
trages." Fran- 
cis Phillips, Samuel Merritt, and Amos Shute were added to 
this committee at the next meeting. 

On the ever-memorable June 17 the company of Captain 
Hatch still lay at Beacham's Point, although their comrades of 
Gardner's regiment participated in the battle. Here they were 
joined on the morning of that day by the militia company of 
Captain Blaney. 31 From this spot the whole eventful scene was 
in full view, and the advance and retreat of the contending 
forces, and all the details of the conflict were discernible. 
There Peter Thacher saw the battle, a statement of which he 
afterwards prepared, at the request of the Committee of Safety, 
for transmission to England and for the information of 
posterity. 32 



31 Bernard Green was with his com- 
pany, and, in after life, often described 
the battle as seen from this advantageous 
point. Colonel Thomas Gardner, of the 
Middlesex regiment was wounded on 
the hill and died July 3. 

" [July 4, 1775.] Colonel Gardner is 
to be buried to-morrow, at three o'clock, 
P. m., with the military honors due to 
so brave and gallant an officer, who 
fought, bled, and died in the cause of 
his country and mankind. His own 
regiment, except the company at Maiden, 
to attend on this mournful occasion." 
Extract from Washington's orders, in 
Frothingham, History of the Siege of 
Boston, 180. 

32 " The honorable the Congress of 
this colony, having passed a resolve 
that this committee be appointed to 
draw up and transmit to Great Britain, 
a fair and impartial account of the late 



battle of Charlestown, as soon as pos- 
sible ; and this committee being exceed- 
ingly crowded with business, therefore, 
Resolved, that the Rev. Doct. Cooper, 
Rev. Mr. Gordon and the Rev. Mr. 
Peter Thacher, be desired to draw up 
a true statement of said action, as soon 
as may be, and lay it before this com- 
mittee." Journals Committee of Safety, 

594- 

The statement, which was prepared 
by Mr. Thacher, is pronounced by au- 
thorities to be remarkably accurate. It 
is printed in Frothingham, History of 
the Siege of Boston, 382, and elsewhere. 
In the library of the American Anti- 
quarian Society is an original manu- 
script of Mr. Thacher, in which he says, 
"The following account was written by 
a person who was an eye witness of the 
battle of Bunker's hill. Some of the 
circumstances the intervention of the 



THE OPENING OF THE REVOLUTION 7 53 

While the battle was in progress great alarm prevailed in 
Maiden. Mrs. Hannah Green, wife of Samuel Green, who lived 
at the north end, near the Chelsea (Saugus) line, on hearing 
the cannon went into convulsions and died. 33 During the day, 
and afterward, many of the inhabitants, especially those of the 
southern portion of the town, removed their families and effects 
to less exposed localities, some going as far as Reading and 
others along the Salem Road to Black Ann's Corner and the 
secluded nooks of Scadan. 34 From the favoring crest of Wayte's 
Mount, many of the inhabitants of the northern and central 
parts of the town witnessed the distant battle. A number of 
wounded men were afterwards brought to the tavern of Dr. 
Jonathan Porter, as has been stated. 

Soon after the Lexington Alarm the Committee of Safety had 

Voted [April 21, 1775.] That the field pieces be removed from 
Newburyport, and deposited for the present, in the hands of Capt. 
Dexter of Maiden. 

Voted, That orders be given to Capt. Dexter to conceal the cannon 
committed to his care, which was accordingly done. 35 

The cannon were brought to Maiden and placed for a short 
time in the hay in Captain Dexter's barn; but circumstances 
soon made secrecy no longer necessary, and their presence be- 
came known to the inhabitants, who 

Voted, [June 13.] That some part of the Town's stock of powder be 
made up in Cartridges for the Cannon to be used upon necessity. 

hill prevented him from seeing, for he Country are crowded with the wretched 
stood on the north side of Mystic river." Refugees from British Fury & Cruelty." 
This important manuscript, which was Historical Magazine, iii. (Series 2), yj-]. 
the basis of the narrative prepared for This is undoubtedly exaggerated ; but 
transmission to England, is carefully many women and children, and some- 
printed in full, with all its corrections times whole families, retired farther into 
indicated, in the Historical Magazine, iii. the country. 
(Series 2), 381. There is a tradition that on the night 

33 Cf. Green, Descendants of Thomas of June 16 the Maiden meeting house 

Green\e\, 40, and Artemas Barrett in was filled with fugitives from Boston 

Melrose Journal, April 17, 1875. and Charlestown, who were glad to lie 

31 William Tudor, writing from Cam- upon- the floor. In the morning no 

bridge, June 23, said, " Since the Fight breakfast was provided, but a dinner 

at Charlestown, Brooklyne, Cambridge, for all came at noon. Maiden Evening 

Medford, Lynn & Salem, Chelsea & News, June 15, 1S95. 
Maiden are deserted by the Women & 35 Journals Committee of Safety, 520. 

Children, whilst the Houses back in the 



754 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

The day before the battle of Bunker Hill Captain Ebenezer 
Harnden and Dr. Jonathan Porter were chosen " to repair to 
Head quarters & request that a person be sent to view our 
cannon, & advise where to make an Entrenchment, for our own 
defence." Three days later the battle had been fought, the 
British troops were in possession of the heights of Charlestown, 
and their boats occupied the Mystic. 36 The inhabitants were 
still more fearful of an incursion upon their southern borders,, 
and it was then 

Voted, That the Jnhabitants of Boston & Charlestown, resident in 
this Town be desired to attend at the next adjournment of this meeting 
in order to give their reasons (if any they have) why they should not 
do military duty with the Jnhabitants of this Town for the common 
defence. 

Voted, That Capt Daniel Waters be desired immediately to pre- 
pare y e cannon in this Town for use. 

Two days later Captain Daniel Waters and Ezra Sargeant 
were instructed 

to apply to the Hon le provincial Congress for direction in using the 
artiliry in this Town, & request that Capt. Daniel Waters may have 
orders to enlist a sufficient number of men to make use of them if 
necessary, & also to request some assistance from the army for our de- 
fence in our very dangerous situation. 

An answer to their request was soon given by the Congress 
in the following order and report : — 

[June 23, 1775.] Ordered, That Capt. Sprague, Capt. White and 
Doct. Whiting, be a committee to take into consideration a petition 
from the town of Maiden. 

[June 23. 1775.] The committee appointed to take into considera- 
tion the request from the town of Maiden, reported as follows, which 

3; The English batteries often fired marshes. He mocked the reports of 

upon the inhabitants or houses from the the cannon in a loud voice and received 

river. While ploughing upon the farm the name of " Rim Bim," which he car- 

of Captain Solomon Corey, between the ried through life from that circumstance, 

present Chelsea and School Streets in He possessed a very strong and clear 

Everett, a chain-shot with the British voice; and tradition says that he could 

mark was turned out, and others have be heard calling to his oxen from Lewis's 

been found on the Nichols farm and at Bridge to his house at the corner of 

other places in the vicinity. Salem and Lebanon Streets. He died: 

Thomas Waite, of Scadan, was fired August 13, 1828. 
upon while getting hay from the Mystic 



THE OPENING OF THE REVOLUTION. 755 

was accepted, viz. : the committee beg leave to report, that the inhabi- 
tants of the town of Maiden be [directed] to make the best use of 
their artillery they can, for their defence, in case they shall be attacked 
by the enemy, and that they make their application for assistance to the 
general of the army, who, doubtless, will furnish them with such de- 
tachments from the army, as they shall judge necessary and expedient. 37 

An earthwork had already been thrown up at Beacham's 
Point, commanding the landing place there ; and another, to 
command the road from Penny Ferry, was now constructed, en- 
closing the Sprague house, since known as the Flagg house, 
which stood near the junction of Main and Bow Streets in 
Everett. Some traces of the latter work were visible in 1831, 
and the marks of a ball, which was fired by the enemy from the 
river, might be seen upon or within the house when it was de- 
molished in 1894. The defence of these slight works was 
assigned to Captain Hatch, who perhaps had with him the 
company of Captain Blaney. The artillery which was in the 
keeping of the town may have been placed there, but there is 
no statement, either of record or tradition, to indicate it. The 
men who formed the guard at the Sprague house were quartered 
in that and the Sweetser, now Lynde, house and the barns near 
by. 38 At Beacham's Point one house, at least, was demolished 
for firewood during the winter; and another, in which the men 
were quartered, lost all its movables to the window sashes and 
doors, and would soon have followed its neighbor had not the 
evacuation of Boston and the consequent ending of the siege 
sent its warlike and destructive inmates back to their homes. 

The company of Captain Hatch remained on duty at 
Beacham's Point and Penny Ferry during the siege, although 
Bond's, formerly Gardner's, regiment, to which it belonged, was 
stationed across the Mystic at Prospect Hill; and guard duty 
at the neighboring points in Chelsea and Medford was per- 

37 Journals Proznnaal Congress, 381, individual, Amos Sargeant, alone re- 
382. mained "of those who composed Capt. 

38 Wright, Historical Discourse, (183 1 ), Hatch's company, at the time of the 
21. He says: "Apertures were made occupation of these fortifications." He 
in the buildings, through which the men died August 12, 1836, aged 78. He was 
were able to fire upon the approaching grandfather of Albert F. Sargent, for 
foe." At the time Wright wrote one many years town clerk. 



756 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

formed by the regiment which on the day of the battle was 
commanded by Colonel Gerrish. 39 It was soon discovered 
that a single company was inadequate upon a shore which was 
so open to incursions of the enemy. On July 23 Christian 
Febiger, the Danish adjutant of Gerrish's regiment, reported 
as follows : — 

Capt Hall & one of his Officers gave me the following Information 
about the Maiden Station. 

Capt Hatch of Colo" Gardners Regiment is there with one Company 
& has to mount 20 men on Guard every Day without Officers, three 
Relieves is 20 men privates mounting every Day & then they have no 
Sentries on the River which by the Description and the Situation of 
the place wants at least 4 Centries every Night. 40 

In consequence of this report the station was reinforced by 
a company under Captain Eleazer Lindsey of Gerrish's regi- 
ment, which had been doing duty at Winnisimmet. That 
this added no real strength was soon proved. 

[Sunday, August 6, 1775.] Just after meeting [a. m.] two float- 
ing batteries came up Mystic River and fired several shots on Maiden 
side, and landed a number of regulars, which set fire to a house near 
Peny ferrys which burnt to ashes. One Capt. Lyndsly who was 
stationed there, fled with his company, and got before the women 
and children in his flight. We were all alarmed, and immediately 
manned our lines, and our people went down to Temple's Point with 
one field piece, and fired several shot, at the regulars, which made 
them claw off as soon as possible. Gen. Gage, this is like the rest of 
your Sabbath day enterprises. About sunset we were discharged. 41 

A paper of the day chronicles this little affair in a few words. 

39 Colonel Samuel Gerrish was se- gress in the latter part of 1776, provided 

verely criticised for his conduct at for eighty-eight regiments, of which 

Bunker Hill, and a few weeks after at seventeen were raised in Massachusetts. 

SewalPs Point, during an attack by a From the old 26th and other sources 

floating battery in the evening. He was Major James Wesson of that regiment 

tried by a court-martial, August 19, 1775, raised a new regiment, which was known 

found guilty and cashiered. He was as the 9th in the Massachusetts contin- 

succeeded as colonel by Loammi Bald- ental line. MS. letter of Francis S. 

win of Woburn. This regiment, origin- Drake. Cf. A'. E. Hist, and Geneal. 

ally known as the 38th, was designated Register, xxv. 187-190. 

as the 26th upon the reorganization of 40 Mass. Archives: Rev. Rolls, xxii. 

the army near the close of 1775, and re- 152. 

mained in service with Washington 41 Journal of Benj. Craft, in Hist. 

until the beginning of 1777. The con- Coll. Essex Institute, iii. 56. 
tinental establishment, ordered by Con- 



THE OPENING OF THE REVOLUTION. 



757 



Last Sabbath the Enemy set Fire to the House at Penny Ferry, 
Maiden side, which was consumed. This building was commanded 
by their Cannon on Bunker-Hill. 4 '- 

Frothingham, on the authority of John Kcttell's diary, says 
it was the ferry house which was burned; 43 and Timothy 
Newell, writing in Boston, adds a little to the story. " [Aug.] 
6 11 . 1 Skirmishing up Mistic river, several Soldiers brought over 
here wounded. The House at Penny ferry Maiden side 
burnt." 44 

Captain Lindsey's men, who were mostly from the county of 
Essex, recovered themselves; and on the thirteenth, when two 
barges and two sail boats, on their way from Boston to the 
floating battery in the Mystic, came near Beacham's Point, 
they opened fire and forced the enemy to retire. While pass- 
ing down the river the barges became engaged with Gerrish's 
men at Winnisimmet and a hot fire was exchanged. Kettell, 
remembering, perhaps, the former stampede, says : " Our brave 
Yankees, so called, played the man, and beat them." 45 Of 
Captain Lindsey an additional record is found. 

Head-quarters, August 16, 1775. Captain Eleazer Lindsey of 
Colonel Gerrish's regiment, tried by a general court-martial for absent- 



42 The New-England Chronicle, Au- 
gust 10, 1775. 

43 Frothingham, History of the Siege 
of Boston, 232. 

44 Newell' s Journal, in Mass. Hist. 
Coll., xxxi. 265. 

45 Frothingham, History of the Siege of 
Boston, 232. Newell writes : " [August] 
13 th Several Gondaloes sailed up Mistic 
river, upon which the Provincials and 
they had a skirmish, many shots ex- 
changed but nothing decisive." NewelFs 
Journal in Mass. Hist. Coll., xxxi. 265. 
Captain William T. Miller of Rhode 
Island, writing to his wife from Pros- 
pect Hill, August 13, says : " We are at 
present Very Peacable here there hath 
been one Regular Deserted from Bun- 
kers Hill Last Night and two to Day by 
Swimming a Cross Mistick River to 
Maiden and 2 Boats that were armed 
from Bunkers hill were Sailing up Mis- 
tick River and were Drove back by the 



brisk firing of Some field pieces from 
Maiden this day which Caused them in 
a Very great Hurry to Retreat and Run 
ashore on Bunkers hill Shore." N. E. 
Hist, and Geueal. Register, xi. 139. 

Other mention is made of the desert- 
ers who came across the river from the 
British lines. "Sunday [August] 13 th 
Two Regulars deserted from Bunker's 
Hill, swam over to Maiden, and were 
carried to Royal's, General Washing- 
ton's headquarters. Friday, [August] 
25'. h In the afternoon three men from 
the Regulars' floating [battery] there 
swam at Maiden, and one came through 
Charlestown." " Paul Lunt's Book," in 
Mass. Hist. So. Proc., February, 1S72, 
198. "[September 7, 1775.] It was re- 
ported that fourteen regulars deserted 
from Bunker's Hill, last night to Mai- 
den, for truth of it cannot say." Journal 
of Benj. Craft, in Hist. Coll. Essex Insti- 
tute, iii. 137. 



758 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

ing himself from his post, which was attacked and abandoned to the 
enemy ; the court, on consideration, are of opinion that Captain 
Lindsey be discharged the service, as a person improper to sustain 
a commission. 46 

Those of the town who were not within the lines were useful 
in furnishing or transporting supplies or in other ways assisting 
the army. Thus Samuel Sargeant, John Vinton, Nathaniel 
Lynde, and others were employed in carting fish ; Aaron 
Blaney received one hundred and thirteen pounds, fourteen 
shillings, and threepence for building ovens ; and John Waite, 
Ezekiel Jenkins, and others were paid for carting bread, per- 
haps from Blaney's ovens. Prisoners were quartered upon 
James Kettell, and prisoners and Indians upon William Waite, 
at their respective taverns ; and they and others received 
compensation for billeting. 47 In the summer of 1775 thirteen 
thousand coats were ordered by the Provincial Congress for 
the Massachusetts troops, and, of these, forty-five were appor- 
tioned to Maiden. These the selectmen were to procure and 
they were to " cause a certificate to be sewed to the inside of 
each coat, purporting from what town it came, and by whom 
the coat was made, and, if the cloth was manufactured in this 
country, by whom it was manufactured." 48 

Maiden lay upon the highway between the eastern extremity 
of the American lines and the headquarters at Cambridge; 
and detachments of men and wagons with supplies, or officers 
upon duty were constantly passing and repassing between 
them, or coming in from the more distant towns beyond. 49 

46 Henskaw's Order Book in Mass. was to " cause all the coats to be but- 
Hist. So. Proe., October, 1876, 144. toned with pewter buttons," stamped 

47 "Memo, of the sums passed by the with the number of the regiment. Each 
Court's Committee on a/cs since the Conn- non-commissioned officer and private in 
cil undertook to Record them ; " in the the Massachusetts forces was entitled to 
office of the Secretary of State. one coat. The orders and receipts used 

48 Journals Provincial Congress, 456. in this distribution are preserved in the 
The towns were to be allowed five shil- office of the Secretary of State, and form 
lings and fourpence per yard for good a valuable record of the eight-months' 
plain cloth of seven-eighths of a yard men of 1775. 

wide, " preference to be given to the 49 The detachment of Colonel Bene- 

manufactures of this country," and four diet Arnold marched from Cambridge 

shillings for making each coat, without on the evening of September 13, and a 

buttons. The Committee of Supplies portion came to Maiden, where they en- 



THE OPENING OF THE REVOLUTION. 759 

The situation of Powder Horn Hill gave the Americans a great 
advantage by the ease with which they could overlook from 
its crest the harbor of Boston and the surrounding country. 
Here Washington often came with his officers for observation, 
and on the way was wont to stop awhile at the hospitable home 
of Captain Dexter, beneath the stately elm which still bears 
his name. 50 

Travelling upon the Sabbath became a great annoyance and 
a grief to the inhabitants of Maiden, who at a meeting, held 
July io, chose the Rev. Peter Thacher, Captain Ebenezer 
Harnden, and Captain John Dexter, in company with a 
committee of Lynn, 

to wait upon y e Committee of Supplies at Watertown, or upon y e 
honourable provincial Congress, informing them, That with great grief 
they observe the breach of the Sabbath made by multitudes of teams 
travelling upon that day, & other persons unnecessarily journeying, 
and to desire that they would take effectual measures to prevent the 
same for the future. 

The result of the committees' errand does not appear. It is 
easy to suppose that the necessities of the camps and the 
curiosity of the country people proved stronger than the 
committees of Lynn and Maiden. 

camped that night. The next morning, beauty. The largest of the trees stands 

very early, they marched and encamped near the house, and is that which is 

the next night at Beverly. Another por- known as the Washington elm. The 

tion of the detachment camped the first following incident is said to have hap- 

night at Medford, and marched through pened beneath its wide spreading 

Maiden the next morning. This detach- branches. 

ment, which was destined to join the Passing through Maiden with some 

expedition against Quebec under Gen- of his officers Washington stopped for 

eral Montgomery, threaded the wilder- refreshment at the house of Captain 

nessof Maine, in the midst of privations Dexter. As they came out one of the 

and suffering which have seldom been company accidentally knocked a stone 

equalled. Cf. Joseph Ware's Journal, off the wall which ran before the house, 

in A r . E. Hist, and Getieal. Register, vi. Washington said he ought to replace it. 

129; Journal of Major Return J. Meigs, "No," replied the other, " I will leave 

in Mass. Hist. Coil., xii. 227. that for somebody else." Washington 

51 The noble avenue of elms before then went quietly and put the stone 

the house which now occupies the site back, saying, " I always make it a rule, 

of the old house of Captain John Dexter in visiting a place, to leave things in as 

is well known to the present genera- good order as I find them." Rev. John 

tion. It shows the unmistakable signs G. Adams, in the Myrtle, n. d. 
of age, and has lost much of its former 



760 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

At the annual town meeting, March 4, 1776, a committee, 
composed of Captain John Dexter, Samuel Sprague, Lieuten- 
ant Nathan Lynde, and Captain Ebenezer Harnden, was chosen 
" to Estimate the damages Sundry Persons of the Town have 
sustaned from the Counantall Soldiers Stationed in the 
Same." 51 The report of this committee has not been found 
and the result of its investigations is known only by the 
following communication, which was evidently written by the 
authority of the Committee of Correspondence. 

Gentl™ At the Desire of our Representative I have Giuen you an 
account of the Estimation of Damages Done in the Town of Maiden 
Since the 19 th of april, 1775. as near as Can be ascertain' 1 at present 
the foot of said Ace" is^ 262. 13. 4 L. money. 

James Kettell Cleark of Said Commity}' 1 
Malden Sep! 9, 1776. 

51 This meeting was held at a time of memorate the Horrid Massacre of the 

great excitement. During the succeed- 5* of March, 1770, & to impress upon 

ing night the heights of Dorchester the Minds of the Citizens the ruinous 

were occupied by the American forces ; Tendency of standing Armies being 

and in the morning the British general placed in free & populous Cities in Time 

saw the commanding hills crowned by of Peace, was delivered by The Rev 1 ? 

earthworks that the haze of early dawn Peter Thacher to a numerous Audience, 

magnified to his astonished eyes. Then and received by them with the greatest 

began the movements which resulted in Applause." Boston Town Records, Re- 

the evacuation of Boston. port of the Record Commissioners, xviii. 

In spite of the general anxiety which 226. This oration of the Maiden pastor 

prevailed during the day, the inhabitants was printed, and has been considered as 

of Boston who were outside of the Brit- one of his ablest productions. 
ish lines, met at the meeting house in 52 Mass. Archives, exxxviii. 347. 

Watertown, where "An Oration to com- 




"s«idLO HOUSES / 
^*fc* C voss St 



CHAPTER XXII. 



MALDEN IN THE REVOLUTION. 



THE departure of the British troops from Boston and the 
consequent removal of the army from the American lines 
carried the scenes of military activity and strife from this vicin- 
ity. The fugitive farmers returned to their homes in the lower 
parts of the town and the old ways of life were resumed. Yet 
Maiden bore her part in the conflict unto the end ; and her 
men, both young and old, beardless youth and veterans of the 
former wars, hesitated not to stand with their brethren of other 
towns and other colonies in defence of their common rights. 
We shall see how two hundred and thirty-one of the sons of 
the little town upheld her honor in the dark days and gave 
their strength, sometimes their lives, in the cause of liberty. It 
has been already stated that the white inhabitants of the town 
in 1776 amounted to but one thousand and thirty individuals. 
If we consider that from this population we must eliminate the 
women and children and the aged and sick, we may realize the 
heavy demand which was made upon the able-bodied men of 
the town, and may understand how poverty and suffering pre- 
vailed. Manufactures, such as they were in those days, de- 
clined; the farms were insufficiently tilled ; and all the vocations 



762 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

of life, save as they were served by unwonted laborers, were 
neglected. 

In the spring of 1776 the subject of independence became 
prominent in the minds of the people. The events of the past 
year had closed the ways to a peaceful settlement and had given 
the colonies new ideas of the resources and the spirit of their 
people. In May the Massachusetts House of Representatives, 
by a resolution, called upon the towns to advise and instruct 
their representatives upon this great question. For once in its 
history the men of Maiden, urged and impelled, perhaps, by 
the impetuous and enthusiastic pastor of the North Church, 
responded to a public call before their fellows of other towns. 
Frothingham says, " The instructions of Maiden and Boston 
were the earliest I have found in the newspapers ; " 1 and it is a 
matter of pride to me to add that the instructions of Maiden 
preceded those of Boston by three days, placing the little 
Middlesex town foremost in the expression of public opinion. 
The instructions then given form the last in that series of public 
papers which illumines the records of the town and is one of its 
most glorious monuments. It has been printed several times 
since it appeared in the Boston Gazette, from which it was 
quoted by Chief Justice Marshall; 2 but it has never before 
appeared in the form in which Dr. Jonathan Porter, acting as 
clerk, entered it upon the records of the town. 3 

At a Legal Town meeting in maiden may 27 1776 
To see if the Town will Choos a Committee to Advise the Person 
Choosen to Represent them in the Next General Court whether that if 

1 Frothingham, Rise of the Republic, be found in Niles, Principles and Acts 
507. The instructions of Boston were of the Revolution, 131-132; and N. E. 
adopted, May 30. Report of the [Boston] Hist, and Geneal. Register, iii. 279. Re- 
Record Commissioners, xviii. 236-238. marks by George S. Hale on the occa- 

2 This paper was lithographed in sion of the presentation of a copy of the 
TS31 by a subscription obtained by the lithograph are in Mass. Hist. So. Froc, 
efforts of the Rev. Sylvanus Cobb, and December, 1884, 335"339 

might once be seen on the walls of :! At a meeting, March 11, 1776, Dr. 

many Maiden houses. It is now seldom Jona Porter was chosen clerk, pro tern- 

found, but a copy appropriately hangs pore, in the absence of Nathaniel Jenkins, 

in the Converse Memorial Building for the town clerk and schoolmaster. Eight 

the benefit of posterity. Chief Justice clays later Master Jenkins died and Dr. 

Marshall quotes its spirited declarations Porter appears to have acted as clerk 

with approval in his Life of George until the election of Samuel Merritt at 

Washington, 1S04, ii. 407; and it may the next March meeting. 



MALDEN IN THE REVOLUTION. 763 

the Honorable Congress Should for the Safety of the Coloneys Declare 
them Independent of the Kingdom of Great Britain they the Said In- 
habitants will Solemnly Engage with their lives and fortains to Support 
them in the measure 

Voted Mr Ezar Sargeant Modarator 

Voted to Choos a Committee to Advise the Representative 
The Town Resolved themselves into a Committee the Rev d mr Willis 
was Choosen Chairman the Committee Proceded to Consider the mat- 
ter and Prepared the folowing Instructions for their Represantative and 
Reported the Said Instructions to the Town for their Consideration 
and the Question was Put whether the Report and Instructions Pre- 
pared By the Committee be agreable and it Pasd in the affirmative By 
a unanamus vote 

To M r Ezra Sargeant 
Sir 

A Resolution of the Late Honnorable House of Represantatives : 
Calling upon the Several Towns in this Colony to Express their minds, 
with Respect to the Important Question of American Independence is 
the occation of our now Instructing you. the Time was Sir when we 
loved the King and the People of Grate Briton with an affection Truly 
fillial we felt our Selves Interested in their Glory : we Shared in their 
Joys & Sorrows we Chearfuly powered the fruit of all our Labours into 
the lap of the mother Country & without Reluctance Expended our 
Blood and our Treasure in their Cause 

These ware our Sentements Towards Grate Britan while She Con- 
tinued to act the Part of a Parant State we felt our Selves happy in our 
Conection with hir Nor wishd to Desolved but our Sentements are 
altred it is now the Ardent wish of our Soles that America may becom 
free & Independent States : 

A sence of unprovoked Injuries will arouse the Resentment of y e most 
Peacefull. Such Injuries these Colonies have Received from Britain 
unjustifiable Claims have Ben made by the King & his minions to Tax 
us without our Consent, these Games have Been Prosecuted in a 
manner Cruel & unjust to the highest Degree the Frantick Policy of 
Administration hath Induced them to Send fleets and armies to america 
that by Depriving us of our trade & Cutting the throats of our Breath- 
rean they might awe us into Submition & Erect a Systim of Dispotism 
in America which Should So far Enlarge the Influance of the Crown 
as to enable it to rivit their Shakles upon the People of Grate Britan 

This was brought to a Crices upon the ever memorable Ninetenth of 
april we remember the fatal Day the Expiring groans of our murdered 
Countrymen yet Vibrate on our Ears ! we now behold the flames of 
their Peasful Dwellings asending to Heaven we hear their Blood Crv- 



764 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

ing to us from the Ground Vengeance & Charging us as we Value the 
Peace of their manes to have no further Connection with a King who 
can unfeelingly hear of the Slaughter of his subjacts & Composedly 
Sleep with their Blood upon his Soul : 

The manner in which the war has Been Prosecuted hath confirmd 
us in these Sentiments : Piracy & murder Robery & breach of faith 
have Been Conspicous in y e Conduct of the Kings troops Defenseless 
Towns have Been attacked & Destroyed : the Ruines of Charlestown 
which are Daily in our Vew Dayly Remind us of this : the Cryes of 
y e widow & y e orphen Demand our Attention they Demand that y e hand 
of Pity Should wipe y e tear from there Eye & that the Sword of their 
Country Should Avenge their rongs 

We long Entertaind hops that the Sperit of the British Nation would 
once more Induce them to Assert their own and our Rights & Bring to 
Condine Punishment the Elivated Villins who have Trampld upon 
y e Sacred Rights of men & affronted y e Majesty of the People. 

We hop d in vain they have lost their love to freedom they have lost 
their Spirit of Just Resentment we therefore Renounce with Disdain 
our Connection with a Kingdom of Slaves, we bid a final adue to 
Britan Could an Accomadation be Now affected we have Reason to 
think that it would be fatal to the libertyes of america. we Should 
Soon Catch y e Contagon of Vanality & Disapation, which hath Subjected 
Britons to lawless Domination, ware we Placed in the Situation we 
ware in in the year 1773 ware the Powers of appointing to office & 
Comanding the militia in the hands of Govennors our acts Trade and 
manufactor would be Cramped : 

Nay more than this the life of every man who has Been active in 
the Cause of his Country would be Endangred for these reasons as 
well as many others which might be Produced we are Confirmed in y e 
oppinion that the Presant age will be Deficent in their Duty to God 
their Posterity & themselves if they do not Estabilish an american 
Republick this is y e only form of Goverment which we wish to See 
Established for we Can never be willingly Subject to any other King 
than He who Being Possessed of Infinite wisdom Goodness & Recti- 
tude is alone fit to Possess unlimited Power : 

we have freely Spoken our Sentiments upon this Important Subject 
but we mean Not to Dictate, we have unbounded Confidence in the 
wisdom & uprightness of the Continantall Congress with Pleasure we 
recolect that this Affair is under their Direction and we now Instruct 
you Sir, to give them the Strongest Assuerance that if that they Should 
Declare america to be a free & Jndependant Republick your Consti- 
tuance will Support and Defend the measure to the last Drop of their 
Blood & the last farthing of their Treasure. 



MALDEN IN THE REVOLUTION. 765 

So spoke the men of Maiden in a paper which is not second 
to any which the fearless spirit of revolutionary New England 
produced. That Peter Thacher was the author of the instruc- 
tions I have no doubt. Mr. Willis is mentioned by Dr. 
McClure as the chairman of a committee which reported the 
paper, and by implication is given credit for a share in its au- 
thorship. 4 I cannot see that he was possessed of the spirit and 
ability to produce its clear statements and ringing sentences. 
Moreover, it will be seen that no committee, save that of the 
whole town, of which he was made chairman, considered it; 
and, I think, it is clear that it was already prepared and only 
awaited its presentation and acceptance by the town. Ezra 
Sargeant, the moderator of the meeting, was the representative 
of the town ; and he could not properly preside over a com- 
mittee which was to give him special instructions; nor is it 
likely that Mr. Willis would have been chosen to receive a 
paper of his own composition. His place would have been 
upon the floor. I suspect that Mr. Thacher presented and 
read the paper which he alone had prepared. That the instruc- 
tions could have been prepared by the voters of the town, act- 
ing as a committee, as stated in the record, is impossible; and 
the circumstances, as well as the document itself, in its senti- 
ments and style, point to the pastor of the North Church alone 
as its author. 

After the departure of Washington and the army for New 
York there were frequent alarms in Boston and along the sea- 
board, occasioned by the presence of several British ships, 
which remained in the lower harbor. Earthworks were thrown 
up in positions best adapted for the double purposes of offence 
and defence. That at Noddle's Island was built by volunteers 
from the neighboring towns, of whom some were from Maiden. 
The public danger appearing most imminent, the Province 
raised three regiments and six companies of artillery for service 
around the harbor and on the islands, while the continental 
regiments, which had remained for the protection of the town, 
were posted in Boston and upon the heights of Charlestown 

4 Bi-Centennial Book of Maiden, 167. 



766 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

and Dorchester, which overlooked it. The latter were under 
the command of General Artemas Ward, while the former were 
under the immediate direction of General Benjamin Lincoln, as 
chairman of the committee of the Province. In addition to this 
force the militia of the neighboring towns was held in readiness 
to march to any threatened point. 

Early in June it was determined to drive the enemy from the 
harbor; and on the thirteenth detachments of the continental 
and provincial troops, with a body of the militia, took posses- 
sion of the islands and headlands of the lower harbor, from 
whence a sharp fire was opened upon the fleet. On the next 
day, finding it imprudent to remain, the enemy, with the 
exception of two or three vessels, which were captured, went to 
sea after destroying the lighthouse on the Little Brewster. 

There is in existence A Role of the Company of the Militia 
that Went to Point Shirty June the 13 1776 Under the Command 
of Cap 4 Benj n Blaney of Maiden, By Order of General Lincoln?* 
This company, which numbered fifty-seven officers and privates, 
contained many who had marched upon the Lexington Alarm. 
Its service was performed in three days and its members were 
credited with twenty miles of travel. Tradition, which preserves 
the trivial quite as often as it remembers that which is impor- 
tant, says that the women and children, who followed them on 
their departure met the returning heroes at Lewis's Bridge, and 
that the company was dismissed on the little green at the side 
of Kettell's Tavern, when its famous west room was undoubt- 
edly filled with the thirsty patriots of the town. 

Soon after the evacuation of Boston the company of Captain 
Naler Hatch marched with its regiment, then known as the 
twenty-fifth of the continental line. This regiment was sta- 
tioned at New York until April 20, when it was sent up the 
Hudson to Albany, and joined the unfortunate expedition 
which, under General John Thomas of Massachusetts, attempted 
the invasion of Canada. Upon the retreat upwards of four 
hundred men of the regiment were taken with the small-pox; 
and Ensign Elisha Cox of Captain Hatch's company, " a good 

5 Mass. Archives: Rev. Rolls, xvii. 73. 



MALDEN IN THE REVOLUTION. 767 

officer," died June 25- 6 Colonel Bond, writing to his wife from 
Ticonderoga, August 10, says: 

Last Monday a most sorrowful accident happened, at Crown Point, 
on board one of the gondolas. One of Capt. Hatch's men, after hav- 
ing discharged a cannon once, was loading her again, and as he was. 
ramming down the cartridge, it went off and blew him to pieces. 7 

At the last of June the Province was called upon for five 
thousand men for six months. Further calls for reinforcements 
for the army at New York and in Canada were made early in 
July, and an additional levy of every twenty-fifth man was 
ordered. In September the demands of Washington were still 
more pressing and to meet them every fifth man was called out 
by the General Court. 8 

The town met these various calls with promptness. At a 
meeting, held July 8, it was voted to pay eight pounds in addi- 
tion to the province bounty "to Each man that shall Inlist to 
go on the Canady Expidation ; " and the polls of enlisted men 
were not to be taxed for this expenditure. In September it 
was voted to " Give Incouragement to those men that shall be 
Draughted to go to the Assistance of the army at New York ; " 
and an additional bounty of four pounds was granted to each 
man. 

Under the call for five thousand men Maiden furnished 
twenty- four of the two hundred which were drafted from the 
first Middlesex regiment. This contingent marched in two 
companies under Captain Edward Harrington and Captain 
Josiah Warren, from July 25 to August 3, and proceeded to 
Ticonderoga. 9 The following letter was written by Mr. Thacher 
to the Maiden men. 

Maiden, Sept. 10th. 1776. 
My Dear and Beloved Friends : — It was with very great satisfaction 
that I, last Saturday night, received your letter, in which you inform me 

6 JV. E. Hist, and Geneal. Register, been my most helpful authority. Later 

lv - 7 1 - and more pretentious writers have util- 

Ibid., 72. ized his labors, and sometimes his words, 

8 In writing of the many calls for with scanty acknowledgment, 
troops made upon Massachusetts, Brad- 9 Mass. Archives: Rev. Rolls, xli. 122. 

ford, in his History of Massachusetts, has 



768 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

that you are all well ; it was truly refreshing and agreeable to me for 
I feel myself tenderly concerned for you all, for your temporal but 
especially for your spiritual welfare. 

Your friends here are all well. We have had but one death since 
you left us and that is, Mr. Thomas Prat who was near his end when 
you left us : your wives and families are all well, and there is no one 
sick in my whole parish that I know of, except old Mr. Falkener who 
seems to be wasting away with old age. 

I would hope and trust that you will avoid the sins of the place you 
are in and remember the advice I was enabled to give you when 
I spoke last to you in public ; oh do not forget that you are under 
obligations to keep yourselves from the pollutions that are in the world 
thro' lust ; the eyes of all will be upon you as professors of religion, and 
if you should fall away, what a disgrace would it be to it ; pray for 
strength against temptation, that when sinners entice you, you may not 
consent, and that you may be enabled to do your duty in action ; do 
not let us hear that any of you refuse to express yourselves in the cause 
of God and your country. 

Your friends at home are daily praying for you and I hope you are 
praying for them, we may help one another, in this way, when we are 
at the greatest distance. 

We hear it is sickly at Ticonderoga, I pray God you may all be pre- 
served from it and returned in safety. May God bless you all and 
every one with the best of his blessings, especially with life forevermore 
— so wishes and prays your affectionate friend and pastor 

Peter Thacher. 
To Mr. John Ramsdal and Mr. Francis Phillips and all who left 
Maiden™ 

Of the levy of the twenty-fifth men Maiden's quota was five 
of the thirty-four men who were drafted and marched, Sep- 
tember 5, under Captain Nathan Sargeant of Maiden, with the 
regiment of Colonel Fox. 11 

Under the call for the fifth men the drafted men for the 
lower Middlesex regiment were formed into a regiment under 

10 Maiden Messenger, date unknown. Mr. Thacher wrote from Fairfield, Conn., 

Thomas Pratt, who is mentioned, died in September, to have the Maiden men 

August 20, 1776. "Old Mr. Falkener" hurried forward, as they were much 

is perhaps an error of the printer. Anna needed. The roads were filled with 

(Sprague) Faulkner, widow of Benjamin Connecticut men who were going home. 

Faulkner, died October 26, 1776, aged Bancroft. History of the United States, 

80 years. Mr. Thacher soon after visited 5th ed., ix 57, speaks of the conduct of 

the army near New York. the Connecticut troops at this time. 

II Mass. Archives: Rev. Rolls, xli. 122. 



MALDEN IN THE REVOLUTION. 769 

Colonel Eleazer Brooks, of Lincoln. It was ordered to march 
to Horse Neck, September 26, and took part in the battle of 
White Plains, October 28. The first company of this regiment 
was commanded by Captain John Walton of Cambridge, and 
contained the following Maiden men : — 

Bernard Green, First Sergeant, 

Timothy Tufts, Third Corporal, 
David Deland, John Grover, Henry Kelly, 

William Sprague, John Sweetser, William Upham, 

Benoni Vinton, Jonathan Lynde, Robert Oliver. 12 

Another draft was made later in the year; and the levy, 
under Colonel Samuel Thacher of Cambridge, was ordered to 
march, December 16, to Fairfield, Connecticut. The first com- 
pany of this regiment was composed of eighty-eight men, 
of whom nine were from Maiden ; and it was officered as 
follows : — 

Benjamin Blaney, of Maiden, Captain, 
Stephen Hall, of Medford, First Lieutenant, 
John Marean, of Newton, Second Lieutenant}* 

In a return of Colonel Dike's regiment at Dorchester, Sep- 
tember 21, Maiden is mentioned among the "Towns that have 
not sent any." 14 This was a militia regiment raised from the 
neighboring towns for the temporary purpose of replacing the 
continental troops, which had been posted in and around 
Boston. That Maiden had so large a proportion of her men 
in more active service may account for the seeming neglect. 
Had they been present they would have been found in the 
company of Captain Caleb Brooks of Medford. 

The fall and winter of 1776 was a season of great discourage- 
ment and fear to the American people. 15 The reverses around 

12 Mass. Archives : Worcester Rolls ; of extortion, which, as is usual in times 

Mass. Archives : Rev. Rolls, xxiv. 3. of public distress, began to appear. 

18 Mass. Archives : Rev. Rolls, xli. 107. Under this act Ezra Sargeant and Jon- 

14 Mass. Archives: Rev. Rolls, xxvi. athan Sprague gave information, on 
77- oath, to the Board of War, "that they 

15 In the winter of 1776 the General have good Reason to suspect that in 
Court passed "an Act to prevent Mo- the Houses of Mary Emmerson Widow 
nopoly & Oppression," which was de- & Jacob parker Housewright or Gentle- 
signed to check speculation and a spirit man, both of Maiden aforesaid there is 

49 



7/0 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

New York dispirited men who had trusted in their own courage 
and a favoring Providence rather than in material strength and 
military discipline; and the army, which had been formed by 
levies made for short periods of service, was threatened with an 
early dissolution. It then began to be seen that the country, 
however averse its farmers and mechanics might be to a military 
life, must make the work of war a business, and that only an 
army enlisted for a long period could attain to a discipline that 
would enable it to oppose with success the hardy veterans of 
European wars; and the continental line was ordered to be 
reorganized and filled by regiments raised for a service of three 
years or for the war. At the close of the year the bold attacks 
and brilliant successes of Trenton and Princeton revived the 
courage and hopes of the people, and, as Mr. Bancroft remarks, 
"turned the shadow of death into the morning." 16 

In Massachusetts under the new requisition every seventh 
man was called and the General Court prepared an address, 
which was read at the head of the militia companies and to the 
congregations assembled on the Sabbath. " We entreat you," 
it said, " for the sake of religion, for the enjoyment of which 
our ancestors fled to a wilderness, for the sake of freedom and 
social happiness, to act vigorously in this critical state of our 
country." 17 The proportion of each town was fixed and each 



considerable number of yards of Woolen Cloath & purchased it at the State 

& Linnen Cloth, which Cloth is abso- price. I Dident proceed to go to mr 

lutely necessary for the use of the Army Parkers house by reason it was not 

& that the said cloth in said Houses Suspected that any of the Goods had 

the owner refuses to sell or dispose of been Removed there 

at reasonable price." "pr me John Vinton Constable " 

On this information a warrant was Papers on file in the office of the Secretary 

issued, upon which the following return of State. Mrs. Emerson was the widow 

was made, March 19, 1777. of the Rev. Joseph Emerson, and Jacob 

" Jn obediance to the within Precept Parker was their son-in-law. After the 

I have made Search In the house of the death of Mr. Emerson his widow and 

widow Mary Emerson & have found in daughters appear to have kept a small 

said house forty three yards one Qr 1 : & shop for the sale of goods in their house 

one 8. of a yard of Checked woolen near the meeting house. 

Cloath & twenty five yards one half & 16 Bancroft, History of the United 

1.8. of a yard of Tow Cloath & after States, 5th ed., ix. 235. 

taking the same into my care the Agents n Bradford, History of Massachusetts,. 

appointed by the Selectmen of maiden ii. 131. 
agreed with the said mary for the 



MALDEN IN THE REVOLUTION. 77 1 

was obliged to furnish its quota by draft or otherwise. At 
a meeting held February 24, 1777, Maiden 

Voted To Give Each man that shall Inlist into the Contenantall army 
for three years or During the war Ten Pounds unanimously. 

In April this bounty was extended to those who had pre- 
viously enlisted, it being 

Voted, that the Committe Pay those men the Town Bounty who 
Inlisted into the Continantial army before the 24 of February Last if 
they procure a Certificate that they have not Received any other 
Extraordinary Bounty. 18 

The presence of the enemy at Newport and in the waters of 
Narragansett Bay caused frequent alarms and several calls were 
made upon the militia of Massachusetts for service in Rhode 
Island. At a meeting, held May 2, the town 

Voted to give those men forty shillings that will goe to the asistance 
of the army at Providence or else whare in any of the New England 
States for two months. 

The rolls contain the names of seven Maiden men who served 
under Captain Stephen Dana of Colonel Josiah Whitney's regi- 
ment, in Rhode Island in May and June of this year. 19 Soon 
after the entire militia of the state was held in readiness to 
march at the shortest notice ; and later, on an urgent call, every 
seventh man was called out to reinforce the northern army, which 
was retreating before Burgoyne. Meanwhile, in the face of 
pressing calls for militia service, the enlistments for the regular 
regiments proceeded slowly ; and the towns were perplexed by 
the frequent demands. To overcome its own difficulties Maiden 
passed the following votes : — 

[August 15, 1777.] Voted to Raise a Sum of Money for the In- 
couragement of the men that shall Inlist or that shall be Draughted to 
goe to the assistiance of y? army. 

Voted to give to those men that shall Inlist or that shall be Draughted 
Six pounds to Each man 

[August 20.] Voted to Choos a Committe to hire our Proportion of 
men for the presant Service in the Best manner Posible 

18 This was in addition to the conti- by the Province. Cf. Bradford, History 
nental bounty of twenty dollars and a of Massachusetts, ii. 129. 
grant of land, and twenty pounds offered 19 Mass. Archives : Rev. Rolls, i. 185. 



772 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

The committee was composed of Lieutenant William Waite, 
Joseph Barrett, James Howard, John Waite, and John Tufts; 
and five days later the town raised two hundred and forty 
pounds, in addition to the bounty already offered, for the pur- 
pose of obtaining ten men. It appears that the quota of the 
town was finally filled ; and the names of thirty-one men were 
enrolled in 1777 for a service of three years. 20 

About this time Dr. Jonathan Porter, the last landlord of the 
old Newhall Tavern, temporarily removed to Boston, or to Med- 
ford, whither his son Jonathan had gone in 1773. He had 
taken part in the affairs of the town during the troubles of this 
period, serving on various committees, and for aught that can 
now be discovered he was as patriotic as his neighbors. The 
following, from the bitter pen of a most vehement newspaper 
writer of the day, connects his name with the Tories and inti- 
mates that his absence from Maiden was not without cause. It 
may have been that some of the old leaven of the earlier days 
remained in him and that he was forced to leave the town for 
that reason. At this time the feeling against those who sympa- 
thized with the royalists ran high, and, as is not unusual at such 
times, public opinion was not always just. In some places the 
offenders were harassed or driven from the town, and in others 
harsher measures were adopted. 21 However it may have been 
with Dr. Porter, he returned to Maiden, was chosen a member 
of the Committee of Correspondence in 1779, and died, Jan- 
uary 1, 1783, aged sixty-two years. It is remarkable that, while 
the record of the meeting held May 19, 1777, is apparently fully 
and carefully written, there is no notice of the vote that en- 
dorsed the character of Dr. Porter, which I copy from the 
Boston newspaper in which it was published. Difficult is it at 
the present day to decide whether it ought to be considered as 
a complete vindication. 

2 '> Mass. Archives : Rev. Rolls, xxvii. was of Boston and had bought the west- 

100 et sea. erly half of the homestead of Elder 

21 In March, 1779, the property of Thomas Burditt in 1767, which was the 

Andrew Cazneau, absentee, situated in property leased. He was a man of 

the south-east part of the town, on the character and education, a barrister-at- 

Winnisimmet Road, was leased at auc- law, and a Judge of Admiralty. lie was 

tion for one year to Jabez Burditt. He proscribed in 1778, having left the coun- 



MALDEN IN THE REVOLUTION. 7 73 

Joyce Junior 

Presents his most respectful compliments to those chosen few, who 
early and faithfully engaged in the Cause of Liberty and their Country, 
to oppose those Sons of Tyranny who took Shelter behind the British 
Tyrant's Edicts, and Band of Hireling Vassals, That he is once more 
returned from Correcting those Miscreants, after almost two Years 
Absence ;- That he will meet them at the old Place of Rendezvous to 
Morrow Evening, 7 o'Clock, in Order to Consult the most effective 
Ways and Means to carry into Execution the Act of this State to pre- 
vent Monopoly and Oppression ; To see what is best to be done with 
those shameless Brass Eaced Tories, who have the Audaciousness to 
remain among this much abused and insulted People, and still carry on 
their Treacherous Designs ; To take the best Methods to get rid of a 
Set of abandoned Miscreant Tories, who have been drove out of the 
several Towns in this State for their Villainous Doings, and have taken 
Shelter in this Town ; To take some effective Method to prevent their 
frequent Meetings, and Act upon all such Matters as shall come before 
them. 

N. B. I desire you would make a proper Enquiry of a Rescinding 
Calf, a Maiden Porter, a Cape-Ann Serjeant and a Refugee Upham. 22 

At a Meeting of the Town of Maiden, voted, netn. con. That the 
Piece signed Joyce, jun. published in the Paper of the 17 th of March 
last, so far as it respects the Character of Doctor Porter, late an In- 
habitant of this Town, is false and groundless. 

Attest, Samuel Merritt, Town-Clerk. 
Maiden, May 19, 1777. 23 

In 1776, and again in 1777, the General Court recommended 
the people of the state to give their representatives authority to 
prepare a form of state government, and at a meeting of the 
town held May 19, 1777, it was 

Voted to Instruct the Representative according to a Resolve of the 
General Court Concerning a Form of Government. 

A convention of the Committees of Safety in Worcester 
county had previously declared that a constitution should be 
adopted by a convention of delegates chosen for that purpose 
and not by the General Court; and such a course was favored 

try in 1775; but he returned to Boston Gazette, March 29, 1779; Sabine, Loyal- 

in 17S8, and died at Roxbury in 1792. ists of 'the American Revolution, i. 298. 

By some means his property escaped - 2 Boston Gazette, March 17, 1777. 

confiscation and was inherited by his 23 Independent Chronicle, May 22, 

daughter, Mrs. Thomas Brewer. Boston 1777. 



774 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

by the larger towns. Notwithstanding, a form of government 
was agreed upon by the representatives in February, 1778, and 
submitted to the people. One hundred and twenty towns made 
no returns ; but the measure was rejected by the remainder on 
a vote of ten thousand against the proposed constitution and 
two thousand in its favor. 24 It was brought before the inhabi- 
tants of Maiden, March 4, when 

After Reading and Debating Upon the Several Paragrafts of the 
Constitution and form of Government The meeting was then adjourned 
for further Consideration of the form of Government to the anuaol 
Meeting in May next at one o Clock. 

At the meeting held May 25 the constitution, with slight 
amendments, was adopted in detail, and 

After the form of Government was Considered Articel by Articel with 
Amendments thay Voted to Exept the whole withe the Amendments 
Together with the 37 Articel in the Thursdayes Paper April 16, 1776 
[1778] There was Seventy (70) voters for it and none Against it. 25 

In the early part of the year 1778 Captain Benjamin Blaney's 
company in Colonel Brooks's regiment of Guards was on duty 

24 Bradford, History of Massachusetts, in April, after the close of the war, or 
ii. 158. in [the] year 1780, should the war be 

25 The proposed constitution and protracted to that period, a State Con- 
form of government is given in Brad- vention, consisting of delegates from 
ford, History of Massachusetts, ii. 349-362. every district, double to the number of 
The thirty-seventh article was not a part Senators for each district, chosen by the 
of the document presented by the Gen- people at large, in the same manner as 
eral Court ; and I am not aware that it the Senators, none of whom shall be of 
has ever been reprinted. Dr. William the General Court, shall meet for the 
Gordon, of Roxbury, the historian, con- sole purpose of reviving [revising] the 
tributed three articles to the Jndepen- constitution, and declaring what altera- 
dent Chronicle, in which he strongly tions or additions are requisite, in order 
criticised the constitution as submitted, to its being rendered more perfect, which 
and urged a delay. He wrote: "Be shall belaid before the people for their 
careful that you are not drawn in to acceptance or rejection, and shall take 
vote upon any form of government till place, if voted for by two thirds of the 
you have had full time to consider the freemen present at the town-meetings, 
same." In the third article, which ap- Such like State Convention shall also 
peared April 16, 177S, he proposed the be held for similar purposes at the end 
additional article, which the voters of of every twenty years successively." 
Maiden " excepted." He said: — "This article, gentlemen," he added, 

"Let me humbly and earnestly be- "will preserve the staff in your own hands, 

seech them, for their own sakes, for and continue to you the power, as well 

that of their posterity and country, to as the right, of preventing or curing the 

add the following article, viz. abuses of government." 

" XXXVII. On the last Wednesday 



MALDEN IN THE REVOLUTION. 775 

at Cambridge, " Guarding the Troops of the Convention," — the 
captured army of Burgoyne, which was encamped at Prospect 
Hill. 26 Besides the captain there were several Maiden men in 
this company, which appears to have been drawn from the 
Middlesex towns in this vicinity. Philemon Munroe, of this 
command, 27 and Daniel Chadwick, Thomas Parker, and James 
Dickenson, of some other, were afterwards allowed by the town 
six pounds each, " for there Extraordinary service at Cambridge 
in 1778 as Guards of the Conention Troops." Soon after the 
names of fourteen Maiden men, with that of Sergeant Nehemiah 
Oakes at the head, appear on the pay roll of a company under 
Captain Stephen Dana, " for their State Bounty being One 
month in the service at the Lines at Boston ; " 28 and about the 
same time a requisition was made for four privates " to march 
without Delay " to Rhode Island, the towns of which were 
threatened by a large English force. Other demands were 
made from time to time for the continental service or for local 
defence. To meet the many calls for men and money, the 
townspeople were taxed to the utmost, but they persevered as 
the records of their action from time to time in town meetings 
and its result will show. At a meeting held May 7, 1778, it 
Avas 

Voted that thare be a Committe Appointed to take Under Consid- 
eration former Services in the Presant war and who Should be Called 
Upon and what Sums thay should in Iustice pay towards hiring men 
Agreable to the Resolve of the General Court Pased April 20 for Rein- 
forceing the Continantial army Before the Town Should be Taxed for a 
Bounty and Reporte a list to the Town. 

This committee, which was composed of Captain Benjamin 
Blaney, Lieutenant Nathan Lynde, Lieutenant William Waite, 
Francis Phillips, Ezra Sargeant, David Sargeant, and John 
Nichols, after hearing " the Complaints of the agrevied," made 

26 Mass. Archives: Rev. Rolls, xvii. which brought him to Maiden soon after. 
149. At the close of the war he married Eliz- 

27 Philemon Munroe, a native of Lex- abeth, daughter of Thomas Waite, and 
ington, was one of the little band which, returned to Lexington, where he died 
underCaptain John Parker, withstood the October 17, 1806. 

British troops on Lexington Common. 2S Mass. Archives: Rev. Rolls, xviii. 

Perhaps it was the attraction of love 240. 



77$ HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

a report, which was " excepted " and committed to Lieutenant 
Nathan Lynde, the commanding officer of the town, " to Collect 
the money and lay it out in the Best maner in hiring men." 
Lieutenant William VVaite, Ezra Sargeant, and David Sargeant 
were chosen to assist him ; and if the committee needed more 
money in hiring men they were authorized " to procure what is 
wanting upon the Towns Expence." 

In the fall of 1778 a sergeant's guard was posted on Wayte's 
Mount and a beacon erected there, for the purpose of warning 
the country in the event of a descent of the enemy upon the 
coast. A single paper alone preserves the memory of this 
post. 

Head Quarters, Boston, Sepf. .7, 1778 
Sir, You are Detached with Seven men for the purpose of Guarding 
the Bacon on Maiden Hill, and Sitting Fire thereto when the Signal is 
Given from the Bacon in Boston. You are to keep a Sentinel Day and 
night by relief at the Bacon, his Duty is to Preserve it from being in- 
jured by any Person or Persons — and Constantly to be observing the 
Bacon in Boston. If He Observes it to be on Fire He is Immediately 
to Call for you. Upon your own veiw of it, being Certain that it is 
on Fire you will immediately Sit fire to your own, but not otherwise, as 
you will answer for it. You will Inculcate on your Sentinels the great- 
est Vigilance in Duty and acquaint them that they will be liable to Suffer 
Death at the Discresion of a court Martial, should they be found absent 
from or Sleeping on their Post 

By order of Major Gen 1 Heath 
Jona Pollard DAG 29 
Serg' of the Guard at Maiden Bacon 

At the close of the year 1778 there were reasons for appre- 
hending an early attack somewhere upon the Massachusetts 
seaboard ; and soon after the state called out a body of the 
militia to act in its defence. Connected with this movement 
was a company under the command of Nathan Sargeant, of 
Maiden, who had commanded a company in 1776, which ap- 
pears to have been composed of men from the nearer towns of 
Middlesex and Essex. In relation to this company the follow- 
ing paper is preserved. 

29 Original in possession of Artemas Barrett, 1866. 



MALDEN IN THE REVOLUTION. 777 

We the Subscribers severally Inlist ourselves into the Service of 
Massachusetts Bay to serve in a Company Whereof Nathan Sargeant is 
Captain For the term of three months from our Arrival in Camp unless 
sooner Discharged and each ot us do engage to Furnish and Carry with 
us into the Service a good and Effective Fire Arm and Bayonet Car- 
tridge Box Knapsack Blankit and Canteen or wooden Bottle and \vh -n 
Formed we engage to march to Boston and hereby oblidge ourselves 
Faithfully to observe and obey all such orders as we shall from time to 
time receive from the officers that are or shall be appointed over us 
and to be subject to such Regulations as are provided for the Continen- 
tial Army Dated this first Day of Febuary 1779 

Jonathan Brown, Serg*. 
Samuel Grover Leu. Benjamin Brown Letf. 

Mattheus Sprague, Ebenezer Bucknam, John Brown, 

Silvester Pratt, Moses Hadley, Samuel Hadley. 30 

With the exception of the two lieutenants the men here 
mentioned were from other towns. The beacon on Wayte's 
Mount was probably never fired and the men of Captain Sar- 
geant's company returned to their homes without meeting the 
enemy, as the threatened attack was not made. Such alarms 
were common, as the British cruisers often appeared in the 
offing and an invasion by the way of Rhode Island was never 
wholly impossible. 

In June, 1779, another call was made for recruits for the 
continental line, and a body of militia was ordered to Rhode 
Island, which was still threatened by the enemy. To avert a 
draft the town took the following action. 

[June 21, 1779] Voted 'to Choose a Committee to procure the men 
for the Continanteal army or any other that shall be Called for by Law- 
full authority within Six months on the best Terms. 

[June 28,] it was put to vote to See if the Town will approve of the 
Committee Choosen to hire men for to Reinforce the Continantal army 
and those Ordered to Providence agreable to a Resolve of the General 
Court Iune 8 1779 to hire the men out of Town Provided that thay are 
Satisfied that Said Towns have Raised thare own men and it Past in 
the affirmitive 

Voted to Indemnify the Commision Officers if thay Do not Proceed 
to Draft the men Untill the Adjournment of this meeting 

30 Original in possession of Artemas Barrett, 1866. 



7/6 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

At the latter meeting the sum of eighteen hundred pounds 
was raised " for to hire the Continantal and militia men." 
Under these votes six men, at least, were hired for the conti- 
nental army, at the head of whom stands upon the list the name 
of Pomp Magos, a negro, who in after years became an inmate 
of the poorhouse and on election and independence days in- 
dulged in reminiscences of his campaigning days by donning 
his faded and ragged regimentals, getting drunk, and shouting 
" Cambridge ! " 31 

In October a meeting was called 

To take Under Consideration a Letter wrote from Cap' Phinehas 
Stearns Dated Oct" n, 1779 wrote in Consiquence of A Resolve of 
Court Dated Oct° 9. 1779 for to Raise one Corpral and Eight Privats 
to march to Clavrack on Hudsons River to Joine our Army. 

At this meeting, which was adjourned " from the meeting 
Tiouse to Ml Charles Hills West Room," and again to " Cap 1 . 
William Waits house in the west Room," Captain William 
Waite, Lieutenant Bernard Green, and Lieutenant John Vinton 
were chosen a committee to hire the men for three months, and 
twenty-two hundred pounds were raised for that purpose. 

A meeting was held June 14, 1780, 

to See what Method the town will take to procure the men now 
Called for to Reinforce the Contenantial army agreable to a Resolve of 
the General Court, Iune 5, 1780. 

[June 27.] Voted that the Committee be impowered to Raise the 
16 men for the Contenantial army in the best and Cheapest manner 
thay can and that the town will fullfill their engagements. 

Twenty-six thousand pounds, in the debased currency of the 
day, were voted to be raised by taxation ; and the town agreed 
to make good to the recruits " the Depreciation of the money 
that thay shall take Upon nots of hand as good as it now is." 
In October a call of a different nature was received, to meet 

31 Sally Magos, the daughter of she was younger in years, it is said 

Pomp, was well known in her later years she was less industrious. " A child of 

to many now living. She was a good- colour " belonging to her is recorded as 

natured colored woman who did washing dying in 1819, and others are mentioned 

and chores, or gathered and sold "yarbs" in tradition. She is supposed to have 

for a living. Earlier in the century, when died in Charlestown. 



MALDEN IN THE REVOLUTION. 779 

which the town raised twelve thousand pounds " to purchase 
the 7160 lbs of Beef for the army agreable to the Resolve of the 
General Court, Sept. 5, 1780." Such calls were often made. 32 
Two months later six hundred pounds in the new emission were 
raised; and in the next July five hundred pounds of the same 
currency were voted for a like purpose, and it was voted to 
" leve the Care of Providing the Cloathing for the Contenantial 
army to the Selectmen." 33 

In the midst of these transactions Maiden received a visita- 
tion which carried consternation from one extreme of the town 
to the other. In October, 1778, the small-pox was brought 
here by Mrs. Rebecca Parker and continued its ravages during 
the space of seven months. Many persons were sick, of whom 
eight died. Among the latter were Jacob Parker, the husband 
of Mrs. Parker, and her mother, Mrs. Mary Emerson, widow of 
the Rev. Joseph Emerson, and the town clerk, Samuel Merritt, 
with his wife and their infant child. Mrs. Parker recovered and 
was married in 1780 to Deacon Brintnall of Chelsea, and after 
his death to Samuel Waite of Maiden in 1809. 

It was during the year 1780 that a natural phenomenon 
appeared which equalled in its gloom the despondency that 
poverty and the troubles of the time had caused to pervade the 
land. In its manifestation, aided by the ignorance and super- 
stition which still remained, a survival of the earlier days, it is 

82 " [March 10, 17S6.] In the House "Approved by the Governor " 
of Representatives On the Petition of General Court Records, xlvi. in loco. 
Ezra Sargent Esq 1 : in behalf of the Town 3S In July, 17S0, the rate of exchange 
of Maiden, praying that the said Town of paper for specie was sixty-nine for 
may be credited on an execution issued one, which must be considered in read- 
by the Treasurer of this Commonwealth ing of the apparently enormous sums 
for a deficiency of beef required of said raised out of the poverty of the people. 
Town: — A new emission, designed to be equal 

" Resolved that the prayer of the said to specie, was ordered by Congress this 

petition be granted and that the Treas- year; but before it could be thrown into 

urer of this Commonwealth be, and he circulation the old, or continental bills, 

is hereby directed to credit the said had still further declined to seventy-five 

Town of Maiden for two thousand three to one. By the middle of June, 1 781, the 

hundred and thirty nine pounds of beef new emission itself had fallen to four for 

at four pence per pound amounting to one. It was the rapid decline of the old 

thirty eight pounds nineteen shillings continental money which caused wide- 

& eight pence on the aforementioned spread poverty and suffering. Felt, His- 

execution. torical Account of Massachusetts Currency, 

" In Senate read & concurred 187 et sea. 



780 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

no wonder that it spread amazement and fear over New Eng- 
land. A century later, when it again appeared, popular intel- 
ligence had so far advanced that the yellow day of 1881 was 
looked upon as an unusual event which science could explain, 
rather than as an occurrence to excite terror as a possible fore- 
runner of the end of time or a revelation of divine wrath, as was 
the dark day of 1780. Phineas Sprague, the father of Dr. John 
Sprague, has left us an account of the dark day as it was 
observed in Maiden. 

Frida May the 19 th 17 So — This day was the most Remarkabel 
day that Euer my Eyes beheld — the air had bin full of Smoak to an 
uncommon degree so that wee could scairce See a mountain at two 
miles distance for 3 or 4 dayes past, till thursday after Noon the Smoak 
all went of to the south — at Sunset a verey black bank of a cloud 
apperead in the south and west, the Nex morning cloudey and thun- 
der* 1 in the west about ten o clock it began to Rain and grew vere dark 
and a 12 it was allmost as dark as Nite So that we was obiged to lite 
our candels and Eate our dinner by candellite at Noon day — but be- 
tween 1 and 2 o clock it grew lite again — but in the euening the cloud 
caim ouer us again tho the moon was about the full it was the darkest 
Nite that euer was Seen by us in the world. 34 

In February, 1779, the General Court revived the question of 
a state constitution; and during the summer of that year, the 
several towns chose delegates to a convention to be held at 
Cambridge. The Rev. Peter Thacher was chosen by Maiden 
and took an influential part in the deliberations which resulted 
in the formation of the constitution. He especially opposed 
the creation of the office of governor; and when that was 
decided he criticised and ridiculed the title of " His Excel- 

34 Phinehas Sprague his book-»ietno- Like occurrences have been noted, as 

randum, in the possession of Artemas October 21, 1716, and October 19, 1762. 

Barrett. Accounts of the dark day of The yellow day, September 6, 1881, to 

i7Sohave been so often printed that I which allusion is made in the text, is 

refrain from adding to that of Phineas remembered by the present generation ; 

Sprague. Those who may wish to follow and the particulars of it were closely 

the subject may consult, Memoirs of the observed, and were described in the 

American Academy, i. 234-246; N. E. papers of the time. All these were ap- 

Hist. and Geneai. Register, xvii. 333 ; parently of a similar character, and they 

Mass. Hist. Coll. i. 95-98 ; Boston Gazette, may be repeated at any time when like 

May 22, 29, 1780; Coffin, History of New- conditions prevail. 
bury, 257; Abbott, History of Andover, 
189-190. 



MALDEN IN THE REVOLUTION. 78 1 

lency," which the constitution gives the chief magistrate. But 
though he differed with the majority in these and other minor 
matters, the constitution itself, when settled, received his ardent 
support. When framed by the convention, the instrument was 
laid before the towns, and the inhabitants of Maiden met, April 
30, 1780, when the delegate was instructed to endeavor to pro- 
cure several amendments, 

But if he cannot procure them then he is Instructed to Consent to it 
as it now stands or make such alterations as shal render it agreable to 
the Sentiments of two thirds of the people of this state. 

The constitution, being approved by more than two-thirds of 
the state, was now settled ; and the convention, after a formal 
notice to the General Court, dissolved. The first meeting in 
Maiden for the election of state officers was held September 
4, 1780, when the vote of the town was as follows: — 

For Governer . . . John Hancock, Esq r 50 votes 

Lieu 1 . Governer Artemas Ward Esq r 50 votes 

f Abraham Fuller Esq' t>2> votes 

Josiah Stone Esq' 32 votes 

Senators . . . -j James Prescot Esq r 30 votes 

Thomas Plimton Esq r 31 votes 

John Cummings Esq r . 28 votes. 35 

In October the election of representatives took place and 
Captain Benjamin Blaney was chosen the first representative of 
the town under the new constitution. 

Meanwhile the calls for men continued. On Christmas-day, 
1780, the town voted to raise thirteen men " for three years or 
During the war;" and a bounty was offered "of 10 Guineas 
or in paper Currency at the Current Exchange when paid to 
them." Later, " an hundred harde dollers " were voted to be 
divided between the thirteen men ; and later still it was 

[February 5, 1781.] Voted, To make an Addition to the hundred 
hard Dollars of five good neat Cattle that is to say of three years old or 

30 John Hancock, who received the were successively chosen by the Gen- 
unanimous vote of Maiden, was chosen eral Court and declined. Afterwards 
governor; but no one was elected to the Thomas Cushing was chosen, and ac- 
second office by the votes of the people, cepted the office. 
James Bowdoin and James Warren 



7^2 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

if said Soldier or Soldiers is Regularly Discharged any time within the 
three years he Shall Receive the five neat Cattle at the age of the time 
that he or thay are in the Service or in any other produce that shall be 
Equal to the said Cattle if it Sute the Said Soldier better. 

Notwithstanding these offers the quota remained unfilled; 

and but one man, Joseph Shuker, had enlisted by March 19, 

when all votes relating to bounties were reconsidered and the 

enrolled men of the town were divided into thirteen classes, 

each of which was to furnish a man for three years. In this 

way the men were raised after a while, the last, John O'Neal 

yf / (Cf) -f * ^ not enlisting until July c. 

C/Cr^W^'^ *-' v ' v x~* The prices paid for re- 

Cf ^^ [uG/L~» crmts appear to have va- 

\^_^y ried. Thus the class of 

which Joseph Perkins was chairman paid Joel Whittemore two 

hundred and fifty Spanish milled dollars, 36 while that of Joseph 

Barrett paid " Twelve Pounds Solid Coine." 37 

In June two men were called "for Rhodisland," and the town 
raised thirty pounds in specie for the purpose of hiring them; 
and a few days after the quota of three years men had been 
filled, ten men more were called "to Joyne General Washentons 
army." To meet the new demand five hundred hard dollars 
were raised, and seven weeks later one hundred dollars in 
specie were added. At the same time one hundred pounds in 
specie were raised to purchase fifty-six hundred and seventy- 
three pounds of beef for the army. With this the direct traces 
of the Revolution end in the records of the town. One revolu- 
tionary committee, that of Correspondence, Inspection, and 
Safety, which was still necessary in the loose and uncertain 
condition of public affairs, was annually chosen a few years 
longer and expired at the beginning of 1786, as is elsewhere 
stated. 

Although from the circumstances of the case it is not men- 
tioned in the town records, a final requisition for men to fill the 
continental army was made in 1782. Under this call the in- 

30 Perkins Papers, in the Maiden 37 Paper in the possession of the 

Public Library. writer. 



MALDEN IN THE REVOLUTION. 783 

habitants of the several towns were classed and each class was 
to furnish a recruit. 38 If Maiden had already furnished full 
quotas under the many calls, it was now required to provide 
from six to ten men; and the demand was satisfied during the 
summer. 33 Of the men thus raised I can recognize the names 
of but two, those of Timothy Carden and Ebenezer Robinson, 
who, although apparently not inhabitants of the town, must 
stand as the last recorded recruits which Maiden sent to the 
revolutionary army. 40 

38 Bradford, History of Massachusetts, had answered in full ; but seventeen men 
ii- 211. were short in Middlesex, and a tax of 

39 In a paper headed, " Ballances due ^74 is. 8d. for each man was laid upon 
from the following Towns for Men defi- the delinquent towns. 

cient on the Class Tax, 1782," in Mass. 40 Mass. Archives: Rev. Rolls, xxxiii. 

Archives, cxl. 277, it appears that Maiden 62-63. 







lib. yd. J~touse 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

MALDEN IN THE NAVY OF THE REVOLUTION. 

IT was not alone upon the land that the men of Maiden per- 
formed good service for the rising nation ; although the 
names of those who fought upon the sea have been well-nigh 
forgotten, and the memory of their deeds has nearly passed 
away. Nearly four score years ago a writer observed that 

The naval affairs of our revolutionary struggle are much involved in 
obscurity, owing to the little pains taken, at that time, to record and 
preserve them ; the whole attention of the nation being given to the 
mighty stake, for which it was contending, and which swallowed up 
every other concern, making even individual glory, in which self appro- 
bation is so much interested, appear but as a minor consideration. 1 

Under such conditions local pride, by a loose handling of 
historical facts, has made great progress in erecting posthumous 
reputations ; while, again, local indifference has allowed to 



1 Goldsborough, Naval Chronicle., i. 33- 



MALDEN IN THE NA VY OF THE REVOLUTION. 785 

perish the recollection of services which far exceeded those 
which have been made apparently great by eulogy and exag- 
geration. Well do these remarks apply to one whose deeds as 
a naval officer were such as to win the respect and esteem of 
his contemporaries, although from the causes just stated, he is 
hardly known by name to recent writers upon the maritime 
events of the Revolution. 

Among the men who marched with Captain Blaney on the 
day of the Lexington Alarm was his neighbor, Captain Daniel 
Waters. He was a master mariner, who, coming to Maiden 
from Charlestown, purchased in 1771 the house which stood at 
the westerly corner of the present Chelsea and Ferry Streets in 
Everett. His memory 
was long continued by 



the later name of the ^— * /) 

0&C 




South Spring, until a C?^Q>YlA*>t*sC 

corporation, receiving rights which a wise town ought never to 
have relinquished, changed it from Waters's Spring to the inap- 
propriate and finer, perhaps because newer, title of the Everett 
Spring. He will be remembered as having charge of the town's 
cannon before the battle of Bunker Hill. Immediately upon the 
investment of Boston he was appointed by Washington to the 
command of a small gunboat, which was stationed in Charles 
River; and,. January 20, 1776, he was commissioned as captain 
of the continental schooner " Lee " of eight six-pounders and 
fifty men. 2 The name of this little schooner fills an important 
place in the history of the American navy; for under the noted 
Captain John Manly, in the preceding year, she was the first 
vessel to sail under the authority of the Continental Congress, 
and the prizes which she made were of the utmost value to the 
destitute American army and the first in the long list which has 
become the glory of the American flag. 3 The officers of the 
" Lee " were now : 

- Clark, Naval History of the United ican flag was hoisted by John Manly, 

States, i. 32. and the first British flag was struck to 

3 The flag of the " Lee " was the Pine him." John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 

Tree flag of Massachusetts. " I assert," in Austin, Life of Elbridge Gerry, i. 100. 
said John Adams, " that the first Amer- 

5° 



786 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Daniel Waters, Captain, 
William Kissick, First Lieut., John Gill, Second Lieut. 
John Diamond, Master} 

At the same time Samuel Tucker was appointed to the 
" Franklin" and Charles Dyer to the " Harrison; " and a little 
later John Ayres and William Burke were assigned to the 
" Lynch" and the " Warren." John Manly, who was appointed 
to the " Hancock," January I, was the commodore of this little 
fleet of six schooners, which was fitted out by order of Washing- 
ton, and was designed to annoy the enemy by cutting off the 
reinforcements and supplies which were arriving from England. 
Captain Waters ranked second to Commodore Manly in com- 
mand. They soon had an opportunity for active work ; for Cap- 
tain Jonathan Glover of Marblehead wrote to Captain Tucker, 
February 3, " I heartily congratulate you, Captain Waters, and 
your officers, on the success of your last cruise, and I hope 
your next will prove as successful." ° Soon after, February 9, 
Washington wrote to John Hancock, President of the Contin- 
ental Congress : — 

Captain Waters and Captain Tucker, who command two of the 
armed schooners, have taken and sent into Gloucester a large brigan- 
tine, laden with wood, a hundred and fifty butts for water, and forty 
suits of bedding, bound from Lahave, in Nova Scotia, for Boston. 
She is one of the transports in the ministerial service. 6 

Continuing in the " Lee," which after the departure of the 
army was employed by Massachusetts in the defence of the 
coast, Captain Waters appears to have distinguished himself 
by activity and address. He took, May 10, a brig, whose 
name is not reported, and carried her into Beverly. 7 About 
this time James Mugford of Marblehead, who appears to have 
possessed an enterprising spirit combined with recklessness,, 
solicited and obtained the temporary command of the armed 
schooner " Franklin," then lying at Beverly, in which Captain 
Tucker had recently performed good service. Hastily taking a 

4 Force, American Archives, 4th, iv. 6 Sparks, Life and Writings of Wash- 
nio. ington, iii. 2S1. 

5 Sheppard, Life of Samuel Tucker, "' Boston Gazette, May 13, 1776. 
337- 



MALDEN IN THE NAVY OF THE REVOLUTION. 787 

crew from Glover's regiment, which was stationed at Beverly, 8 
he put to sea, barely escaping the messenger which General 
Ward, who had received information which weakened his con- 
fidence in him, had sent to prevent him from taking the com- 
mand- 9 He soon intercepted the British ship " Hope," which 
he carried by boarding. Embarrassed by the nearness of the 
enemy's fleet, which lay within sight at Nantasket, he was 
about to run his prize on shore, when Captain Waters, whose 
proximity may have influenced the easy capture, came along- 
side. In the presence of a regularly commissioned officer and 
a vessel of superior force the authority of Mugford may have 
ceased. 10 Captain Waters undertook to take the prize into 
Boston, which he successfully performed by the way of Pullen 
Point Gut between Deer Island and Point Shirley; although 
she grounded at ebb tide upon the flat known as the Handker- 
chief, where she remained until the ensuing night in sight of the 
British ships. This was a most important capture for the 
American cause, as it furnished fifteen hundred barrels of pow- 
der, one thousand carbines, and a large quantity of instruments 
and tools, in which the army was very deficient. The ship and 
cargo were valued at from forty to fifty thousand pounds 
sterling. 11 

In June the " Lee " made another valuable prize, which was 
reported as follows : — 

Friday last Capt. Daniel Waters, in company with a Marblehead 
privateer, took a large ship from Scotland, having on board 94 High- 
landers, between 30 & 40 sailors for the Ministerial Fleet, and 40 
Pieces of Cannon, 4 and 6 Pounders, besides six mounted on Deck &c. 
The Marblehead Privateer took 60 of the Soldiers on board, and car- 
ried them to Plymouth; Capt. Waters, with the Prize and the Remain- 
der, arrived safe at Marblehead on Saturday. 1 ' 2 

8 Marblehead Messenger, May 20, 1S76. u Clark, Naval History of the United 

9 Gordon, History of the Rise, 6fc, of States, i. 30, 31 ; Boston Gazette, May 20, 
the Independence of the United States, ii. 1776. The " Hope " was taken Friday, 
71 ; Clark, Naval History of the United May 17. On the following Sunday Mug- 
States, i. 30. ford was killed while repelling a boat 

10 The "Franklin" carried twenty- attack upon the " Franklin," which was 
one men and an armament of four guns, aground near Point Shirley. 

N. E. Hist, and Geneal. Register, xxv. 12 Boston Gazette, June 10, 1776. 

36.7. 



788 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

The " Marblehead privateer" which was in company with the 
"Lee" was the public armed schooner " Warren," Captain Burke. 
The prize was " a Scotch vessel of Force," bound from Greenock 
to Boston. 13 Her name is not mentioned ; but she was probably 
the ship " Anne " of two hundred and twenty-three tons, which 
was libelled soon after by the schooners " Lee," " Warren," and 
" Lynch," although the connection of the " Lynch" with the affair 
does not appear in the papers of the day. Coming into the bay 
she had intercepted a vessel going into Cape Ann under a prize 
master, who, seeing that the other was unaware of the evacuation 
of Boston, disguised his real character and represented himself 
as an Englishman bound to Boston for a market. 

The Scotchman being a stranger to this Coast, desired the Prize 
Master to Pilot him in, which he agreed to and conducted him almost 
into Cape Ann, when he observing two of our Privateers appearing in 
sight, discovered the Trap and being considerably to the windward 
made the best of his way off, [but was caught in the end.] 14 

The first anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill was appro- 
priately observed in Massachusetts Bay. Early in the morning 
of that day the Connecticut colonial brig " Defence," Captain 
Harding, of fourteen guns, left Plymouth Harbor. As she pro- 
ceeded northward the sound of firing was heard. At dusk she 
made the " Lee " and other armed vessels, which had been in ac- 
tion with two British transports, who after beating them off had 
anchored in Nantasket Roads. The vessels which had been 
concerned in the affair were the " Hancock," " Lee," " Lynch," 
" Warren," and " Franklin." Our knowledge of their movements 
at the close of the fight is very confused. Cooper, who gives 
the most circumstantial relation, speaks of but four schooners, 
of which he mentions the " Lee," only, by name. He says: — 

After laying his plans with the commanders of the schooners, Cap- 
tain Harding stood into the roads, and about eleven o'clock, at night, 
he anchored between the transports, within pistol-shot. The schooners 
followed, but did not approach near enough to be of much service. 
Some hailing now passed, and Captain Harding ordered the enemy to 
strike. A voice from the largest English vessel answered, "Ay, ay — 

13 America)! Gazette, June 25, 1776. 14 Boston Gazette, June 10, 1776. 



MALDEN IN THE NA VY OF THE REVOLUTION. 789 

I'll strike," and a broadside was immediately poured into the Defence. 
A sharp action, that lasted more than an hour, followed, when both the 
English vessels struck. These transports contained near two hundred 
soldiers of the same corps as those shortly after taken by the Doria ; 
and on board the largest of them was Lieutenant Colonel Campbell, 
who commanded the regiment. 

In this close and sharp conflict, the Defence was a good deal cut up 
aloft, and she had nine men wounded. The transports had eighteen 
killed and a large number wounded. Among the slain was Major 
Menzies, the officer who had answered the hail in the manner stated. 

The next morning the Defence, with the schooners in company, saw 
a sail in the bay, and gave chase. The stranger proved to be another 
transport, with more than a hundred men of the same regiment on 
board. Thus did about five hundred men, of one of the best corps in 
the British army, fall into the hands of the Americans, by means of 
these light cruisers. 15 

The vessels captured at Nantasket were the ship "George" 
and the brigantine " Annabella." It was the former on which 
Colonel Campbell was embarked. The transport taken in the 
bay was the ship " Lord Howe." The ship " Anne," whose 
previous capture has been related, was a part of the same fleet. 
It is worthy of remark that besides Cooper, whose statements 
are not always to be accepted with confidence, the " Defence " 
is mentioned in connection with this affair by Mrs. Abigail 
Adams, in a letter written at Plymouth the day after the battle. 16 
Her story is evidently a statement of the exaggerated rumors 
which were current. Sheppard refers to the "Defence" as a 
Rhode Island cruiser, but does not mention her name. He says 
she lay near Long Island becalmed and that the shot from the 
enemy's guns, passing over the " Hancock," endangered her so 
that she moved from her position and could render no assist- 
ance. 17 It is also noticeable that the prizes made at night were 
libelled soon after by the five Massachusetts schooners, the 
Connecticut cruiser apparently making no claim to their 
capture. The following account of the affair is from a paper 
of the time : — 

15 Cooper, History of the Navy of the United States, ed. 1866, i. 59. 

16 Familiar Letters of John Adams and his Wife, 187. 

17 Sheppard, Life of Samuel Tucker, 5S. 



790 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Last Sunday night two transports, a ship and a Brig, from Scotland, 
with 220 Highlanders on board, were chased by 3 or 4 of our priva- 
teers, into Nantasket, where, instead of finding protection from British 
pirates, they were both obliged to strike to the American flag. The 
ship mounting 9 six- pounders, with about 130 soldiers besides sailors, 
maintained an engagement of several hours, in which she had about 
1 7 killed and wounded. Lieut. Colonel Campbell, and a considerable 
number of other officers, all belonging to the corps of Highlanders, 
are among the prisoners. Major Macenzie of the same corps, was 
killed in the engagement. His remains were interred here with mili- 
tary honors, the clay following. Four men on board the privateers were 
wounded, one or two of them, it is feared, mortally ; but not one killed. 

On Tuesday last another Scotch transport ship with 112 Highlanders 
on board, was brought into Nantasket by our privateers. She was taken 
a small distance from the light-house, and made no resistance. 18 

Clark's relation of the connection of the " Lee " with this affair 
was written on the authority of Captain Waters himself. He 
says : — 

In this vessel he [Captain Waters] cruised near a year ; and cap- 
tured four British transports. On board one of those transports was 
Colonel Campbel with a part of the 71st British regiment. Two other 
American privateers assisted in the capturing of this vessel. Another 
of them was laden with merchandize plundered from the Merchants of 
Boston when evacuated by the British. 19 

Another claimant to the honors of this capture is Captain 
Samuel Tucker of the " Hancock," whose statement, which is 
strangely at variance with the other authorities, seems somewhat 
overdrawn. He says in a letter written in 18 18: — 

I fell in with Colonel Archibald Campbell, in the ship George, and 
brig Annabella, transports with about two hundred and eighty Highland 
troops on board, of General Frazer's corps. About ten p. m. a severe 
conflict ensued, which held about two hours and twenty minutes. I 
conquered them with great carnage on their side, it being in the night, 
and my small barque, about seventy tons burden, being very low in the 
water, I received no damage in loss of men. 20 

18 American Gazette, June 25, 1776. show slight knowledge of the events 

19 Clark, Naval History of the United which they relate. Both make the sup- 
States, 1. 32. posed exploit of Captain Tucker to 

20 Sheppard, Life of Samuel Tucfcr, have been performed in the "Franklin" 
60. The special biographer of Captain during his first cruise; while, as has 
Tucker and the historian of Marblehead been stated, the engagement was more 



MALDEN IN THE NAVY OF THE REVOLUTION. 79 1 

Captain Waters continued in the " Lee " until the next spring, 
making several prizes. Although his vessel is stated by author- 
ities to have been employed by the state, she is usually referred 
to as the continental schooner " Lee ; " and in December she is 
distinctly mentioned as being in the service of the United 
States. 21 In September he sent into Boston " a sloop from the 
Eastward, bound for Halifax, laden with cordwood ; " 22 and at 
the end of the month he is reported as taking the sloop " Bet- 
sey," " which had been before taken by the Milford man of war 
from some of the inhabitants of the American States." 23 In 
October he libelled the schooner " Sally " as a recent capture ; 24 
and soon after the papers of the day chronicle the arrival at 
Boston of " a Prize, taken by Capt. Daniel Waters, laden with 
Staves, bound from Nova Scotia for the West Indies." 25 A 
later capture was that of the brigantine " Elizabeth," Captain 
Thomas Edwards, which was libelled in December. 26 Captain 
Waters, on his promotion, was succeeded in the command of 
the " Lee " by Captain John Skimmer, who is elsewhere 
mentioned. 

In the following March Captain Waters, of whom Washing- 
ton had written " in terms of high approbation," 27 and Captain 
Tucker, being recommended by the commander-in-chief and 
others who had knowledge of their characters, were taken into 
the regular service of the United States, their commissions being 
authorized by the following resolutions : — 

than four months later, and Captain Captain Skimmer was a resident of 

Tucker was in the schooner "Hancock." Boston, where he had a house on Ben- 

Cf. Sheppard, Life of Samuel Tucker, 57 net Street. He left a wife and ten chil- 

et sea. ; Roads, History of Marblehead, dren, of whom Jane, the eldest, married 

x~j r Deacon John Waite, son of Samuel and 

The " Franklin " was under the com- Elizabeth Waite of Maiden and Charles- 

mand of Captain John Skimmer, whom town, who was a merchant engaged in 

both Sheppard and Roads, following the the manufacture of chocolate in Boston 

errors of earlier copyists with admirable and Saugus. 

care, mention as Captain Skinner. He 21 Boston Gazette, December 2, 1776. 

succeeded to this vessel after the brief 22 Ibid., September 16, 1776. 

rule of Mugford, and as commander of 23 Ibid., September 30, 1776. 

the U.S. brig "General Gates "was killed . 24 Ibid., October 28, 1776 
in 177S, in an action with a brig of four- 25 Ibid., November II, 1776. 

teen guns, which was taken after a long 20 Ibid., December 2, 1776. 

engagement. Boston Gazette, August 31, 2T Goldsborough, Naval Chronicle, i. 

1778.' 23- 



792 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Saturday, March 15, 1777 . • • The marine committee reported, 
" that there are several very fine prize ships in the state of Massachu- 
setts-Bay, very suitable for the service of the continent, and which may 
be fitted out at a small expence ; and that captain Daniel Waters, and 
captain Samuel Tucker, who were early employed by general Washing- 
ton in cruizing vessels and were very successful and strongly recom- 
mended by the general and others, are in their opinion proper to be 
appointed to the command of two of them ; " whereupon 

Resolved, That the marine committee be impowered to give direc- 
tions to the agents to purchase three ships, and order them to be 
immediately armed and fitted out for the service of the United States, 
to be under the direction of the marine committee. 

Resolved, That Daniel Waters and Samuel Tucker be appointed cap- 
tains in the navy of the United States, and that they have the command 
of two of the ships ordered to be purchased : and that the command 
of the other ship be given to captain John Paul Jones, until better pro- 
vision can be made for him. 28 

The condition of the finances and other causes led to a de- 
cline of the naval force of the Revolution after the first two 
years of the struggle. It was at its greatest strength at the 
close of the year 1776 and its decline then began. The addi- 
tions which were made by new vessels or captures were barely 
exceeded by the losses which occurred ; and while the high 
prices of materials and labor, or their scarcity, impeded the 
building of new cruisers, it was still more difficult to equip 
them with proper armaments when launched. The two frigates, 
the " Hancock" and the "Boston," which were built in Massa- 
chusetts, were given to John Manly and Hector McNiel. Cap- 
tain Waters received orders to build a twenty-gun ship for his 
command; but finding difficulties in the way of building and 
manning a ship, he entered on board the " Hancock " with Cap- 
tain Manly as a volunteer, with the understanding that he should 
have the first ship that was taken. 29 

A fleet, consisting of the two frigates just mentioned with a 
number of smaller cruisers, under the command of Captain 
Manly as commodore, sailed from Boston sometime in the 



28 Journals of Congress,™.. 91. Drake, of a letter dated "Boston, July 

29 Transcript, by Samuel Adams 14, 1777." 



MALDEN IN THE NA VY OF THE REVOLUTION. 793 

month of May. 30 About the middle of June, the " Hancock" 
fell in with the enemy's frigate " Fox " of twenty-eight guns, 
which was taken after an engagement of four hours, in which 
the Americans lost eight men. The greater part of the men on 
the prize entered the American service ; and out of them and the 
crews of the frigates, including sixty men from the " Hancock," 
the "Fox" was manned; and she was entered in the conti- 
nental service under the command of Captain Waters. Soon 
after the three ships ran off the coast of Nova Scotia and boldly 
looked into the harbor of Halifax, where lay a British fleet un- 
der the command of Sir George Collier. In the action which 
followed the " Fox " was captured, after a sharp resistance, by 
the " Flora," of superior force. In this engagement the " Han- 
cock " was also taken, after a running fight and chase of thirty- 
nine hours; but the " Boston" escaped. Captain McNiel, who 
could, perhaps, have prevented the capture of the " Fox," was 
dismissed from the service for his conduct in this affair. 31 Com- 
modore Manly and Captain Waters were taken from Halifax to 
New York, where they were detained as prisoners of war until 
April, 1778, when they were exchanged. 32 

It does not appear that Captain Waters found active employ- 
ment immediately upon his return. Late in the year he was 
in command of the U. S. brig " General Gates ; " 33 and in the fol- 
lowing March he sailed from Martinique, acting as commodore 
by right of seniority, in company with Captain John Foster 
Williams of the Massachusetts state brig " Hazard." The 

30 "[May 9, 1 777-] The two Conti- Fifty-seven of the crew of the "Flora" 
nental frigates lie windbound, with three were said to have been killed in the 
brigs of twenty guns and some others, engagement. Boston Gazette, July 28, 
which are all going out in company." August 4, 1777. Hale, in Winsor, Nar- 
Familiar Letters of John Adams and his rative and Critical History of America, 
Wife, 269. vi. 579, disregarding all authorities, says 

31 Clark, Naval History of the United the " Hancock " only was captured. 
States, i. 52, 53; Goldsborough, A 7 aval 3 ' 2 "Tuesday evening Commodore 
Chronicle, i. 15, 16; Cooper, History of John Manley, Esq.; and Capt. Waters, 
the Navy of the United States, ed. 1866, arrived in town from New York, where 
i. 79, 80. An account of the action from they have been prisoners a long time." 
British sources is in Boston Gazette, Boston Gazette, April 27, 1778. 

August 11, 1777. The "Hancock" 3S In this command he succeeded 

struck about 9 A. M., July 8. The "Fox" Captain John Skimmer, whose death 

was retaken the day before, the ships has been mentioned in a previous note, 
having become separated in the chase. 



794 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

" General Gates " arrived at Boston, April 14, followed by a 
prize brig, which the consorts had taken off St. Thomas. 34 

In the summer of 1779 the state of Massachusetts fitted out 
an expedition to dislodge the British under Colonel McLean, 
who had taken possession of Castine, at the mouth of the Pen- 
obscot River, where they began the erection of fortifications. 
This enterprise was very popular with the people of the sea- 
coast towns, and a fleet of about forty vessels was brought to- 
gether for its purpose. The ship " General Putnam," a privateer 
of twenty guns and one hundred and seventy men, which had 
just arrived in the harbor of Boston from a successful cruise, 
was seized by the state and placed under the command of 
Captain Waters. 35 The fleet, which was commanded by Com- 
modore Dudley Saltonstall of Connecticut, arrived before the 
enemy's works July 25, and disembarked the land forces under 
General Solomon Lovell. It was soon found that success could 
hardly be hoped for, owing to the utter incapacity of Commo- 
dore Saltonstall, who failed to co-operate or agree with General 
Lovell or to heed the advice and remonstrances of his own 
officers. Under these circumstances it was seriously proposed 
to forcibly depose him and place the command in the hands of 
a more competent officer. Captain Waters was one of those 
spoken of in this connection, the others being John Foster 
Williams and Hoysted Hacker. 36 A general attack, which at 
one time could hardly have proved otherwise than successful, 
was deferred from day to day until it was too late, and a fleet 
under Sir George Collier appeared in the mouth of the river. 
The American vessels were destroyed by their crews or taken 

84 Clark, Naval History of the United Her commander, Captain Saltonstall, 
Slates, i. 90; Boston Gazette, April 12, 19, was very indignant at the seizure, and 
1779. Soon after leaving Boston, at the it is intimated that his unfortunate ap- 
beginning of his cruise, Captain Waters pointment as commodore was made to 
had sent into port the prize schooner conciliate him. Stone, Newburyport 
"General Leslie." Boston Gazette, March Herald, January 11, 1879. 

8, 1779. Capt. Waters took command of the 

85 The "General Putnam" was owned "Putnam," July 7, and his pay was 
by Nathaniel Shaw, whether of New eighteen pounds per month. Mass. 
Hampshire or of Connecticut authori- Archives: Rev. Rolls, xl. 112. 

ties do not agree, and was valued at ' M Clark, A'aval History of the United 

one hundred and ten thousand dollars. States, i. 100. 
Mass. Archives: Rev. Rolls, xxxvii. 280. 



MALDEN IN THE NA VY OF THE REVOLUTION. 795 

by the enemy ; and the forces straggled back to Massachusetts, 
through the wilderness, as best they might. Captain Waters 
drew up an account of the expedition on his return ; and the 
affair became the subject of an investigation, which resulted 
in the severe censure of Commodore Saltonstall. 37 

The lack of public ships and the exigencies of the times com- 
pelled many naval officers of established reputation for effi- 
ciency and bravery, as Captain Manly and others, to take 
service in private armed vessels. Among them was Captain 
Waters, who, in December, 1779, sailed from Boston in the ship 
"Thorn," of eighteen guns and one hundred and twenty men, 
belonging to Lee and Sewall, of Marblehead. The story of this 
cruise, which was an eventful one, is best told in a record made 
at the time. 

Thursday last arrived in Nantasket Road from a cruize, the armed 
ship Thorn, Daniel Waters, Esq ; commander. 

The following particulars are taken from the First Lieutenant's 
journal, on board the said ship, viz : — 

December 24, clear and pleasant weather, at ten a.m. discovered 
two sail to windward, bearing n.n.w. we lay by till we discovered them 
to be armed brigantines — at 4 p.m. they were distant about 4 miles 
upon our weather-quarter ; we made sail and haul'd our wind from 
them, in order to draw them within shot — at 7 p.m. almost calm our 
ship in order, men at their quarters, and in high spirits for engaging — 
Calm all night — The next morning December 25, at 6 a.m. the two 
brigs were on our larboard beam, about two miles distant — light 
breezes from the west, they, to appearance were making preparations 
for engaging — at 9 a.m. the wind sprung up from the s.w. — made 

37 The manuscript of Captain Waters was printed in the Boston Gazette, De- 
is in Mass. Archives, cxlv. 23S, with other cember 27, 1779, It says: — "As the 
original matter relating to the expedi- Naval Commanders in the service of 
tion. The best printed accounts are the State are particularly amenable to 
those of Williamson, History of Maine, the Government, the Committee think 
ii. 46S-47S, and Stone, A r ewlmrypo>t it their duty to say, that each and every 
Herald, January n, 1S79. A British one of them behaved like brave, expe- 
relation is printed in Maine Hist. Coll., rienced, good officers throughout the 
vii. Williamson names the commodore whole expedition." They refer the fail- 
Richard Saltonstall ; and Barry, History ure of the expedition to the " Want of 
of Massichusetts, iii. 161, with the usual proper spirit and energy on the part of 
fate of compilers, falls into the trap, the Commodore." The diary of Gen- 
The report of the court of inquiry, of eral Lovell is printed in Proc. Weymouth 
which General Artemas Ward was pies- Hist. So., 1879-80. 
ident, is in Mass. Archives, cxlv., and 



yg6 ff/STOAY of malden. 

sail for them in as good order as circumstances would admit — at 10 
a.m. came up with [the] sternmost as she was the heaviest, and he 
hailed from White-Hall, and ask'd Capt. Waters what right he had to 
wear the 13 stars in his pendant — Capt. Waters answered I '11 let you 
know presently — then shifted our ensign and gave her a broadside, 
within pistol shot, which she returned, as did the other brig on our 
weather-bow — A warm engagement commenced on both sides for 
about two glasses, when the largest brig laid us on board, on our 
weather quarter, whilst the other amused us on our weather bow, who 
kept up a regular fire ; but she upon our quarter, was soon convinced 
of her error, receiving such a warm and well-directed fire from our 
marines, and seeing his men running about deck with pikes in their 
backs instead of their hands, were undoubtedly glad to get off again ; 
but soon shot along side again and renew'd his cannonade with sur- 
prizing spirit ; but after two or three broadsides was obliged to haul 
down what remained of his colours : — There must have been great 
slaughter, as the blood was seen to run out of the scuppers 3S — The 
other brig seeing her consort had struck, made what sail she could 
to make her escape, but they found us as ready to follow as she was 
to run, after Capt. Waters had ordered the captured brig to follow. 
This engagement lasted about four glasses : Capt. Waters received 
a wound in his right knee, about one glass before she first struck. 

At 3 p.m. came up with the other, after firing several chace shot 
thro' her quarter, when with reluctance they hauled down their colours 
— Capt. Waters ordered me on board, to send the officers on board 
the Thorn, & immediately made sail for the other brig, which was 
making from us : Fresh breezes and cloudy weather. At 8 p.m. the 
Thorn hove to, losing sight of the chace ■ — Squally weather ; the 
next morning saw several oars, beds, coins, grateings, &c. which we 
judged were from the brig, and that she sunk. 39 These 2 brigs 
proved to be privateers from New York ; one the Tryon, com- 
manded by George Sibbles, 40 mounting 16 12 6 and 4-pounders and 
86 men ; the other was the Sir William Erskine, Alexander Hamilton, 
commander, mounting 186 and 4-pounders, and 85 men : In the 

38 Clark, Naval History of the United 39 " Captain Waters, some time after 
States, i. 82, says the enemy had become his arrival, was informed that the 
a complete wreck, and her captain and ' Tryon ' had arrived safe at Antigua, 
the greater part of her crew were killed, The few of her crew that survived the 
only nine of them escaping unhurt. The action, taking advantage of the night, 
"Thorn" was so cut to pieces in the cleared the wreck, altered their course, 
rigging and sails that it was some time and got out of sight." Clark, Naval 
before she could pursue the other brig. History of the United Slates, i. S2. 
Captain Waters became permanently 4(} Named as Stebbins by Clark, Em- 
lame from the wound which he re- mons, and Cooper, in their respective 
ceived. histories. 



MALDEN IN THE NA VY OF THE REVOLUTION. 797 

engagement, the loss sustained by the Sir William Erskine, was 20 
killed and wounded, the damage of the other not known, but in all 
probability to a much greater amount than the other, from the close- 
ness of her situation to a well directed fire, and her shattered appear- 
ance when she struck. Our own loss in the action was 18 killed and 
wounded ; the chief of the latter is in a fair way of a speedy recovery. 

Sunday, Jan. 2. Saw a sail, gave chace & came up with her: She 
prov'd a brig from New York, in ballast and under jury-mainmast, 
which we let go, after putting on board all our prisoners. 

Thursday, Jan. 13. Saw a sail to leeward, gave chace and came up 
with her : She prov'd to be the Sparling, from Liverpool, bound to 
New- York, Jonathan Jackson, commander, mounting 18 6-pounders 
and 75 men, laden with coal, provision and dry goods — We engaged 
her about 40 minutes when she struck. Our loss was 1 killed and 
2 wounded ; theirs was 3 kill'd and the captain, 2 lieutenants and 
7 privates wounded. 41 

The following Advertisement is taken from the New- York Mercury 
of Nov. 19. — The Privateer Brig Tryon, George Sibbles; and Brig Sir 
William Erskine, will, by the Admiral's Permission, sail on Sunday 
next. — A Glorious Chance for a fortunate Cruize now presents itself 
to about a dozen good seamen more who are wanted on board each 
brig, and who, on immediate application, will meet with generous 
Encouragement. — A glorious Chance they 've met with}' 1 

Upon his return Captain Waters was incapacitated for imme- 
diate service by reason of his wound; and the "Thorn" was 
given to Captain Tucker, under whose command she made 
several successful cruises, and was taken by a British frigate in 
July, 1 78 1. Five days later she was recaptured by two French 
ships and sent into port. The next, and probably the last, 
cruise of Captain Waters was in the ship " Friendship," of 
sixteen guns and seventy men, owned by Thomas Russell of 
Boston, to which he was appointed January 29, 1781. 43 After 
this he retired from the sea and lived upon his little farm in 

41 It is said that the "Thorn" had arrived from a cruise, having had a smart 
not more than sixty men left when she engagement, in which five men were 
met the "Sparlin," and that the latter killed belonging to this town [Marble- 
had a crew of ninety-seven men. Clark, head.]" Clark made the error of plac- 
Naval History of the United States, i. 82. ing this cruise of Captain Waters in 

42 Boston Gazette, February 21, 1780. the winter of 1777-7S, and succeeding 
Bowen's Journal, in Roads, History of writers have followed him with com- 
Marblehead, 391, says: — "[Feb] iSth. mendable docility. 

Last night the Thorn, Captain Waters, 43 Mass. Archives, clxxi. 335. 



798 



HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



Maiden, where he died, March 26, 18 16, at the ripe age of 
eighty-five years. 44 

Jonathan Oakes, who was born in Maiden, October 4, 1 75 1 , 
and was in command of a vessel in the merchant service before 
he was twenty years of age, 45 deserves notice as a successful 
naval officer. In the latter part of the year 1776 he was captain 
of the private armed brigantine "Hawke" of ten guns and 
eighty men. 46 In May of the next year the "Hawke" was 
taken into the .service of the state and formed one of the fleet 
which sailed under Commodore Manly on the disastrous cruise 
which resulted in the capture of Manly and Waters. 47 Captain 

Oakes was more 
fortunate than 
his more pow- 
erful consorts ; 

for, being separated from them, he escaped their fate and took 
several valuable prizes. He sent into port the ship " Fanny," 
and the brigs "Charming Sally," "Jenny," and "Devonshire," 



J^^i^^a^f 



44 Captain Waters married (i) Agnes 
Smith, July, 1759, d. July, 177S; (2) 
Mary (Wilcox) Mortimer, widow of 
Peter Mortimer of Boston, about 1794, 
d. June 7, 1802; (3) Sarah Sigourney, 
da. of Daniel and Joanna Sigourney, 
July 29, 1S02, d. July 21, 1S36. His 
only child was Nancy, or Ann, b. Feb- 
ruary 20, 1760, who married Nathaniel 
Bridge. It is said that Captain Waters 
was "out" with her on account of her 
marriage, but was appeased when she 
named her child Daniel Waters Bridge. 

45 Letter of the late David Oakes 
Clark of Milton. 

40 Mass. Archives: Rev. Rolls, vi. 20; 
Boston Gazette, October 28, December 2, 
1776, February 10, 1777. I think the 
" Hawke " was a prize vessel. Her 
owners were Uriah Oakes and William 
Shattuck, of Boston, and her officers were 
Jonathan Oakes, captain ; John Smith, 
first-lieutenant ; John Dexter, second- 
lieutenant ; and Smith Kent, master. 
Later, Thomas Parker was first-lieuten- 
ant, and Smith Kent, second-lieutenant. 
It is probable that both Dexter and 



Parker were of Maiden, but I cannot 
identify them with certainty. Ezra Sar- 
geant and Daniel Parker, of Maiden, 
were sureties upon the bond of Captain 
Oakes. Mass. Archives, clxvi. 11 ; Mass. 
Archives: Rev. Rolls, vi. 20; xl. ^5. 

Uriah Oakes was a cousin of Captain 
Jonathan, and was born in Maiden, April 
14, 1735. After his marriage with Agnes 
Kent, at Maiden, in 1756, he removed to 
Boston, where, at the time of his death, 
he had a house in South Street, near 
Wheeler's Point. He was a sea captain, 
and was owner in several privateers ; 
but I cannot identify him as the com- 
mander of any armed vessel. He died 
in March, 17SS, his wife having died in 
the previous March. He left no chil- 
dren, and one-quarter of his estate was 
willed to his brother Nehemiah and 
nephew Uriah, of Maiden. The re- 
mainder was left to his kinsman, Captain 
Uriah Green, of Boston, who is calltd 
Uzziah in the Boston Directory of 1796. 
Suffolk Probate Records, Ixxxvii. 150. 

47 Mass. Archives, cxlii. 60; Mass. 
Archives: Rev. Rolls, xl. 55. 



MALDEN IN THE NA VY OF THE REVOLUTION. 799 

and returned in safety to Boston, where he arrived early in 
August. 48 In the fall of the same year the "Hawke" made 
a short cruise, apparently under the command of Thomas 
Parker, who had been her first-lieutenant in the previous cruise, 
and returned to port on the last day of November. 49 Her 
armament was then increased to twelve carriage and eicrht 
swivel guns ; and Captain Oakes resumed the command, tak- 
ing during the year 1778 the ship "Jenny" and brigantine 
"Thomas," and, in company with Captain Skimmer of the conti- 
nental brig " General Gates," sending in the brigantine "Nancy" 
and perhaps others. 50 In February, 1779, he purchased an 
interest in the brigantine " Elizabeth," then lying in Salem 
Harbor, of which he took command, her name being changed to 
the " Thomas." She carried six guns and eighteen men, and 
was owned by Thomas Harris and John Larkin of Boston in 
company with Captain Oakes. 51 

In 1780 Captain Oakes was in the armed ship "Favorite" of 
ten guns, 02 in which he made a cruise or, more properly, a 
voyage to Europe or the West Indies, for the life of a sailor 
during the Revolution was a mixed one of trade and war. On 
his return he took command of the brig " Patty," of six guns, 53 
a new vessel in which he became a partner with William and 
John Shattuck of Boston. In the latter vessel, while on a voyage 
from Martinique, in April, 1781, he took the British brig 
" Betsey," bound from New York to Lisbon. 54 After the war 
he made several mercantile voyages, and in 1796 was in Paris 
as agent for the influential house of John and Richard Codman 
of Boston. 55 He retired from the seafaring life soon after, and 
became prominent in town affairs. He was chosen representa- 
tive to the General Court twelve times. This service, though 
not unbroken, is not paralleled in the history of the town by 
any other, except that of Captain John Wayte, whose uninter- 

, ' 8 Boston Gazette, July 21, August 11, Clark; also Mass. Archives: Rev. Rolls, 

25, 1777. vii. 203. 

49 Mass. Archives: Rev. Rolls, vi. 101 ; 52 Ibid., v. 239. 

Boston Gazette, December 1, 1777. 5S Ibid., clxxi. 320; also letter of the 

5 > Mass. Archives: Rev. Rolls, vi. 1 13 ; late David Oakes Clark. 
Boston Gazette, July 20, August 17, 1778. M Boston Gazette, April 23, 30, 1781. 

51 Letter of the late David Oakes 55 Letter of David Oakes Clark. 



SOO HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

rupted term of eighteen years in the same office has been 
mentioned. Captain Oakes died August 16, 1818, at the age 
of sixty-seven years. 

Isaac Smith was born in Truro, Massachusetts, near the year 
1744. His parents dying while he was a child, he was sent to 
Boston at the age of nine years and, in the language of the 
time, " bound out " to go to sea. He seems to have made good 
use of the limited opportunities which a boy in his condition 
could find ; for at the early age of nineteen years he was given 
the command of a vessel, and was actually in that position 
during two years of his apprenticeship. 50 That he was of more 
than ordinary character is evident, and he must have fallen into 
good hands; for out of such apparently unfavorable circum- 
stances as were those of his childhood and youth, he came with 
the best characteristics of a gentleman. Wright, speaking to a 
congregation, in which must have been many who had been 
neighbors and friends of Captain Smith, says: "he was univer- 
sally esteemed for his refinement of feeling, and Christian-like 
disposition." 57 I find no trace of him as in service in the early 
years of the Revolution, while his townsmen were enrolled 
among the minute men or upon the alarm list, which indicates 
that he was, probably, for the most part absent at sea. In 1779 
he appears as commander of the armed ship " Friendship," of 
six guns and sixty men, owned by Thomas Russell and Com- 
pany of Boston. 58 The next year he was in the brigantine 
" Thomas," which Captain Oakes had left for the ship " Favor- 
ite." In the " Thomas " Captain Smith made a prize of the 
British schooner " Hope," which was sent into Boston in the fall 
of 1780, 59 and it was apparently while in this vessel that he was 
made a prisoner and taken to Ireland. When with others he 

50 Information of his grandson, John Smith, fifty years ago, of an old mer- 

Smith Nichols. The Hi-Centennial Book chant of Boston, who was on terms of 

of Maiden, 176, says: ,; He came up from friendship with him, and knew of his 

very humble life, having been taken from origin, proved that the loose statement 

the almshouse in Boston when a boy." of Mr. Wright and the assertion of the 

Wright, Historical Discourse [1831], 24, Bi-Centennial Hook were not correct, 
from whom the compiler drew his in- 57 Wright, Historical Discourse (1831), 

formation, merely says : " I think he was 24. 

taken from the almshouse." Enquiries 58 Mass. Archives: Rev. Halls, v. 248. 

made by the descendants of Captain 59 Boston Gazette, November 20, 1780. 



MALDEN IN THE NA VY OF THE REVOLUTION. 8oi 

was released an attempt was made to carry away in a bag a boy 
who was imprisoned with them, but the ruse was detected and 
the boy detained. 60 

After his return Captain Smith, who had gained good profits 
upon the sea, purchased a large tract of land in the south-east 
part of the town, on which was standing, near the easterly 
corner of Chelsea and Ferry Streets, the house where he resided 
until his death. Before this he had lived in a house on the 
Saugus Road, now Upham Street in Melrose. Like his neighbor, 
Captain Oakes, he became influential in town affairs; and he 
was chosen representative for six consecutive years, dying while 
holding that office, December 13, 1795. Both as a citizen and 
as a public man he sustained an unblemished reputation; and 
he was esteemed as one of the most influential members of the 
General Court. 61 He is said to have been the most wealthy 
man in Maiden at the time of his death. 

Dr. John Sprague, the son of Phineas Sprague, was born 
in Maiden, January 13, 1754. It is said that his education as a 
physician was self-acquired, which is altogether unlikely, as he 
appears to have been ^^ 

successful in his later fJf^ oC^O<9^^ 

practice. It is prob- ^j O/l/fcfJ'f '' fT c/ 
able that he studied C/ / ^ OS? 

with Dr. Simon Tufts of Medford, as it was facetiously said 
that " he had the care of Dr. Tufts's horse." He acted as 
surgeon's mate to Dr. Walter Hastings of Chelmsford in the 
regiment of Colonel Ebenezer Bridge, in which he engaged 
May 1, 1775. 62 How long he remained in this capacity does 
not appear, except that it is said, probably from tradition, that 
he was in service eighteen months. However, he, or one of 
like name, was in Captain Blaney's company at Point Shirley 
in June, 1776. He afterwards entered the naval service, and 
a^ surgeon of the armed schooner "Active," Captain Andrew 
Gardner, one of the ill-fated fleet of Commodore Manly, was 

60 Information of the late John Smith Nichols. 

61 Wright, Historical Discourse (1831), 24. 

62 Mass. Archives: Rev. Rolls, xxvi. 34. 

5i 



802 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

taken prisoner in 1777. He was exchanged about the same time 
as Captain Waters, 63 and returned to Maiden, where for a while 
he practised his profession and taught school. The attractions 
of the sea, however, may have exceeded those of the land ; and 
he engaged as surgeon on the armed vessel "Thomas," in which 
he had the fortune to again become a prisoner. From the name 
of the vessel and the similarity of the circumstances, I think 
he was with Captain Smith and that they were fellow-sufferers. 
He was carried to Kinsale on the coast of Ireland, where he 
was detained until the winter of 178 1-2, when he was released 
and returned to America by the way of France. 64 On his ar- 
rival he was appointed surgeon of the state sloop " Winthrop," 
Captain George Little, in which he remained until the close of 
the war. 65 In this vessel he saw much service, as the " Win- 
throp " was particularly active and made many captures. Cap- 
tain Little was a fighting officer, and his first-lieutenant was the 
afterwards famous Commodore Edward Preble. 

After the war Dr. Sprague resumed the practice of medi- 
cine in Maiden, and purchased the house in which Joseph Hills 
had lived in the early days of the town, at the corner of Main 
and Salem Streets, and which is elsewhere noticed as the tavern 
of James Kettell and of Robert Foster. Here he lived until 
his death, from consumption, October 21, 1803. He left the 
reputation of a rough and honest man, whose language was 
usually better chosen for the purposes of wit than for the re- 
quirements of propriety. Many stories are yet told by old in- 
habitants which illustrate his readiness at repartee and the force 

63 Mass. Archives: Rev. Rolls, xl. 130; Hill London, The Thirteenth Day of 

Applications for Pensions, iii. 9. November Jnstant. Given under my 

04 The certificate of the release of hand this Twenty Second Day of No- 
Doctor Sprague is in the possession of vember 1/81 
his grandson, Charles H. Sprague,. Jn? How Agent 

" To all Whom it may Concern. for Prisoners of War 

These are to certify That the Bearer At Kinsale 

John Sprayer an American Prisoner of " L'Ecrit en 1'autre part certifie que 

War, late Surgeon on board the Thomas le Porteur du present le Sieur Jean 

Merchant Vessel, is set at Liberty Pur- Sprayer Americain a ete relache des 

suant to an Order from the Hon'ble Prisons de Kinsale en Jrelande 

Commissioners for Sick and Wounded Nantes 9 Mars 17S2 

Seamen and for Exchanging Prisoners SCHWEIGHAMER & Dobree." 

of War. Dated at Their Office on Tower C5 Mass. Archives: Rev. Rolls, xl. 3,8. 



MALDEN IN THE NA VY OF THE REVOLUTION. 803 

of his well-seasoned language. It would seem that some flavor 
of the rough life of the ocean lingered about him. 

Dr. Ezra Green, who was graduated at Harvard College 
in 1765, was the son of Ezra and Eunice (Burrill) Green and 
was born in Maiden, June 17, 1746. At the beginning of the 
Revolution he was settled at Dover, New Hampshire, in the 
practice of his profession. During the siege of Boston he was 
attached to Reed's New Hampshire regiment as surgeon; and, 
after the evacuation, he went with the army to New York and 
thence to Ticonderoga and Canada. In the severe sufferings of 
the northern army from small-pox he was enabled to perform 
a much needed and arduous service, as he had experienced that 
then much feared and dangerous disease, both as a physician 
and a patient, while in the camp on Winter Hill. After the re- 
treat of the army from Canada he returned to Dover, where he 
remained until October, 1777, when he was appointed surgeon 
of the continental ship-of-war " Ranger," under the command of 
the afterwards celebrated John Paul Jones. It was during the 
cruise which followed that Jones carried alarm and terror along 
the British coast, and made his famous descent upon White- 
haven, and his more famous call upon the Countess of Selkirk 
at St. Mary's Isle. It was also during this cruise that the 
"Ranger" captured the British sloop-of-war "Drake" and re- 
ceived " the first salute ever pay'd the American flagg." 66 

Dr. Green returned to America in the " Ranger," arriving 
at Portsmouth in October, 1778, the ship being in command of 
Captain Simpson, who had been her former lieutenant. The 
vessel, being refitted, sailed in the spring with Dr. Green 
again as surgeon and his friend, Captain Simpson, in command. 
During the summer the " Ranger" and her consorts, the ships 
" Providence" and " Queen of France," took eleven large ships 
out of the Jamaica fleet, seven of which they brought into 
Boston. Great alarm was felt by the inhabitants when ten 
ships were seen sailing into the harbor ; and it was believed 
that the British had come at last to burn the town. In a 
previous cruise, a few weeks earlier, the " Ranger," with the 

66 Diary of Ezra Green, 19; Sherburne, Life of John Paul Jones, 43. 



804 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

" Warren " and " Queen of France," had taken seven prizes into 
Portsmouth. In the fall Dr. Green retired from the ship; and, 
being married soon after, he remained at Dover until 1780, when 
he sailed in the " Alexander," Captain Mitchell, on a cruise which 
accomplished nothing. In 178 1, still in the " Alexander," now 
in the command of Captain Simpson, he went to France and 
on his return withdrew from the sea as well as from the practice 
of medicine at Dover, which he relinquished to a friend to 
whom he gave his instruments and books. In the exercise of 
the kindly ministrations of life he passed far beyond the usual 
bounds of man's life; and although deprived by an accident of 
the powers of locomotion for more than ten years, " his days 
and years flew apace without weariness or complaint, and with 
a sweet serenity of mind and calm Christian patience." He 
died at Dover, July 25, 1847, " at the very advanced age of one 
hundred and one years and twenty-eight days, retaining to his 
last hour a clear unclouded mind, and with the full faith and 
confiding hope of entering a future world of progressive im- 
provement and happiness." 67 

About the first of February, 1778, the armed brigantine 
" Massachusetts " lay in Boston harbor. Her captain was John 
Lambert ; and Smith Kent, who had sailed as an officer with 
Captain Oakes, was her first-lieutenant. On her muster roll 
appear the names of John Sprague, quartermaster, Bernard 
Newhall, William Sprague, Thomas Jenkins, and Joshua Gill. 68 
While the origin of the first name may be in doubt, although it 

67 In writing of Dr. Green I have is a private reprint of IV. E. Hist, and 

used: The Consolations of Old Age. \ A \ Geneal. Register, xxix. 13-24, 170-181, 

Sermon \ Preached at the \ First Unita- and has a woodcut silhouette likeness 

rian Church, in Dover, N. H. \ Cn the of Dr. Green at the age of fifty-five years, 

2Sth of June, IS40, \ Being the One Hun- and a portrait taken when he was one 

dredth Birthday \ of Ezra Green, M.D.\ hundred years old. Mr. Green says of 

The Oldest Living Alumnus of Harvard his father, "In personal appearance and 

College. I By S. A'. Lothrop, \ Pastor of contour of face, he was not unlike Gen. 

the Church in Brattle Square, Boston. | Washington, for whom he was often 

I846. I and Diary \ of \ Ezra Green, taken while in the army. In stature he 

M.D., I Surgeon on board the Continen- was six feet three inches tall and pro- 

tal Shipof-lVar " Ranger," . . . \witk\ portionately large in frame ; and whether 

Historical Notes and a Biography, \ by | walking or sitting, he always maintained 

Commo. Geo. Henry Preble, U. S-*N., | a very erect position." 
and Walter C. Green. \ 1S75. | The latter 68 Mass. Archives: Rev. Rolls, xxxix.i 2. 



MALDEN IN THE NA VY OF THE REVOLUTION. 805 

has a strong flavor and probability of Maiden birth, we may be 
sure that the others are those of Maiden men. William 
Sprague was a younger brother of Dr. John Sprague. How 
he went from home with " his maits " and never returned may 
best be told in the quaint words of his father, Phineas Sprague. 

William Sprague being in the twenty seacon year of his age Shiped 
himself with a Number more of his maits on board the massachuset 
Brig so called Bound to France with 14 carige gunes and a Hundred 
men — the Nex Nite after She Sailed a Voilent Storm of Snow caim on 
and Nothing of them could wee ever Hear of them Since tho it is Now 
above three years Since he took his leive of us and Bid us Fair well. 69 

It is of little moment now to either father or son. 

In the year 1780 the town records mention Jonathan Gard- 
ner and his brother-in-law, Daniel Knower, who "ware Lost in 
the Extraordinary Hericane in the Wesindies in Oct? 10 & II." 
The name of one Naler Hatch, in January, 1783, as the com- 
mander of the letter-of-marque brig " Lady Washington," 
owned by Crowell Hatch and others of Boston, 70 may indicate 
that Captain Hatch, after his military service, was induced to 
try again his fortune upon the sea ; but in the absence of posi- 
tive evidence, I can only mention the possibility of his having 
been the last Revolutionary naval officer of Maiden. 

69 Pkineas Sprague his book, in the 70 Mass. Archives, clxxii. 281. 

possession of Artemas Barrett, 1866. 



806 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

SOLDIERS AND SAILORS. 

IN this chapter I have gathered, from scattered public and 
private records, the names of those who served by land or 
sea in the revolutionary period. Of the two hundred and thirty- 
seven names here recorded, five are of men who became inhab- 
itants of the town after the war, and one, of a prominent man 
who was here for a short time at its beginning. The others 
are of those who are reported as of this town, at the time of 
their service, or who were natives of Maiden, serving from 
other towns. 

The imperfect condition of the public records, the confusion 
existing from similarity of names, and the many apparent 
errors in the original rolls will not allow a claim for absolute 
perfection in this or any similar list. 

Atkinson, John; with Capt. Treadwell, Col. Crane's regi- 
ment of artillery; in continental army pay accounts for ser- 
vice, May 2, 1777, to May 2, 1780; service reported as matross 
seven months and twenty-nine days, as gunner twenty-four 
months. Vide Hatkerson. 

Bailey, David ; advertised in Boston Gazette as having de- 
serted at Fishkill, Oct. 27, 1781, from Lieut.-Col. Webb's regi- 
ment of levies from Suffolk and Middlesex. 

Bailey, John; with six months' reinforcements in roll dated 
Nov. 16, 1780, ae. 18, stature 5.9, ruddy complex. ; marched 
to camp with Capt. Parker, Nov. 6, 1780. Discharged, May 
17, 1781. 

Baldwin, Joseph; eight months' service, 1775, with Capt. 
N. Hatch, Lieut.-Col. Bond; in Rhode Island service, May- 
July, 1777, with Capt. Stephen Dana, Col. Whitney; allowed 
state bounty, June 12, 1778, for one month in lines at Boston 
with Capt. Stephen Dana, Col. Mcintosh. 



SOLDIERS AND SAILORS. 807 

Baldwin, Samuel; with Capt. B. Blaney in Point Shirley 
exp., June, 1776; in Rhode Island service, July 24-Dec., 1779, 
with Capt. Thos. Hovey, Col. Tyler; said to have been in ser- 
vice as an artificer. 

Banks, ZACcheus; born in Maiden, May 19, 1759; enlisted 
in three months' service, May 3, 1775, as from Charlestown; 
was in camp on Prospect Hill, Oct. 6, 1775. Was mustered 
into service as of Boston, Feb. 16, 1777; was in service as a 
drummer in various regiments during the war; and was dis- 
charged, June 9, 1783, with a record of seven years and three 
months' service. 

Barber, Peter; with six months' reinforcements in roll, 
Nov. 16, 1780, ae. 19, stature 5.8, ruddy complex. ; marched 
to camp with Capt. Parker, Nov. 6, 1780; discharged, May 17, 
1781. 

Barnes, Ebenezer; in eight months' service, 1775, with 
Capt. N. Hatch, Lieut. -Col. Bond. 

Barnes, Samuel; corporal with Capt. Ephraim Cleaveland, 
Col. Jackson; in pay accounts for service, April 6, 1777, to 
Dec. 31, 1780; enlisted at Soldier's Fortune for the war, May 
11, 1779, ae. 23, stature 5. n, dark complex., brown hair, by 
occupation a blockmaker; in Jan., 1781, was corporal with 
Capt. Wade, Col. Jackson. 

Barrett, James ; in service, 1779, ae. 16, stature 5.3, light 
complex. ; with six months' reinforcements, marched under 
Capt. Soper from Springfield, July 24, 1780; 220 miles from 
home when discharged, Dec. 8, 1780. 

Barrett, Joseph, Jr.; Lex. alarm, 1775; with Capt. B. 
Blaney, Col. Brooks's regiment of guards at Camb. , Feb. -April, 

1778. 

Barrington, George; in eight months' service with Capt. 
N. Hatch, Lieut. -Col. Bond, 1775; with Capt. John Walton, 
Col. Brooks's regiment of guards at Camb. and Charlestown, 
Feb. -April, 1778. 

Bennett, Andrew; enlisted at West Point, Jan. 7, 1777, 
for three years ; with Capt. Ephraim Cleaveland, Col. Jackson ; 
in continental army pay accounts, Jan. 18, 1777 to Dec. 31, 



808 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

1780, sometimes as Andrew Benheld. In Jan., 178 1, was cor- 
poral with Capt. Peirce, Col. Jackson, ae. 22, stature 5. 10, 
dark complex., black hair, by occupation a mariner. 

Berry, Samuel; enlisted Oct. 14, 1777, for three years 
under Col. Henry Jackson; corporal, Dec. 10, 1778; in army 
pay accounts for service, Oct. 14, 1777, to Dec. 31, 1779, Du t 
reported absent from duty, six months and four days, having 
deserted, June 27, 1779; returned, or was retaken, March 5, 
1780, and reduced to private in Lieut. -Col. Cobb's Company, 
Col. Jackson. His family in Maiden received supplies, Jan.- 
April, 1780. 

Bill, Benjamin; allowed state bounty, June 12, 1778, for 
one month in the lines at Boston, with Capt. Stephen Dana, 
Col. Mcintosh; service, March 20-April 5, 1776. 

Bishop, Samuel; eight months' service with Capt. N. Hatch, 
Lieut. -Col. Bond, 1775; in list of three years men, 1777. 

Blaney, Benjamin, a son of Capt. Benj. Blaney, a promi- 
nent inhabitant of Maiden, whose death in 1751 is elsewhere 
noticed, was born July 24, 1738. He was commissioned as 
ensign in the Maiden company, Sept. 1765; was still ensign 
in Jan. 1773, but appears as captain in Sept. 1774. He led 
his company at the Lex. alarm and in the affair at Noddle's 
Island, 1775. His command in April, 1776, was the 4th co. 
1st Middlesex regiment, Col. Samuel Thacher, which partici- 
pated in the Point Shirley exp., June, 1776. He was capt. of 
a company of eighty-eight men, which was drafted from that 
regiment and marched to Fairfield, Conn., Dec. 16, 1776; and 
was capt. in Col. Brooks's regiment of guards, which was em- 
ployed at Cambridge (or on Prospect and Winter Hills) in 
guarding the prisoners taken in the campaign against Bur- 
goyne, 1777-78. He was chosen first representative from Mai- 
den under the state constitution, 1780. In 18 15 he sold his 
house near Waters's Spring and soon after removed to Chester, 
Vt. , where he died, Jan. 29, 1820, in the family of his son-in- 
law, Samuel Sargent. Wright, Historical Discourse, 24, says 
he "was prompt in duty, and persevering in effort." 

Blatchford, John; in list of three years' men, 1777. 



SOLDIERS AND SAILORS. 809 

Bottom (Bottumcl), Thomas; farmer, ae. 45, stature 5.7, 
complex, light; enlisted May 9, 1 78 1, for three years. 

Boyd, John; in list of three years' men, 1777. Appears as 
private with Capt. James Bancroft, Col. Jackson, in pay 
accounts for service, June 17, 1777 to Dec. 31, 1779; res. 
Stoneham, credited to Maiden. Probably the same who ap- 
pears in a return, dated Medford, Feb. 19, 1778, res. Medford, 
enlisted for Maiden from Lieut. Stephen Hall's co. 1st Mid- 
dlesex regiment. 

Breeden, Daniel; Lex. alarm, 1775. 

Breeden, Elnathan; Lex. alarm, from Maiden, 1775; 
probably the same as reported of Stoneham, private with Capt. 
Isaac Hall, Col. Bond, in return, dated Camp Prospect Hill, 
Oct. 6, 1775; reported enlisted for Quebec, Sept. 12, 1775; 
enlisted Nov. 19, 1776, for the war; on muster roll at camp at 
Stillwater, Sept. 1777, at White Plains, June-Aug. , 1778; on 
various rolls until Jan. 30, 1779; during this time appears as 
a three years' man from Maiden with Capt. Samuel Flower, 
Col. Greaton, 2d battalion Mass. forces. Reported deserted, 
Jan. 30, 1779, but appears with Capt. Flower in 1780. 

Breeden, Samuel; farmer, born in Maiden, but then res. 
at Temple, ae. 28, stature 5.8, complex, brown, enlisted April 
23, 1775, as sergeant with Capt. Ezra Towne, Col. Read, in 
eight months' service. 

Brigham, Aaron; of Marlborough, in some rolls is reported, 
probably by error, as of Maiden. 

Brintnall, William; ae. 19, stature 5.5, complex, ruddy; 
with six months' reinforcements, marched under Capt. Soper, 
July 15, 1780; reported passed muster at Camp Totoway, Oct. 
25, 1780; service was for four months and six days in contin- 
gent of six months' men raised by Maiden. He died in ser- 
vice, Nov. 20, 1780. 

Brown, Benjamin; Lex. alarm, 1775; lieutenant with Capt. 
Nathan Sargeant, three months' state service, 1779. 

Brown, Peter; Lex. alarm, 1775; perhaps the same as the 
boatswain's mate with Capt. Daniel Waterr, in ship " General 
Putnam," July-Aug. , 1779. 



8 10 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Bucknam, Aaron; with Capt. B. Blaney in Point Shirley 
exp., June, 1776; in R. I. service, May-July, 1777, with Capt. 
Stephen Dana, Col. Whitney. 

Bucknam, Benjamin; with Capt. B. Blaney in Point Shir- 
ley exp., June, 1776. 

Bucknam, David; Lex. alarm, 1775; with Capt. Caleb 
Brooks in Brooks's regiment of guards at Camb. , Nov. 1777. 

Bucknam, Joses (sometimes Joseph); of Medford, appears 
in various service from 1776 to 1780, and is sometimes called 
of Maiden. 

Bucknam, Nathan; in eight months' service, 1775, with 
Capt. N. Hatch, Lieut. -Col. Bond. 

Bucknam, William; res. Medford, is reported as having 
enlisted for the town of Maiden in 1780 in six months' service, 
ae. 21, stature 5.8, complex, dark. William Bucknam, son of 
James and Mary, was born in Maiden, April 30, 1759. 

Burditt, Joseph; with Capt. B. Blaney in Point Shirley 
exp., June, 1776. 

Burditt, Nathan; eight months' service, 1775, with Capt. 
N. Hatch, Lieut. -Col. Bond; with Capt. Caleb Brooks in 
Brooks's regiment of guards at Camb., Nov., 1777. 

Burditt, Robert; Lex. alarm, 1775; eight months' service, 
1775, with Capt. N. Hatch, Lieut. -Col. Bond. 

Burditt, Samuel; eight months' service, 1775, with Capt. 
N. Hatch, Lieut. -Col. Bond. Second-lieut. in Col. Ephraim 
Wheelock's regiment in list of officers, Ticonderoga, Oct. 11, 
1776. 

Carden, Timothy; received sixty pounds, July 13, 1782, 
of Thos. Hills, chairman of a class in the town of Maiden, for 
enlisting in the continental service for three years. 

Caswell, Eliakim; enlisted June 5, 1775, eight months' 
service as bombardier in Capt. John Callender's artillery, Col. 
Gridley. 

Caswell, Elijah ; sergeant in eight months' service with 
Capt. N. Hatch, Lieut. -Col. Bond, 1775. 

Caswell, Joshua; in eight months' service with Capt. N. 
Hatch, Lieut. -Col. Bond, 1775. 



SOLDIERS AND SAILORS. 8ll 

Chadwick, Daniel; Lex. alarm, 1775; with Capt. B. 
Blaney in Point Shirley exp., June, 1776; with Col. Brooks's 
regiment of guards at Camb. in 1778, performing "extraordi- 
nary services," which the town recognized in 1779. 

Cheever, Joseph, was a native of Chelsea, where he was 
born, Dec. 14, 1752. He was a great-grandson of the Rev. 
Thomas Cheever, the third pastor of the church in Maiden, 
and became a resident here in middle life. In the Lex. alarm 
he was out as fourth-sergeant in Capt. Samuel Sprague's com- 
pany of Chelsea militia; and he was soon after commissioned 
by the provincial authorities as first-lieutenant in the regiment 
of Col. Samuel Gerrish, his company, which was under the 
conmand of his former captain, Samuel Sprague, being largely 
composed of Essex County men. 

At the battle of Bunker Hill Col. Gerrish neglected or 
refused to lead his regiment farther than Charlestown Neck, 
where portions of other regiments had halted, deterred by the 
severe fire to which it was exposed. A part of the regiment, 
however, under its adjutant, Christian Febiger, a Danish lieu- 
tenant, who afterwards became a colonel in the continental 
service, crossed the Neck and took part in the action, doing 
good service. Its captain having been wounded earlier in the 
day, as tradition states, Cheever led his company into the en- 
gagement and was on the hill during the battle, receiving a 
bullet through his hat. After the battle Col. Gerrish was 
tried and cashiered, and the command of the regiment was 
given to Loammi Baldwin, its former lieutenant-colonel. Dur- 
ing the siege of Boston, Lieut. Cheever' s company was sta- 
tioned a portion of the time at Chelsea, his regiment occupying 
the lines in that town and Maiden and Medford. 

On the reorganization of the army he was attached to the 
company of Capt. Barnabas Dodge, in the same regiment, 
which now became the twenty-sixth regiment of foot. He 
went with the army in its removal to the seat of war in the 
central provinces, and participated in the battle of White 
Plains and other engagements in the vicinity of New York. 
By the death or discharge of Capt. Dodge he succeeded to the 



812 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

command of the company, which position he maintained until 
the regiment was mustered out of service in 1777, although he 
received no commission other than that of lieutenant, which 
he already held. He led his company of forty-three men in 
the attack on Trenton, Dec. 26, 1776; and tradition says that 
he was complimented by Washington and employed in some 
unstated service at headquarters. His grandson, the late Sam- 
uel Raymond {Maiden Mirror, Feb. 2, 1884), says: "I often 
heard my grandfather tell how he and his command were sent 
to the rear of the enemy to make an attack, so as to draw the 
attention of the British and Hessians in that direction, while 
Washington with the main body of his army made the success- 
ful attack in front. He often would tell of the sufferings and 
privations of our army, and of their leaving a bloody track on 
the snow and ice in that winter's campaign." 

In 1799 he purchased a farm on Salem Street in Scadan, 
where he lived until his death, Oct. 23, 1830. He is buried 
in the Salem Street Cemetery. His commission as captain 
(1793), signed by John Hancock, is preserved in the Maiden 
Public Library. 

CHRISTY, John; ae. 22, stature 5.8, complex, dark, with six 
months' reinforcements, marched from Springfield, under Lieut. 
Cary, Oct. 26, 1780; 220 miles from home when discharged. 

Cox, Unite; Lex. alarm, 1775; sergeant in eight months' 
service with Capt. N. Hatch, Lieut. -Col. Bond, 1775. 

DELAND, David; drafted and marched for Horse Neck, with 
Capt. John Walton, Col. Brooks, Sept. 26, 1776. 

Derby, Arnold; in list of three years' men, 1777. 

Dexter, Aaron, who appears here by reason of his services 
at sea, was the fourth son of Richard and Rebecca (Peabody) 
Dexter, and was born Nov. 11, 1750. His father chose for 
him a liberal education ; and he was graduated at Harvard Col- 
lege in 1776. He was an interested and intelligent witness of 
the battle of Bunker Hill from the Maiden side of the river. 
Anal e die Magazine, xi. 257. 

After his graduation he studied medicine with Dr. Samuel 
Danforth of Boston. He made several voyages as surgeon, 



SOLDIERS AND SAILORS. 813 

being finally captured and carried into Halifax. After many 
hardships he was exchanged; and, returning to Boston, he be- 
gan the practice of his profession, in which he soon attained a 
high degree of success. His connection with Harvard College 
is related on page 629. He took an active interest in public 
affairs ; and he served in the winter campaign in which the 
uprising known as Shay's Rebellion in 1787 was overcome. 
He was an early member of the Massachusetts Historical 
Society, and a member and promoter of many other literary 
and charitable bodies. He had a decided taste for farm ins:, 
and owned for that purpose the large tract of land in Chelsea 
on which the United States Hospitals now stand. His death, 
which occurred at Cambridge, Feb. 28, 1829, was attributed 
to old age. Bi-Centennial Book of Maiden, 173; Mass. Hist. 
So. Proc, April, 1829, 421-423. 

Dexter, John; with Capt. B. Blaney in Point Shirley exp., 
June, 1776; perhaps was lieut. of the brigantine "Hawke," 
Capt. Jona. Oakes, Nov. 1776. 

Dexter, Richard; Lex. alarm, 1775; with Capt. B. Blaney 
in Point Shirley exp., June, 1776. 

Dexter, William; Lex. alarm, 1775; corporal with Capt. 
B. Blaney in Col. Brooks's regiment of guards at Camb., Feb.- 
April, 1778; acknowledged, April 4, 1778, the receipt of two 
pounds " As a Bounty for my Going to Providence Voted By 
said Town in may 1777." 

Dickenson, James; with Col. Brooks's regiment of guards 
at Camb. in 1778, performing " extraordinary services, " which 
the town recognized in 1779. 

Dow, Solomon ; in eight months' service with Capt. N. 
Hatch, Lieut. -Col. Bond, 1775. 

Eaton, Ebenezer; in eight months' service with Capt. N. 
Hatch, Lieut. -Col. Bond, 1775. 

Eaton, Ezra; enlisted, May 3, 1775, in eight months' ser- 
vice, as sergeant with Capt. Theo. Bliss, Col. Patterson. 

Eaton, Nathan; corporal at Lex. alarm, 1775; in eight 
months' service with Capt. N. Hatch, Lieut. -Col. Bond, 
1775- 



8 14 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Edmunds, John; Lex. alarm, 1775, but not with the 
militia. 

Emerson, William (Rev.) ; a son of Rev. Joseph Emerson; 
prominent by his patriotic sermons ; chaplain at Ticonderoga, 
Aug. 1776; died Oct. 20, 1776. Vide chap. xix. note 20. 

Farrington, William; in the 3rd regiment, date not 
known; by a resolve of the General Court in 1801 was allowed 
200 acres of land, or twenty dollars, for his services. 

Floyd, Joseph; Lex. alarm, 1775. 

Floyd, Noah; allowed state bounty, June 12, 1778, for 
one month in the lines at Boston, with Capt. Stephen Dana, 
Col. Mcintosh. 

Forbes, Christopher; a soldier of the French War, whose 
service is given on page 705. He claims a place here, by 
tradition, as a participator in the Lex. alarm and in other 
local affairs, although he does not appear in the records. He 
was, doubtless, one of the unorganized multitude who assailed 
the retreating forces from every vantage ground. A story is 
told of "old Kit Fobes, " which probably applies to the summer 
of 1774. At that time, and until the gathering of the Ameri- 
cans around Boston prevented, British officers were often met 
riding about the country, ostensibly for pleasure but really for 
information. Forbes was going along the Salem Road, with 
his scythe upon his shoulder, when he was met by a single 
officer to whose salutation he failed to reply. The officer, 
with an oath, ordered him to salute, and as the other still 
proceeded silently upon his way, threatened him. Forbes was 
wide awake as well as silent, and, as the officer stooped in his 
seat to draw his sword, by a dexterous movement threw his 
scythe back of the other's neck and said he would cut off his 
head if he moved. It is said that the officer carried his head 
with great care and that Forbes held the scythe in its position 
with a firm hand. In this manner the twain moved slowly 
along the road to Waite's Tavern in Scadan, where the officer 
was allowed to dismount and was presented to the people who 
had gathered there. Forbes related the story and proposed to 
salute the officer if he would treat the crowd at the bar. This 



SOLDIERS AND SAILORS. 815 

being done Forbes gave a proper military salute to the officer, 
who rode away followed by the cheers of the people and an 
invitation to come again. 

Gardner, Jonathan; Lex. alarm, 1775; with Capt. B. 
Blaney in Point Shirley exp., June, 1776; with Capt. Stephen 
Dana, Col. Whitney, in Rhode Island service, May-July, 
1777; with Capt. Thos. Hovey, Col. Tyler, in Rhode Island 
service, Dec. 1779; lost at sea, Oct. 1780. 

Geary, Joshua; probably from Stoneham ; was hired by 
Maiden on the call of June 9, 1779; ae. 17, stature 5.1, com- 
plex, light, with Capt. Waite, Col. Stearns, in nine months' 
service. 

Gill, Joshua; eight months' service with Capt. N. Hatch, 
Lieut. -Col. Bond, 1775; lost on armed brigantine " Massachu- 
setts," 1778. 

Gill, William; Lex. alarm, 1775. 

Gould, John; Lex. alarm, 1775; with Capt. B. Blaney in 
Point Shirley exp., June, 1776. 

Graham, John; eight months' service with Capt. N. Hatch, 
Lieut. -Col. Bond, 1775; advertised in the Boston Gazette, 
April 7, 1777, as having deserted from the company of Capt. 
Philip Thomas, Col. Marshall. 

Green, Bernard; corporal at Lex. alarm, 1775; corporal 
with Capt. B. Blaney in Point Shirley exp., June, 1776; first- 
sergeant with Capt. John Walton, Col. Brooks, marched to 
Horse Neck, Sept. 26, 1776, and was at the battle of White 
Plains, and participated in the victories of Trenton and Prince- 
ton ; lieut. in Col. Thacher's regiment of Middlesex militia, 
July 29, 1778. Mr. Green was a leading citizen of Maiden 
after the war, and passed a long and honorable life, serving 
the town in its various offices of responsibility. He was an 
active justice of the peace more than thirty years. He died 
July 15, 1834, aged eighty-two years. He was the brother of 
Dr. Ezra Green and the Rev. Aaron Green, who are else- 
where noticed, and the father of the late James D. Green, 
formerly a Unitarian clergyman, and, later, the first mayor of 
Cambridge. 



8l6 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Green, Daniel; ae. 15, stature 4.9, complex, light, hair 
light, eyes blue, a farmer, enlisted, April 4, 1781, for three 
years. 

Green, Ezra; surgeon in the army and at sea with Capt. 
Paul Jones and others. Vide chapter xxiii. 

Green, James; Lex. alarm, 1775. 

Green, Phineas; with Capt. B. Blaney in Col. Brooks's 
regiment of guards at Camb. , Feb. -April, 1778. 

GROVER, BENJAMIN; Lex. alarm, 1775; sergeant in eight 
months' service with Capt. N. Hatch, Lieut. -Col. Bond, 1775; 
in service in the expedition against Canada, and died at 
Ticonderoga, Oct. 16, 1776. 

Grover, John; Lex. alarm, 1775; eight months' service 
with Capt. N. Hatch, Lieut. -Col. Bond, 1775; drafted and 
marched for Horse Neck, Sept. 26, 1776, with Capt. John 
Walton, Col. Brooks ; with Capt. Joseph Fuller, Col. Bullard, 
in service " Northward," Aug.-Nov., 1777; with Capt. Caleb 
Brooks in Col. Brooks's regiment of guards at Camb., Dec, 
1777-April, 1778; with Capt. Benj. Edgell, Col. Jacobs, July, 
1778-Jan., 1779, perhaps in Rhode Island service. John Grover 
also appears with Capt. B. Blaney in Col. Brooks's regiment of 
guards at Camb., Feb.-April, 1778; as matross with Capt. 
Donnell, Col. Crane, July, 1778-Dec. , 1780, and perhaps 
later, having enlisted for the war. I cannot distinguish be- 
tween the two who performed the above service. John Grover 
and John Grover, Jr., have become confounded; and per- 
haps the two following names should have a part of this record. 

Grover, John 3RD; Lex. alarm, 1775. 

Grover, J0HN4TH; Lex. alarm, 1775. 

Grover, Samuel; eight months' service with Capt. N. 
Hatch, Lieut.-Col. Bond, 1775; with Capt. Benj. Edgell, Col. 
Jacobs, Jan. 1778, for one year, perhaps in Rhode Island ser- 
vice; was in hospital at Freetown, Sept. 13, 1778; lieutenant 
with Capt. Nathan Sargeant, three months' state service, 1779. 
Hallowell, Calvin; in list of three years' men, 1777; was 
with Capt. Joseph McNall, Col. Wigglesworth, at Camp Val- 
ley Forge, Feb., 1778. 



SOLDIERS AND SAILORS. 817 

Hallowell, Joseph; Lex. alarm, 1775; eight months' ser- 
vice with Capt. N. Hatch, Lieut. -Col. Bond, 1775. 

Hallowell, Samuel; Lex. alarm, 1775; eight months' 
service with Capt. N. Hatch, Lieut. -Col. Bond, 1775. Hal- 
lowell often appears as Holloway in the rolls and records. 

Harden {Harding), Samuel; a negro ; in list of three years' 
men, 1777; advertised in the Boston Gazette, April 7, 1777, as 
having deserted from the company of Capt. Philip Thomas, 
Col. Marshall. 

Hasev, Jacob; with Capt. Abraham Watson, 2nd battalion 
Mass. forces, Col. Greaton ; dead, 1780 (?). 

Hatch, John; eight months' service with Capt. N. Hatch, 
Lieut. -Col. Bond, 1775. 

Hatch, Naler; a master mariner before the Revolution; 
captain of the alarm list, and of the town guard after the Lex. 
alarm; captain of the company raised May, 1775, of the regi- 
ment of Col. Thomas Gardner, which was posted at Beacham's 
Point during the siege. After the evacuation this company 
under Capt. Hatch marched with its regiment, then the 25th 
of the continental line, Col. Wm. Bond, to New York, and was 
engaged in the abortive expedition of Gen. Thomas against 
Canada, 1776. The possible service of Capt. Hatch upon the 
ocean is elsewhere noticed. He died in Maiden, July 14, 
1804, ae. 73. 

Hatch, Naler {Jr.); Lex. alarm; eight months' service as 
fifer with Capt. N. Hatch, Lieut. -Col. Bond, 1775. 

Hatkerson (perhaps Atkinson) John; in list of three years' 
men, 1777. 

Hawkes, Ezra; Lex. alarm, 1775; with Capt. B. Blaney 
in Point Shirley exp. , June, 1776. 

Havnes, Peter; deserted at Fishkill, Oct. 27, 1781, from 
Lieut. -Col. Webb's regiment of levies from Suffolk and 
Middlesex. 

Hazelton, Samuel; received thirty pounds, lawful money, 
bounty from the town, Aug. 22, 1777, "to loin the Continall 
Army to the Last of November Next," probably in Rhode 
Island service; in list 1779, ae. 33, stature 5.9, sandy corn- 
s' 



818 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

plex. ; with six months' reinforcements, marched under Capt. 
Soper from Springfield, July 24, 1780; 220 miles from home 
when discharged. Sometimes called Hazeltinc. 

Hill, Charles; Lex. alarm, 1775; corporal in eight months' 
service with Capt. N. Hatch, Lieut. -Col. Bond, 1775; with 
Capt. B. Blaney in Point Shirley exp., June, 1776; allowed 
state bounty, June 12, 1778, for one month in the lines at Bos- 
ton, with Capt. Stephen Dana, Col. Mcintosh. 

Hill (or Hills) Prince; eight months' service with Capt. 
N. Hatch, Lieut. -Col. Bond, 1775. This was probably the 
negro servant of Thomas Hills whose marriage is recorded in 
chap. xii. 

Hills, Benjamin; ae. 28, stature 5.3, ruddy complex.; 
with six mouths' reinforcements marched under Capt. Soper 
from Springfield, July 24, 1780; 220 miles from home when 
discharged. 

Hills, Nathan; allowed state bounty, June 12, 1778, for 
one month in the lines at Boston, with Capt. Stephen Dana, 
Col. Mcintosh; corporal with Capt. John Kettell, in detach- 
ment of guards under Maj. Heath, stationed in Boston, Aug. 
1779. 

HOLDEN, John; born in Stoneham, Oct. 24, 1738, and at 
the Lex. alarm was in the militia company of Capt. Samuel 
Sprague of that town. It is not certain that he was that John 
Holden who was first-lieutenant in the regiment of Col. Thos. 
Nixon, 1 777-1 7795 but it is sure that he was commissioned as 
first-lieutenant under Capt. Josiah Green, Col. Fox, in the 
nine months' service, April 6, 1779. He was first-lieutenant 
with Capt. Isaac Gage, Col. Dana, whose company was de- 
tached under Lieut. -Col. Webb to join the continental army 
and was in service, Oct. -Dec. , 1781, and perhaps longer. 
Soon after the war he came to Maiden, and later he removed 
to Otisfield, Me., where he died, Feb., 1806. His descend- 
ants have been well known here in town and church affairs. 
His widow, Mary (Knight), died at Otisfield, May 21, 1842, 
at the advanced age of 100 years, 2 months, and 9 days. 

Holden, John, Jr. ; of Stoneham, son of the above; ae. 



SOLDIERS AND SAILORS. 819 

17, stature 5.7, light complex., in nine months' service with 
Capt. Josiah Green, Col. Fox, 1779; enlisted for three years 
from April 10, 1781, and received a bounty of 320 Spanish 
milled dollars. 

Holden, Daniel; of Stoneham, brother of the above, was 
in the army, but I have no record of his service. 

Holmes, Fortune; perhaps a negro; in list of three years' 
men, 1777. 

Howard, Amos; sergeant with Capt. B. Blaney in Point 
Shirley exp., June, 1776; sergeant with Capt. B. Blaney in 
Col. Brooks's regiment of guards at Camb., Feb. -April, 1778. 

Howard, David; Lex. alarm, 1775. 

Howard, Ezra; Lex. alarm, 1775; with Capt. B. Blaney 
in Point Shirley exp., June, 1776; with Capt. B. Blaney in 
Col. Brooks's regiment of guards at Camb., Feb. -April, 1778. 

Howard, John; with Capt. B. Blaney in Point Shirley 
exp., June, 1776. 

HUTCHINGS, Samuel; in list of prisoners in Old Mill 
Prison, England, from sloop "Franklin's" prize, taken May 1, 
1 78 1. Perhaps this should be Hitchings. 

Jenkins, Edward; with Capt. B. Blaney in Point Shirley 
exp., June, 1776. 

Jenkins, Enoch; son of Nathaniel Jenkins, the schoolmas- 
ter, was born, Aug. 16, 1763. He enlisted at the early age of 
fourteen years; is in list of three years' men, 1777, and was in 
camp at Valley Forge; enlisted for the war, Dec. 21, 1779; 
in Jan., 1781, was in service in the light company in the 8th 
Mass. regiment. He died in Java, N. Y., Jan. 5, 1846. The 
following incident, related in Memoirs of Gen. La Fayette 
(Hartford, 1825), 164, is connected with him. 

Baron Steuben, while reviewing our regiment, noticed in the ranks 
a very spruce young lad, handsomely formed, standing erect, with the 
air of a genteel soldier, his gun and equipments in perfect order. The 
Baron, struck with his military appearance, patted him under his chin 
to elevate his head still more erect, viewed him with a smile, and said, 
" How long have you been a soldier? you are one pretty soldier in 
miniature, how old are you?" "Seventeen, sir." "Have you got 



820 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

a wife?" Then, calling to the colonel, he said, "Col. Jackson, this 
is one .fine soldier in miniature." 

This occurred at a review of the regiment of Col. Micah 
Jackson, at West Point in May, 1780. Information of Otis 
Pettee of Newton. 

Jenkins, Ezekiel; Lex. alarm, 1775. 

Jenkins, Ezekiel, Jr. ; Lex. alarm, 1775. 

Jenkins, John; Lex. alarm, 1775; with Capt. B. Blaney in 
Point Shirley exp. , June 1776; allowed state bounty, June 12, 
1778, for one month in the lines at Boston with Capt. Stephen 
Dana, Col. Mcintosh. 

Jenkins, Joseph; Lex. alarm, 1775; with Capt. B. Blaney 
in Point Shirley exp., June, 1776; allowed state bounty, June 
12, 1778, for one month in the lines at Boston with Capt. 
Stephen Dana, Col. Mcintosh. 

Jenkins, Obadiah; eight months' service with Capt. N. 
Hatch, Lieut. -Col. Bond, 1775; in Rhode Island service, 
May-July, 1777, with Capt. Stephen Dana, Col. Whitney; 
perhaps drummer with Capt. B. Blaney in Col. Brooks's regi- 
ment of guards at Camb., Feb. -April, 1778; enlisted for the 
war, Dec. 21, 1779; in Jan., 1781, was in service in the light 
company in the 8th Mass. regiment. 

Jenkins, Thomas ; lost on armed brigantine " Massachu- 
setts," 1778. 

Johnson, Isaac; in list of three years' men, 1777. 

Johnson, James; with six months' reinforcements, 1780; 
220 miles from home when discharged. 

Jones, Dudley; eight months' service with Capt. N. Hatch, 
Lieut. -Col. Bond, 1775; in list of three years' men, 1777. 

Kelly, Henry; drafted and marched for Horse Neck, with 
Capt. John Walton, Col. Brooks, Sept. 26, 1776; in hospital, 
Oct. 31, 1776. 

Key, John; drafted to march with Capt. John Walton, Col. 
Brooks, to Horse Neck, but did not join the regiment, although 
he had received bounty of Benj. Bucknam, " to go on an expe- 
dition to farefeald in the Room of the s"? Bucknam," Sept., 
1776. 



SOLDIERS AND SAILORS. 821 

Knower, Daniel; eight months' service with Capt. N. 
Hatch, Lieut. -Col. Bond, 1775; lost at sea, 1780. 

Knower, Jonathan; eight months' service with Capt. 
Abner Cranson, Col. Whitcomb, 1775; enlisted for three 
years, April 18, 1781, ae. 33, stature 5.9J, complex, light, 
brown hair, blue eyes, a farmer. 

Larry, Jerry; with six months' reinforcements, 1780; 220 
miles from home when discharged. 

Low, John; ae. 24, stature 5.7; complex, dark, dark hair, 
blue eyes, a farmer, enlisted for three years, May 19, 1781. 

Low, William; Lex. alarm, 1775. 

Lynde, Benjamin; Lex. alarm, 1775; with Capt. B. Blaney 
in Point Shirley exp. , June, 1776; with Capt. B. Blaney in 
Col. Brooks's regiment of guards at Camb. , Feb. -April, 1778. 

Lynde, Charlestown ; perhaps a negro; in eight months' 
service with Capt. Edward Blake, Col. Brewer, 1775; in three 
years' service, 1777, in 6th battalion Mass. Bay forces, with 
Capt. Robt. Allen, Col. Alden. 

Lynde, Jabez; sergeant at Lex. alarm, 1775; sergeant with 
Capt. B. Blaney in Point Shirley exp., June, 1776; received 
six pounds bounty, Dec. 9, 1776, "Voted by the Town of mai- 
den for Providing a Reinforcement for the american Army." 

Lynde, Jonathan; drafted and marched for Horse Neck, 
Sept. 26, 1776, with Capt. John Walton, Col. Brooks. 

Lynde, Joseph; Lex. alarm, 1775. 

Lynde, Joseph, Jr.; Lex. alarm, 1775; with Capt. B. 
Blaney in Point Shirley exp., June, 1776. 

Lynde, Nathan; lieutenant at Lex. alarm, 1775; first- 
lieut. 4th co. 1 st Middlesex regiment, with Capt. B. Blaney, 
Col. Thacher, and so in Point Shirley exp., June, 1776. 

Lynde, Samuel; enlisted in eight months' service, May 30, 
1775, and in July, was in camp at Chelsea with Capt. Samuel 
Sprague, Col. Gerrish. 

MAGOS, Pomp; a negro; ae. 31, stature 5.6J; was hired by 
the town under call of June 9, 1779, for nine months' men, and 
was with Capt. Waite, Col. Stearns, Nov. 1779. He died in 
the Maiden almshouse. 



822 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Maiticema, Patrick; this distorted name is in the list of 
three years' men, 1777. 

Malony, James; in three years' service, 1777, in 6th 
battalion, Mass. Bay forces, with' Capt. Robt. Allen, Col. 
Alden. 

Manser, John; with Capt. B. Blaney in Point Shirley 
exp. , June, 1776. 

McLane, John; advertised in Boston Gazette, April 7, 1777, 
as having deserted from the company of Capt. Philip Thomas, 
Col. Marshall. 

Mendum, William; of Boston, but in service as from Mai- 
den; in list of three years' men, 1777; was a matross, Nov. 1, 
1779, with Capt. Benj. Frothingham in Col. Crane's regiment 
of artillery, then at Springfield. 

Munroe, Philemon; with Capt. John Parker on Lexington 
common, April 19, 1775; afterwards came to Maiden; with 
Capt. B. Blaney in Point Shirley exp., 1776; with Capt. B. 
Blaney in Col. Brooks's regiment of guards at Camb., Feb.- 
April, 1778; vide chapter xxii., note 27. 

Neagles, Michael, was born in Maiden, Dec. 25, 1765, 
but enlisted on the quota of Lexington, for three years, March 
6, 1781; then called a farmer, ae. 16, stature 5.8, dark com- 
plex., hair, and eyes. He received "four thousand Dollars of 
the old Emmission, " and "a Note for Sixteen Heffers, " the 
whole being valued as ^80 specie in 1783. Discharged from 
service as "a private in the first partisan Leagion, " at York- 
town, Nov. 15, 1783. He returned to Maiden and died here, 
April 22, 1836. His gravestone in the Salem Street Ceme- 
tery bears a copy of his discharge. 

Newhall, Bernard; Lex. alarm, 1775; sergeant in eight 
months' service with Capt. N. Hatch, Lieut. -Col. Bond, 1775; 
lost on armed brigantine "Massachusetts," 1778. 

Newhall, Edward; Lex. alarm, 1775; with Capt. B. 
Blaney in Point Shirley exp., June, 1776; received bounty of 
two pounds, May 6, 1777, for going "to Rodilant. " 

Newhall, Ezra ; born in Maiden but removed to Lynn ; an 
officer in the French War; captain of a Lynn company at the 



SOLDIERS AND SAILORS. 823 

Lex. alarm, 1775; senior captain under Col. Mansfield, 1 775— 
6; major; lieut.-col., May 17, 1777, in 5th regiment Mass. 
Continentals, Col. Putnam ; was in service until the close of 
the war; died in Salem, April 5, 1798. 

Newhall, Johx; for service in 1757, vide chap. xx. ; re- 
moved from Maiden to Spencer, and was out at the Lex. alarm, 
1775, as captain of a company of minute men. 

Newhall, Nehemiah; enlisted in eight months' service, 
April, 28, 1775, with Capt. Samuel Wood, Col. Ward. 

Nichols, James; in eight months' service with Capt. N. 
Hatch, Lieut. -Col. Bond, 1775. 

Nichols, John; with Capt. B. Blaney in Point Shirley 
exp., June, 1776; with Capt. B. Blaney in Col. Brooks's regi- 
ment of guards at Camb., Feb. -April, 1778; after his death in 
1 82 1 his widow received a pension of six and one-quarter cents 
a day. 

Norwood, Peter; in list of three years' men, 1777. 

Oakes, Edward; in Rhode Island service, Dec, 1779, with 
Capt. Thos. Hovey, Col. Tyler. 

Oakes, Jonathan; naval officer; for services vide chapter 
xxiii. 

Oakes, Nehemiah; sergeant at Lex. alarm, 1775; sergeant 
with Capt. B. Blaney in Point Shirley exp., June, 1776; al- 
lowed state bounty, June 12, 1778, for one month in the lines 
at Boston, being sergeant with Capt. Stephen Dana, Col. 
Mcintosh. 

Oliver, Aaron ; a mulatto, born in Maiden, but then resi- 
dent in Temple; enlisted April 23, 1775, in eight months' ser- 
vice with Capt. Ezra Towne, Col. Read. 

Oliver, Robert; with Capt. B. Blaney in Point Shirley 
exp., June, 1776; drafted and marched for Horse Neck, Sept. 
26, 1776, with Capt. John Walton, Col. Brooks. 

Oliver, Samuel; allowed state bounty, June 12, 1778, for 
one month in the lines at Boston, with Capt. Stephen Dana, 
Col. Mcintosh. 

O'Neal, John; farmer, ae. 20, stature 5.6, light complex., 
hair, and eyes; enlisted in three years' service, July 5, 1781. 



824 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Paine, Ebenezer; Lex. alarm, 1775; with Capt. B. Blaney 
in Point Shirley exp., June, 1776. 

Paine, James; in eight months' service with Capt. N. 
Hatch, Lieut. -Col. Bond, 1775; in Rhode Island service with 
Capt. Stephen Dana, Col. Whitney, May-July, 1777. 

Paine, John; allowed state bounty, June 12, 1778, for one 
month in the lines at Boston, with Capt. Stephen Dana, Col. 
Mcintosh. 

Paine, Josiah; in eight months' service with Capt. N. 
Hatch, Lieut. -Col. Bond, 1775. 

Paine, Stephen, Jr., Lex. alarm, 1775; in eight months' 
service with Capt. N. Hatch, Lieut. -Col. Bond, 1775; with 
Capt. B. Blaney in Point Shirley exp., June, 1776. 

Parker, Daniel; in list of three years' men, with Capt. 
Abijah Childs, Col. Greaton, 1777; re-enlisted, April 11, 
1781, for three years, ae. 29, stature 5. \\\ t dark complex., 
hair, and eyes. Saddletree-maker. 

PARKER, Jacob; corporal at Lex. alarm, 1775; corporal 
with Capt. B. Blaney in Point Shirley exp., June, 1776. 

Parker, Nathan; Lex. alarm, 1775. 

Parker, Thomas; perhaps was lieut. of the brigantine 
"Hawke" with Capt. Jona. Oakes in 1777; performed " ex- 
traordinary services " at Camb., in 1778, which the town recog- 
nized in 1779. 

Patterson, John; in list of three years' men, 1777. 

Peirce, Edward; ae. 20, stature 5.5, light complex., brown 
hair, blue eyes, mariner; enlisted, May 25, 1781, for three years. 

Perkins, Joseph; deacon; with Capt. B. Blaney in Point 
Shirley exp., June, 1776. 

Phillips, Francis; Lex. alarm, 1775; with Capt. B. Blaney 
in Point Shirley exp., June, 1776; was at Ticonderoga with 
others from Maiden in Sept. 1776. 

Popkin, John; of Boston; was captain of a company in Col. 
Richard Gridley's battalion of artillery, June, 1775; commis- 
sioned, Jan. 1, 1777, as major in 3rd regiment Mass. conti- 
nental line, Col. Greaton; promoted lieut. -col. in Col. Crane's 
artillery, and served through the war. Having lost his first 



SOLDIERS AND SAILORS. 825 

wife he married, Oct. 12, 1797, Sarah, widow of the Rev. 
Nahum Sargeant and niece of the Rev. Eliakim Willis, and 
removed to Maiden, where he lived until his death in the par- 
sonage of the South Parish, which had been transferred to Mr. 
Willis. He died May 8, 1827. "He was remarked," says 
his son, the late learned Prof. John S. Popkin of Harvard 
Univ., "for walking mostly to Boston, and returning, nearly 
every day in the year, except Sabbaths. The distance is about 
three miles. He was an inspector of the customs. This duty 
and exercise he continued till after he was eighty-four years 
old. He kept a horse and chaise on the farm, and sometimes 
rode to and from Maiden Bridge, about a mile, but more com- 
monly walked all the way. He had been weakly in his youth, 
and unwell in his middle age, but more healthy in his old age, 
and he lived nearly eighty-five years. His daily walk, under 
Providence, probably improved his health. His walk, I think, 
would compass the globe more than once." 

There is a tradition that the Widow Sargeant was a person 
of great beauty, and that Col. Popkin and his son were rivals 
for her affection. Prof. Popkin never married ; but as he was 
twenty-six years old at the time of his father's second mar- 
riage, and the lady was twelve years older, the story may not 
be taken in full faith. 

By his second marriage Col. Popkin had one son, Ebenezer 
Willis Popkin, a person of feeble mind, who inherited the par- 
sonage, where he died, Dec. 12, 1883, ae. 84. 

Pratt, Brister; in list of three years' men, 1777. 

Pratt, Edward; ae. 18, stature 5.9, dark complex., with 
six months' reinforcements, marched under Capt. Soper from 
Springfield, July 24, 1780; 220 miles from home when 
discharged. 

Pratt, Floyd; in eight months' service with Capt. N. 
Hatch, Lieut. -Col. Bond, 1775. 

Pratt, Jacob; Lex. alarm, 1775; with Capt. B. Blaney in 
Point Shirley exp. , June, 1776. 

Pratt, John; corporal with Capt. Cadwallader Ford, in 
Col. Brooks's regiment of guards at Camb., Feb. -April, 1778. 



826 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Pratt, Joseph; with Capt. B. Blaney in Point Shirley 
exp. , June, 1776. 

Pratt, Philip; ae. 16, stature 5.3, light complex. ; enlisted 
April 18, 1780, as drummer, for the war; was at West Point, 
June, 1 78 1, in 3rd Mass. regiment, Col. Greaton. Received 
state bounty of $300. 

Ramsdell, John; deacon; Lex. alarm, 1775; with Capt. 
B. Blaney in Point Shirley exp., June, 1776; was at Ticon- 
deroga, under Capt. N. Hatch, with others from Maiden, Sept. 
1776. 

Rand, Edmund; with Capt. B. Blaney, in Col. Brooks's 
regiment of guards at Camb. , Feb. -April, 1778. 

Ranfree, John; ae. 34, stature 5.10, black complex., hair, 
and eyes, farmer; enlisted, June 26, 1781, for three years. 

Robinson, Ebenezer ; received bounty from Wm. Waite, 
chairman of a class, for three years' enlistment, July 1, 1782. 

Ryan, John; in list of three years' men, 1777. 

Sargeant, Amos; in eight months' service with Capt. N. 
Hatch, Lieut. -Col. Bond, 1775; joined company of Capt. 
Caleb Brooks, Col. Brooks's regiment of guards at Camb. 
Nov. 3, 1777; a seaman in the privateer brigantine "Hazard." 

Sargeant, David; with Capt. B. Blaney in Point Shirley 
exp., June, 1776. 

Sargeant, Ezra; Lex. alarm, 1775. 

Sargeant, Jacob; Lex. alarm, 1775; with Capt. B. Blaney 
in Point Shirley exp., June, 1776; allowed state bounty, June 
12, 1778, for one month in the lines at Boston, with Capt. 
Stephen Dana, Col. Mcintosh. 

Sargeant, John; allowed state bounty, June 12, 1778, for 
one month in the lines at Boston, with Capt. Stephen Dana, 
Col. Mcintosh; fifer. 

Sargeant, Nathan; captain in the regiment of Col. Fox, 
1776; in July, 1778, he appears as captain of a company in the 
regiment of Col. Gerrish, in service for fifteen days at Winter 
Hill; commissioned, July 28, 1778, as captain, regiment not 
named, detailed for guard duty at Winter and Prospect Hills, 
in service until Dec. 14, 1778; enlisted, Jan. 26, 1779, as cap- 



SOLDIERS AND SAILORS. 827 

tain in a company of guards doing duty in and about Boston, 
under Maj.-Gen. Gates, service until May 20, 1779. The ser- 
vice at Winter and Prospect Hills was in guarding the men of 
the army of Burgoyne, who were encamped there as prisoners 
of war. Capt. Sargeant married, as his third wife, Ruth, 
daughter of the Rev. Joseph Emerson, and died, Dec. 1, 1798. 

Sargeant, Phineas; in eight months' service with Capt. 
N. Hatch, Lieut. -Col. Bond, 1775. 

Sargeant, Samuel Green; fifer, with Capt. B. Blaney in 
Point Shirley exp., June, 1776. 

Sargeant, Silas; Lex. alarm, 1775; in eight months' ser- 
vice with Capt. N. Hatch, Lieut. -Col. Bond, 1775; died about 
1777. 

Sargeant, Solomon ; in eight months' service with Capt. 
N. Hatch, Lieut. -Col. Bond, 1775. 

Sargeant, Thomas; with Capt. B. Blaney in Point Shir- 
ley exp., June, 1776. 

Sargeant, Winslow; drummer at Lex. alarm, 1775; in 
same capacity with Capt. B. Blaney in Point Shirley exp., 
June, 1776. 

SELLACK (Sallack, Select) James; enlisted, April 24, 1777, 
for three years or for the war; in Jan., 1781, was in service 
with Capt. Vose in 3rd regiment of artillery; re-enlisted, May 
16, 1781, for three years, ae. 40, stature 5.10, light complex., 
hair, and eyes, a farmer. 

Seymour, Thomas; matross with Capt. Joseph Balch in 2d 
co. Mass. State train of artillery, Col. Crafts, Feb. -May, 
1777. 

Shuker, Joseph; enlisted, March 16, 1781, for three years, 
ae. 28, stature 5.9, dark complex, and eyes, brown hair, a 
farmer. 

Shute, Amos; sergeant, Lex. alarm, 1775; in same capac- 
ity with Capt. B. Blaney in Point Shirley exp., June, 1776. 

Shute, Ebenezer; with Capt. B. Blaney in Point Shirley 
exp., June, 1776. 

Shute, Solomon; in camp at Chelsea with Capt. Samuel 
Sprague, Col. Gerrish, July, 1775. 



828 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

SMITH, GEORGE; in eight months' service with Capt. N. 
Hatch, Lieut. -Col. Bond, 1775. 

Smith, Isaac; naval officer; for services vide chapter 
xxiii. 

Smith, John; perhaps was lieut. in the armed brigantine 
"Hawke, " Capt. Jona. Oakes, Nov., 1776; enlisted June 30, 
1781, for three years, ae. 40, stature 5.3, light complex, and 
hair, gray eyes, a farmer. 

Sprague, Benjamin, Jr. ; Lex. alarm, 1775; enlisted, April 
26, 177$, in eight months' service, with Capt. Benj. Hastings, 
Col. Whitcomb. 

Sprague, John (Dr.); mate to Surgeon Hastings in the 
regiment of Col. Ebenezer Bridge, 1775; for services at sea, 
vide chapter xxiii. 

Sprague, John; in eight months' service with Capt. N. 
Hatch, Lieut. -Col. Bond, 1775; perhaps was quartermaster of 
the armed brigantine "Massachusetts," lost at sea, 1778. 

Sprague, Phineas, and Sprague, Phineas, Jr. ; both 
father and son were at the Lex. alarm, 1775; one was with 
Capt. Blaney in Point Shirley exp., June, 1776; one was in 
Rhode Island service, with Capt. Stephen Dana, Col. Whit- 
ney. I cannot separate their service. Of the father, Wright 
{Historical Discourse, 24) says : — 

" He was a resident in the north part of the town, and a most 
daring advocate of American rights. He was quite advanced 
in life, at the breaking out of the war; but was one of the in- 
dividuals connected with Capt. Hatch's company, mentioned 
as starting for Concord in the night, after having lain at 
Beacham's Point during the day. Mr. Sprague was very deaf; 
but his heart was as impervious to fear, as his ears were to 
sound. And when the rest of his party were flying from the 
view of the enemy, he was seen upon a piece of rising ground 
swinging his hat, and shouting victory." 

This probably refers to some incident during the siege, as 
there was no reason why the Maiden men should go to Con- 
cord during the night after the Lex. alarm. Artemas Barrett 
{Melrose Journal, April 17, 1875), savs that Mr. Sprague and 



SOLDIERS AND SAILORS. 829 

others made an 'effort to cross the Mystic during the progress 
of the battle of Bunker Hill, but were prevented by an Eng- 
lish vessel in the river. "At low water there was a foot-way 
to the channel and a boat to cross with. Mr. Sprague, who 
was quite deaf but very courageous, was determined to go 
over, and when on his way he was shot at from the vessel. 
He several times dared them to fire, and they shot several 
nine-pound balls at him, which missed and were lodged in the 
bank of the river. He afterward dug one of them out and said 
he wanted to keep it to remember the devils by. That ball 
was in the possession of the writer for a long time but it has 
disappeared." Mr. Sprague died, Dec. 29, 1805, ae. 80. He 
was father of Dr. John Sprague. 

Sprague, Sandy {Alexander?); in list of three years' men, 
1777. 

Sprague, William; son of Phineas, above mentioned; Lex. 
alarm, 1775; in eight months' service with Capt. N. Hatch, 
Lieut.-Col. Bond, 1775; with Capt. B. Blaney in Point Shir- 
ley exp. , June, 1776; drafted and marched for Horse Neck, 
with Capt. John Walton, Col. Brooks, Sept. 26, 1776; in 
Rhode Island service with Capt. Stephen Dana, Col. Whit- 
ney, May-July, 1775; lost on armed brigantine "Massachu- 
setts," 1778. 

Story, Elisha (Dr.) ; surgeon in regiment of Col. Moses 
Little, 1775, and in later service. Removed to Marblehead. 
Vide chapter xxi., note 17. 

Sweetser, John; drafted and marched for Horse Neck, 
with Capt. John Walton, Col. Brooks, Sept. 26, 1776. 

Sweetser, Joseph; in eight months' service with Capt. 
Ephraim Corey, Col. Prescott ; deserted, June 15, 1775. 

Taylor, John; with six months' reinforcements, 1780; 220 
miles from home when discharged. 

Tucker, John; in list of three years' men, 1777; private 
with Col. Brewer at Camp Valley Forge, Jan. 23, 1778. 

Tufts, Adam; in list of three years' men, 1777. 

Tufts, John; with Capt. B. Blaney in Point Shirley exp., 
June, 1776. 



830 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Tufts, Stephen; Lex. alarm, 1775. This" was the miller 
who afterwards owned the mill privileges on Spot Pond Brook. 
.He then lived in the old Tufts house on the west side of Mai- 
den River, where the United States buildings now stand. He 
was somewhat famous as a marksman ; and the following anec- 
dote is related of him in connection with the battle of Bunker 
Hill. 

" On the day of the battle he took his gun, or rifle, and am- 
munition, including seventeen balls, got into his boat, rowed 
down Maiden River to the Mystic, thence to the shores of 
Charlestown, where the battle was raging, and fired away all 
his ammunition against the British. He thought he must have 
annoyed them considerably, because they finally turned and 
fired upon him. How he manoeuvred is not known to our in- 
formant, but the foregoing, he says, was told him by the said 
Stephen Tufts himself. One of his sons, now living, remem- 
bers hearing him tell of firing from behind a rock at the battle, 
from which it is conjectured that he hauled his boat ashore 
under the bank of the river and fired upon the flank of the 
British as they advanced upon the American breastworks." 
Bunker Hill Aurora, June 16, 1866. He died in Maiden, 
March 12, 1832, ae. 84. 

Tufts, Timothy; brother of the preceding; Lex. alarm, 
1775; with Capt. B. Blaney in Point Shirley exp., June, 1776; 
drafted and marched as 3rd corporal with Capt. John Walton, 
Col. Brooks, for Horse Neck, Sept. 26, 1776. 

Upham, Ezra; Lex. alarm, 1775; joined company of Capt. 
Caleb Brooks, in Col. Brooks's regiment of guards at Camb., 
Nov. 3, 1777. 

Upham, William; Lex. alarm, 1775; with Capt. B. Blaney 
in Point Shirley exp., June, 1776; drafted and marched for 
Horse Neck, with Capt. John Walton, Col. Brooks, Sept. 26, 
1776; in hospital, Oct. 31, 1776. 

Vinton, Benoni; with Capt. B. Blaney in Point Shirley 
exp., June, 1776; drafted and marched for Horse Neck with 
Capt. John Walton, Col. Brooks, Sept. 26, 1776; in hospital, 
Oct. 31, 1776. 



SOLDIERS AND SAILORS. 83 1 

Vinton, John; Lex. alarm, 1775; with Capt. B. Blaney, 
in Point Shirley exp., June, 1776; 2nd lieut. in Col. Samuel 
Thacher's Middlesex regiment (militia), July 29, 1778. 

Wade, James; Lex. alarm, 1775; with Capt. B. Blaney in 
Point Shirley exp., June, 1776. 

Waite, Benjamin; in list, dated Nov. 24, 1779, of men 
raised under call of June 9, 1779. 

Waite, David; Lex. alarm, 1775. 

Waite, Ebenezer; Lex. alarm, 1775; with Capt. B. Blaney 
in Point Shirley exp., June, 1776. 

Waite, John, Jr. ; Lex. alarm, 1775 ; with Capt. B. Blaney in 
Col. Brooks's regiment of guards at Camb., Feb. -April, 1778. 

Waite, Joseph; son of Samuel and Mary Waite, born 
April 3, 1763; unmarried; shipped on an armed vessel; taken 
prisoner and died on a guard ship. 

Waite, Micah; corporal at Lex. alarm, 1775; with Capt. 
B. Blaney in Point Shirley exp., June, 1776. 

Waite, Samuel; Lex. alarm, 1775; allowed state bounty, 
June 12, 1778, for one month in the lines at Boston, with 
Capt. Stephen Dana, Col. Mcintosh. 

Waite, Samuel, 3RD; allowed state bounty, June 12, 1778, 
for one month in the lines at Boston, with Capt. Stephen 
Dana, Col. Mcintosh. 

Waite, Thomas, 3RD; Lex. alarm, 1775; with Capt. B. 
Blaney in Point Shirley exp., June, 1776. 

Waite, William; 2nd lieut. at Lex. alarm; 2nd lieut. of 
4th co. 1st Middlesex regiment, Col. Samuel Thacher, and 
so with Capt. B. Blaney in Point Shirley exp., June, 1776; 
commissary to the Convention troops (Burgoyne's) at Winter 
Hill, 1777; capt. in Col. Thacher's Middlesex regiment (mili- 
tia), July 29, 1778. 

Waters, Daniel; Lex. alarm, 1775; naval officer; for ser- 
vices vide chapter xxiii. 

Watts, William; ae. 16, stature 5.2J-, dark complex, and 
eyes, brown hair, farmer, enlisted April 27, 1781, for three 
years; the family of Wm. Watts received aid as a soldier's 
family, Jan. -April, 1780. 



832 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 

Wheeler, Thomas; eight months' service with Capt. N. 
Hatch, Lieut. -Col. Bond, 1775; enlisted, Jan. 1, 1777, for 
three years; marched from Springfield, Oct. 26, 1780, with 
six months' reinforcements under Lieut. Cary, ae. 35, stature 
5.5, ruddy complex.; in Jan., 1781, was with Capt. Hitch- 
cock in 1st Mass. regiment; 220 miles from home when 
discharged. 

Whittemore, Joel; eight months' service with Capt. N. 
Hatch, Lieut. -Col. Bond, 1775; arrived in camp, July 28, 
1779, with recruits under call of June 9, 1779; enlisted April 
11, 1 781, for three years and received 250 Spanish milled dol- 
lars from the class of Joseph Perkins, then ae. 25, stature 5.5, 
dark complex., hair, and eyes, a farmer. 

Whittemore, Pelatiah; a native of Maiden, res. in New 
Ipswich; ae. 38, stature 5.10, brown complex., enlisted April 
2 3> l 77S> i n eight months' service, as sergeant with Capt. Ezra 
Towne, Col. Read. 

Williams, Gideon; a "Jersey lad," who was taken in 1773, 
by the Rev. Eliakim Willis, "from on board a vessel lying at 
a wharfe in Boston;" Lex. alarm, 1775; enlisted, April 25, 
1775, in eight months' service with Capt. Edward Blake, Col. 
Brewer. 



APPENDIX. 



ROSE HILLS NOT ROSE DUNSTER. 

CHAP. VI. note i, page 166. This note remains as it was written 
in 1S90. The same subject was afterwards treated by William 
S. Hills, in N. E. Hist, and Geneal. Register, xlix. 146. At the time 
of going to press the uncertainty had been removed and the true name 
of the wife of Joseph Hills had been found ; but as the information 
had been obtained by the researches of others, it seemed proper that 
I should not use for my own purposes that which had been given to 
me in confidence. The matter has now been made public in a report 
of the Hills Family Genealogical and Historical Association. Joseph 
Hills and Rose Cleerke [Clarke] were married at Burstead Magna, 
Billericay, co. Essex, July 22, 1624. Here, where some of their 
children were born, they remained several years ; and in March, 1 63%, 
they were of the parish of All Saints, Maldon, where the births of their 
children are recorded until August, 1637. As is elsewhere stated, they 
arrived in New England, July 17, 1638. 

Researches made in England by an agent of the Hills Association 
have given information of much interest; and it seems probable that 
the ancestry of Joseph Hill's may be found to be of considerable an- 
tiquity and importance. The work of the association should commend 
itself to the attention and support of the descendants of Joseph Hills, 
of whom not a few remain in Maiden. 

The intimation in the text that John Wayte may have married Mary 
Hills in England before 1638 is now of no force, as, if the eldest 
child, she would have been about thirteen years of age at that time. 
The records of the births of their first two children, John and Joseph, 
have not been found ; but the third child, Samuel, was born in Maiden, 
October 11, 1650. We may assume that they were married about 
1644 ; and it may be that their first two children were born in England 
and that they came to Massachusetts Bay some time previous to the 
admission of the husband to the Charlestown church, January 15, 
i64 6 / 7 . The silence of the records strengthens this view. 

53 



834 HISTORY OF MALDEN. 



II. 



THE PLAN OF MALDEN. 

THE plan of Maiden by Peter Tufts, Jr., of which a reproduction is 
given in this volume, was made in accordance with a resolve of the 
General Court in 1 794. It is the earliest representation of the town 
which is known to exist. Three copies of this plan, made by the sur- 
veyor, are preserved, and there may be others unknown to me. That 
in Mass. Archives, Town Plans, ii. 4, is the original. A copy in the 
possession of the late Albert F. Sargent shows several variations ; while 
that in the possession of Clarence D. Richardson, from which the re- 
production has been made, contains others. In the first copy six 
buildings are located, while seventeen are shown in the latter. In the 
former the head line at Reading is stated to be 136 rods, and the area 
of Ell Pond is 30 a. 1 r. 20 p. HarvelFs Brook and the creek running 
easterly from the Great Swamp are shown, unnamed, in the former, but 
do not appear in the Richardson copy. In the state and Sargent copies 
the Stoneham Road runs on the south side of the brook in a direct 
westerly line to the town limit, which is incorrect. In the latter it is 
correctly shown as running northerly by the houses of Phineas Sprague 
and Captain Unite Cox into that part of Stoneham which, reannexed 
to Maiden, is now known as Melrose Highlands. The state copy adds 
a table of distances in miles: — To Cambridge, 6; to Concord, 18; 
to Boston, 5. 

It will be noticed that this plan is extremely meagre in details. 
There were one hundred and thirty-eight dwelling houses in Maiden 
named in the United States valuation of 1798. Such roads as that 
from the Charlestown Road to Black Ann's Corner ; that to Winnisim- 
met (Ferry Street) ; that into Chelsea bounds (Upham Street) ; and 
others are omitted. The dotted lines along the Reading Road mark 
the present course of Main Street, and were a later addition to the- 
plan, as was also that line near the house of Captain Wymond Brad- 
bury, which indicates a section that was annexed to Med ford in 181 7. 



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INDEX. 



[Names appearing more than once upon a page are not repeated in the index ; and no 
attempt has been made to distinguish between persons bearing the same name. Officers 
in Chapter XXIV., whose names are often repeated, and authors and titles given as refer- 
ences are not noted. Titles of respect and profession or office, excepting those of Rev. 
and Dr., are omitted. A few exceptions will be found. The locations of streets are 
indicated as follows: — Maiden, M.; Melrose, Mel.; Everett, E.] 



ABAJONA River, 413. 
Abbot, Rev. Thomas, 650. 

Abercrombie, , 6S4, 6S5 ; James, 700. 

" Abigail," the, iS. 

Abousett [Saugus] River, 16, 19, 24, 45, 

64. 90, 113, 373. 
Acadians, see French Neutrals. 
Acadie, 14, 6S3, 701. 
" Active," the, Soi. 
Act of Uniformity, see Bartholomew Act, 

159. ^33- 
Acton, Mass., 646. 
Adams, Abigail, 7S9; Charles D., 542; 

Elizabeth, 146; John, 621, 670; Rev. 

John G., 642, 759; Richard, 96, 98, 

114, 152, 346; Samuel, 206, 655,72s, 

729; Walter, 4S9. 
Addington, Isaac, 310, 470, 684. 
Agamenticus [York], ^. 
Agavvam, see Ipszvich, 38, 40. 
Aix-la-Chapelle, Peace of, 688. 
Alarm List, 740, 748. 
Albany, N. Y, 701, 703, 704, 713, 766. 
Alcock, Dr. John, 195, 200, 243. 
Alden, Dr. Ebenezer, 221. 
" Alexander," the, 804. 
Allen, Rev. James, 26S, 269, 271 ; John, 

j6, 239, 261 ; Rev. Thomas, 75-77, 194. 
Allotments, first division, 59; hay-lots, 

63 ; great allotment, 65-72 ; reserved 

land, 65, 75-78; of commons in 1695, 

3 6 4-378. 
Almshouse, 72, 108, 399, 407-410, 821 ; 

farm purchased, 409. 
Alpine Street, M., 378. 
Amesbury, Mass., 326. 
Amherst, Mass., 476. 
Ancient and Honorable Artillery Co., 

20S, 289. 
Anderson, Archibald, 385. 



Andover, Mass., 95, 97, 316, 332, 334, 

335.7I5- 

" Andrea Doria," the, 789. 

Andrew, Samuel, 277. 

Andrews, John, 60; Rev. John, 2S5. 

Andros, Edmund, 52, 185, 20S, 255, 256, 
266, 280, 309, 313, 314, 341, 390, 718. 

Angier, Samuel, and others kill an In- 
dian at Spot Pond, 31. 

" Annabella," the, 789, 790. 

Annapolis Basin, 690. 

" Anne," the, 788, 789. 

Antigua, 707, 796. 

Appleton, Rev. Nathaniel, 568, 651, 654; 
Samuel, 318, 320, 327. 

Appleton Street, M., 99, 102, 268, 435, 

595- 
Apprenticeship, 668 ; indentures of, 402, 

403. 423- 

Archives, Massachusetts, disarrange- 
ment of, 44, 88. 

Arlington, Mass., 63, 745. 

Arminianism, 599, 638, 641, 656. 

Armitage, Joseph, 152. 

Arnold, Benedict, 75S; William, 314. 

Arnold, England, 158. 

Artillery Co. of Middlesex, 266. 

Ashland Street, M., 76, 239, 437. 

Assessors, 343, 351, 495. 

Atherton, Humphrev, 139, 144. 

Atkinson, Helen [Eleanor], 166, 182; 
Hugh, 182 ; John, S06. 

Atwater, Joshua, 252 ; Mary, 252. 

Atwood, Philip, 102, 260, 304, 305, 354, 
376. 378, 397, 489. 49o; Rachel, 146. 

Auction, see Vendue. 

Austin, , 649. 

Avery, Dorothy, 285; Dr. Jonathan, 
281 ; Sybil, 264, 281-285, 609. 

Ayers, John, 786; William, 388. 



836 



INDEX. 



Back Street, M., Mel., 99. 

Biihler, Rev. Louis H., 563. 

Bailey [BayleyJ, David, S06 ; Enoch, 
716; Rev. James, 547, 557 ; John, S06; 
Timothy ; 400, 410. 

Bailey's Hill, 90, 99, 101, 203, 672. 

Bailey House, 400. 

Baker, John, 76; William, 60, 63, 68, 81, 
486, 487. 

Balch, John, iS. 

Baldwin, Elizabeth, 579; Joseph, 381, 
607, S06 ; Juduthan, 715; Loammi, 
756; Samuel, 579, 594,663,719, 741, 
807 ; Sarah, 663. 

Baldwin's Dye House, 23. 

Balsam of Fennel, 244, 245. 

Bancroft, Thomas, 501. 

Banks, Zaccheus, 408, 497, 663, 807. 

Baptist Church, First, 98, 103, 424; land 
of, 675. 

Baptist Row, M., 90, 206, 672. 

Baptists, 18S, 211, 536, 589. 

Barbadoes, 49, 327. 

Barber, Peter, 807. 

Barker, Mary, 335 ; William, 335. 

Barlow, Edmund, 84; Edward, 489; 
Mary, Sa ; Thomas, 364. 

Barnard, Rev. John, 464 ; Samuel, 621. 

Barnes, Ebenezer, 807 ; Samuel, 807 ; 
Thomas, 91, 701; William, 701. 

Barnes-Pratt House, illustration, 91. 

Barnes's Lane, M., 91. 

Barnstable, Mass., 105, 159, 708, 715. 

Barnstaple, England, 131. 

Barre, Mass., 422. 

Barrett, Abigail, 497, 682 ; Artemas, 87 
278, 462, 498, 503, 505, 508, 509, 531 
534. 747. 753- 776, 777. 780, 805, 828 
Ebenezer, 497. 534, 57S, 580, 660, 663 
719, 74S ; Hannah, 70, 146, 489 
James, in, 121, 122, 210, 213, 323 
330, 430, 444, 462, 4S2, 487, 489; 
504-506, 513, 5^7, 533. 534. 542, 572 
663, 807 ; his house, 62, 70, 95, 100 
103, 428, 486, 487, 508, 591 ; John, 313 
323, 510, 750; Jonathan, 211,377, 442 
496, 500, 504-506, 510, 529, 531, 54S, 606 
Joseph, 400, 572, 744, 772, 782, 807 
Martha, 660; Mary, 70; Phebe, 660 
Stephen, 364 ; William, 3S3, 674. 

Barrett's Lane, M., 86, 167; Mel., 444. 

Barrett Street, M„ 167. 

Barrington, George, 807. 

Barron, Ellis, 323. 

Barruce, Thomas, 601. 

Barstow, Michael, 60, 68, 71, 82. 



Bartholomew Act, see Act of Uniformity, 
654. 

Bartlett, Dr. Josiah, 637. 

Batchelor [Batchelder], John, 323, 663; 
William, 66. 

Batherick, Mother, 746. 

Battery, Charlestown, see Charlcstmun 
Battery. 

Batts, John, 701. 

Baxter, , 184. 

Bayonet Roll, 719, 720. 

Beacham, John, 432, 497, 578, 580, 582, 
663. 

Beacham's Point, 37, 56, 432, 5S0, 698, 
749. 75°. 75 2 . 755. 757,817,828. 

Beacham Street, E., 430. 

Beacon on Wayte's Mount, 776, 777. 

Bear Hill, 55. 

Bears, 25. 

Bears' Den, 25, 414. 

Beauchamp, , 5S0. 

Beau Sejour, 690, 703. 

Bedford, Mass ,316. 

Beecher, Thomas, 62, 65. 

Beef for the army, 779, 782. 

Beers, Richard, 34. 

Belcher, Jonathan, 529, 532, 534, 542, 
545. 546, 548-55 r > 553. 555, 6S5; quar- 
rel with, 6S5, 686; Rev. Samuel, 261. 

Bell, 206, 354, 515, 522; to be rung on 
an alarm, 337 ; gift of Lord T. Dex- 
ter, 5S9. 

Bellingham Richard, 54, 92, 93, 9S, 120, 
121, 151, 172-174, 178-1S0; married 
himself, 1S2. 

Bellmen, see Sextons. 

Bell Rock, 94, 99, 102, 137, 151, 202, 203, 
206, 211, 240, 354, 399, 499, 503, 505, 
506, 512, 514,675. 

Bell Rock Cemetery, see Burying Ground 
at Sandy Bank. 

Belmont Hill, 527. 

Benheld, Andrew, 808. 

Bennett, Andrew, 807. 

Berkshire, County of, 671. 

Bermuda, 236, 23S, 243. 

Bernard, Francis, 699, 722 ; John, 727. 

Bernardston, Mass., 322. 

Berry, Elizabeth, 405 ; Samuel, SoS ; Dr. 
Thomas, 245. 

Berwick, Me., 464. 

Berwick-upon-Tweed, 654. 

" Betsey," the, 791, 799. 

Beverly, Mass., 18S, 257, 759, 7S6, 787. 

Bibble, Ann, 146. 

Bilbao, Spain, 250. 



INDEX. 



837 



Bill, Benjamin, 80S; James, 272, 273; 

Jonathan, 272, 273; Joshua, 272, 273; 

Sarah, 278. 
Billerica, Mass., 450. 
Billericay, co. Essex, Eng., 833. 
Billings, Joseph, 704, 716. 
Bills of Credit, see Paper Currency. 
Bishop, John, 617 ; Samuel, 808. 
Black Ann, see Welcome, Ann. 
Black Ann's Corner, 19, 71, 80, 90, 92, 

93, 10S, 113, 323, 324, 326, 357, 366, 

377, 385, 401, 428, 442, 447, 453, 455- 

597- 747- 753- s 34 ; origin of the 

name, 401. 
Blackbirds, Crows, &c, 363. 
Black Point, Me., 255. 
Black Rock, 20, 445. 
Black, Simon, 675. 
Blacksmiths' Shops, Hutchinson's, 240 ; 

Wilson's, 168, 352, 433; Winslad's, 

35 2 - 

Blackstone, William, 19. 

Black Will, see Welcome, William. 

Blake, Edward, 712. 

Blakeman, Rev. Adam, 251 ; Rev. Ben- 
jamin, 201, 202, 240, 251-257, 263, 344; 
autograph, 252; Mary, 252; Rebecca, 
253, 256. 

Blakeman's Falls, Me., 255. 

Blanchard, , 1 13, 487, 488 ; Abraham, 

214; Anne, 146; Ebenezer, 701, 720; 
George, 57, 4S7-4S9 ; Joshua, 209, 
214, 4S1, 562, 564; Mary, 600; Nath- 
aniel, 58, 487, 488 ; Samuel, 58, 324, 
462,487, 489, 504, 512, 517, 600, 601, 
623 ; Thomas, 58, 4S7. 

Blan chard's Point, see Wilson's Point, 

57- 214, 53°- D2 3- 6 34- 

Blaney, ,419; Aaron, 758; Abigail, 

497, 718; Ambrose, 521; Benjamin 
[Senior], 360, 446, 492, 493, 542, 543, 

548, 55°- 553- 555- 562- 6 77,_ 718, 
719; his violent death, 718 ; Benjamin 
[Junior], 53, 360, 658, 663, 671, 720, 
729, 734. 737^ 740-742, 744. 74S-75 2 . 
755, 766, 769, 774, 775. 78r, 785, 801, 
SoS ; Elizabeth, 658; Hannah, 658; 
Nehemiah, 497, 663, 719. 

Blaney House, 360; illustrations, 339, 
361. 

Blaney's Wharf, 445, 446. 

Blatchford, John, SoS. 

Blinman, Richard, 150. 

Bloody Brook, Massacre at, 257, 325, 

3 2 7- 
Blott, Robert, 66. 



P.lue Hills, 30, 36. 

Boadicea, 3. 

Boardman, , 113; William, 260,. 

368. 

Boardman House, 368; illustration, 379. 

Bodge, Hannah, 399. 

Bond, , 651 ; William, 755, 767. 

Book of Possessions, see Charlestown. 

Booth, Alice, ^t,, 335; Elizabeth, i^, 
335 ; George, 333, 335. 

Borough English, custom of, 11. 

Boston, 29, 30, 43, 47, 48, 50, 54, 57, 65, 
69. 7i, 78, 79. 81, 85, 92, 93, 100, 125, 
^-^ '39. '40, i5 2 -'54. 183. 187- 
189, 215, 221, 253, 255, 256, 261, 263, 
265, 268-271, 273, 274, 276, 279-281, 
286, 300, 305,308, 309, 316, 317, 321, 
322, 324, 32S-330, 341, 347, 360, 361, 364- 
366, 36S, 371, 373. 374, 377. 385, 400, 
405, 406, 411, 4 12 , 4<9> 422, 424-426, 
432, 442, 444, 45 2 > 479- 493. 494, 49^, 
498, 501, 506, 535, 540, 562, 571, 5S0, 
590, 597, 607, 61S, 620, 621, 641-643, 
646, 651, 652, 654, 655, 658, 670-672, 
677, 681, 683, 6S9, 690, 692, 697, 698, 
701, 710, 711, 722, 724, 725-735: 741, 
742, 745, 747, 748, 75°, 753. 755, 757, 
760-762, 765, 766, 769, 772, 773, 775- 
777, 785-7S8, 790-792, 794, 795. 797- 
800, 803, 805, 822, 824, 832, 834. 

Boston Athenaeum, 658. 

Boston Common, 49, 305. 

Boston Harbor, 31, 46, 759, 765, 766, 
S03. 

Boston Latin School, 1S9, 655, 742. 

Boston Massacre, 727 ; Thacher's ora- 
tion on, 760. 

Boston Pan Handle, 51. 

Boston Port Bill, 735, 741 ; relief for 
suffers, 741, 742. 

Boston Road, East, 442, 455,460; West, 

675- 
Boston Rock, 98, 100, 101, 443. 
" Boston," the, 792, 793. 
Bottom, Thomas, 809. 
Bottume-, Thomas, 809. 
Bounties for recruits, 767, 771,772, 775, 

776, 77S, 7S1, 782. 
Bourne, Sylvanus, 70S, 715; William, 

690. 
Bowdoin, James, 78 1. 
Bowers Avenue, M.. 3S3. 
Bow Street, E. 62, 290,755. 
Boxford, Mass., 334. 
Boyd, John, 809. 
Boyes, Matthew, 198. 



838 



INDEX. 



Brackenbury, Alice, 261 ; Anne, 250, 
261 ; Mary, 261 ; Dr. Samuel, 201, 
261 ; autograph, 261 ; William, 60, 64, 
66, 102, 1 10, 114-117, 201, 204-206, 239, 
250, 261, 299, 301, 303, 30S; autograph, 
102. 

Bradbury, Wymond, 58, 730, 834. 

Bradford, Mass., 378, 397. 

Bradford Street, E., 99. 

Bradshaw, Field &, 400 

Bradstreet, John, 700; Mercy, 313; Si- 
mon, 139, 144, 1S2, 313, 314. 

Braintree, Mass., 30, 58, 285, 317, 535, 

619,704. 7i5- 

Brand Mark, in. 

Brattle, Thomas, 79, 80, 326, 430, 431, 
449; William, 719; Rev. William, 
294. 

Bray, Widow, 489. 

Breeden, , 113, 747; Daniel, 744, 

S09; Elizabeth, 702 ; Elnathan, 744, 
S09; John, 701, 702; Joseph, 702; 
Samuel, 701, 702, 809. 

Brewer, Mrs. Thomas, 773. 

Brewster, Little, 766. 

Brickmaking, 77, 433, 446. 

Bride's Brook, 1 13. 

Bridge, Daniel Waters, 798 ; Ebenezer, 
801 ; Nathaniel, 798; William, 85. 

Bridges, 72; Dexter's, near, 457 ; Edge- 
worth, illustration, 296; Ell Pond, on 
road to, 98; Harvell's Brook, 540; 
Hill's, or Mill, 109, 117, 456, 457, 667, 
675 ; Lewis's, 94, 98, 102, 103, 399, 433, 

435. 436, 455-457, 459, 5°°> 5°3, 5°5' 
506, 508, 512, 516, 530, 560, 623,643, 
649, 675, 754, 766; Maiden, 85, 399, 
432, 457, 825 ; Medford, or Mystic, 
447-455; North River, 58; Pines 
River, near Black Ann's Corner, 92, 
93, 453, 455 ; Toll Bridge, first in New 
England, 448. 

Bridgewater, Mass., 23S, 712. 

Brigden, Michael, 700, 701, 707, 708, 711, 
714, 716; Thomas, 6S. 

Brigham, Aaron, 809; Nathan, 708, 714. 

Bright, Edward, 7. 

Brimfield, Mass., 620. 

Brinsmead, John, 67. 

Brintnall, Benjamin, 439, 543, 648, 779; 
Esther, 99; John, 211, 360, 491-493, 
610; Mary, 610; Rebecca, 649; Wil- 
liam, 809. 

British Museum, 316. 

British Officer and C. Forbes, 814. 

Broad Cove, Me., 386, 388. 



Broadway, M., E., 20, 63, 78, 290, 527, 630. 

Broadway, Revere, 273. 

Brock, Rev. John, 150. 

Bromfield, Edward, 274. 

Brookfield [Quabauge], 312, 701, 702. 

Brookline, Mass., 734, 753. 

Brooks, Caleb, 6S8, 769; Ebenezer, 634; 
Rev. Edward, 746; Eleazer, 769, 774; 
Francis, 33; Isaac, 313; Samuel, 454. 

Brown, , 651 ; Benjamin, 744, 777, 

809 ; Ebenezer, 569 ; Francis, 426 ; 
Henry Young, 70S; John, 213, 369, 
370, 703, 777 ; Jonathan, 777 ; Mary, 
420 ; Peter, 744, 809 ; Rev. Richard, 

2 75- 

Browne, James, 60, 67; Joseph, 314, 315; 
Richard, 139, 144; William, 677. 

Brunswick, Me., 6S5. 

Bryant House, illustrations, 561, 761. 

Bryant, Joseph, 421. 

Buck, Dr. Ephraim, 404, 659. 

Bucknam, , 414, 42S ; Aaron, 497, 

663, 698, 810; Benjamin, 425, 427, 497, 
577, 578,595,663,719,810,820; David, 
744, 810; Ebenezer, 777; Edward, 
663; Hannah, 369, 621; Jacob, 6S1 ; 
James, 663, 719, 810; John, 81, 324, 

39 2 -395, 4i7, 445, 497, 590, 593- 66 3- 
737 ; Joseph, 810 ; Joses, 77, 212, 214, 

255- 2 59, 3 2 4, 347, 3^5, 3 66 > 376, 394, 
462, 493, 495-497, 5°4-5°6, 508, S l 3> 
516, 527, 52S, 532, 533, 542, 564, 621, 
663, 680, 6S8, 8io; Judith, 376, 394; 
Mary, 810; Moses, 497, 663; Nathan, 
810; Rev. Nathan, 493, 621, 622; 
Phebe, 497, 663 ; Rebecca, 660; Sam- 
uel, 77, 210, 346, 394, 395, 417, 469, 
504, 50S, 515, 521, 529, 540, 541, 546, 
548, 550, 577, 607, 616; Sarah, 119, 
146,393; William, 77, 102, 119,260, 
369, 3 88 - 392, 393, 419- 4S9, Sio. 

Bucknam Farm, 77. 

Bucknam House, 77. 

Bucknam's Lane, E., 100. 

Bucknam Street, E., 65, 77, 99, 419. 

Bulkley, Rev. Edward, 477, 645; Peter, 
184, 308; Rev. Peter, 477, 645. 

Bull Lots, 490. 

Bullock, Henry, 66. 

Bunker, Rev. Benjamin, 199, 202, 23S- 
242, 246, 254, 399; autograph, 238; 
ordained, 238 ; his death, 241 ; Wig- 
glesworth's elegy on, 241-242 ; his 
library, 241 ; George, 61, 67, 74, 75, 
238, 433-435- 679; Hannah, 238; 
John, 121, 202, 238, 240, 367, 376, 434, 



INDEX. 



839 



67S, 679; Jonathan, 202 ; Judith, 238; 
Mary, 201, 202, 239; Philip, 704. 

Bunker Hill, 747, 757. 

Bunker Hill, Battle of, 357, 743, 752- 
754,756, 785, 7S8, 811,812,829,830; 
Thachers statement, 752; wounded 
brought to Maiden, 678. 

Bunker's Farm, 75, 434. 

ESurbank, Edward, 701. 

Burchsted, Dr. Henry, 620. 

Burden, see BurJitt. 

Burditt [Burden], Benjamin, 400; 
George, 44, 272; Jabez, 420, 421, 534, 
663, 772; Jacob, 420. 421, 534; Jem- 
ima, 405, 704; John, 534, 542, 543, 

548, 55°' 553- 555- 5 So > 66 3. 7°4, 720; 
Joseph, 356, 420, 42 1, 534, 546, 663, 
704, 810; Mary, 421, 663; Nathan, 
432, 810; Robert, 69, 119, 301, 744, 
810; Samuel, 628,704, 810; Sarah, 
40S, 409; Thomas, 215, 260, 346-347, 
376, 40S, 420, 421, 434, 464, 501, 504, 
512, 534, 542, 548, 550, 553, 571, 576, 
606, 624, 696, 720, 772. 

Burditt's [Burden's] Hill, 70. 

Burgoyne, Army of, at Cambridge, 775; 
John, 771. 

Burke, William, 7S6, 788. 

Burnet, William, 514, 685. 

Burrage, John, 66. 

Burrill, Eunice, 803 ; John, 6S5. 

Bursley, John, 19. 

Burstead Magna, England, 833. 

Burton, Edward, 60, 67. 

Burying Ground at Sandy Bank, 62, 102, 
109, 113, 158, 166, 201, 206, 241,291, 

2 93- 2 94. 3 2I » 345- 397. 404, 4io, 434. 

460, 477, 59S, 603, 648, 658. 
Burying Ground Lane, see Poor House 

Lane, 99, 201, 397, 399. 
Bush, John, 5S6. 
■" Byrhtnoth's Death," 4. 

Cabot, John, 13; Sebastian, 13. 

Cadariqui, 700. 

Cades, Abigail, 411 ; John, 411, 720. 

Cairo, N. Y., 563. 

Call, , 475; Joanna, 146; John, 

324 ; Lydia, 70, 435 ; Thomas, 67, 70, 
87, 88, 107, 114, 116, 141, 160, 201, 287, 

3 01 . 374. 433-435- 437, 438- 
Callender, Rev. Ellis, iSS. 
Calley, Mary, 438, 459; Robert, 259, 376, 

389, 438, 459. 
Calley-Drown House, 459. 
Call House, 62. 



Call's Island, 490. 

Camalodunum [Camelot], 2, 3, 4, 12. 

Cambridge, England, 188. 

Cambridge, Mass., 29, 36, 69, 118, 123, 

147. 153, '54. 163, 172, 177, l8 7, 189, 
194, 196, 197, 202, 250, 252, 264-266, 
2S1, 286, 294, 305, 30S, 317, 332, 38 5, 
395, 407, 413, 434, 449, 455, 461, 462, 
521, 522, 567, 568, 609, 620, 629, 654, 
658, 669, 671, 677, 678, 690, 700, 703, 
7-26, 734, 740, 74i, 745. 747, 74S, 75°. 
753, 758, 769, 775, 778, 813, 815, 834. 

Camelot, see Camalodiautm. 

Campbell, Archibald, 789, 790 ; Duncan, 
5SS ; Thomas, 360. 

Canada, 685, 687, 698-700, 767 ; expedi- 
tion against, 566, 704, 708, 711, 712, 
714, 716, 717, 766, 767, 803. 

Cannon removed to Maiden, 753. 

Canseau, 686. 

Cape Ann, 18, 654, 788. 

Cape Breton, 439, 683, 6S6-6S8, 690; ex- 
pedition against, 567. 

Cape Cod, 158. 

Captain's Hill [Wayte's Mount], 167, 

376- 

Carden, Timothy, 7S3, 810. 

Carrington, Edward, 61, 67, 77, 102, 103, 
107, 109-111, 139, 141, 145, 14S, 150, 
151, 160-163, 287, 3S7, 417, 428, 430, 
4S7, 4S8 ; Elizabeth, 146. 

Carrington Farm, 545. 

Carrington-Paine House, 103 ; illustra- 
tion, 10 1. 

Carter, Robert, 324 ; Samuel, 66 ; Thomas, 
66. 

Carter Farm, Chelsea, 215. 

Cary, Simeon, 712; Rev. Thomas, 285. 

Casco Bay, 256, 386, 3S8, 389, 390. 

Castine, IVfce., 794. 

Castle [Boston Harbor], 109, no, 112. 

" Castle," the, 12. 

Caswell, Eliakim, 810 ; Elijah, 750, 810 ; 
Joseph, 462, 497, 534, 546, 583, 5S5, 590, 
663 ; Joshua, 810. 

Caterpillars and Canker Worms, 114, 

2 33- 6 35. 6 3 6 - 
Cattle, 88, 89, 351-353, 383, 665 ; disease 

among, 635, 636. 
Cattle-ways [Drift-ways], 62, 63, 90, 96. 
Cazneau, Andrew, 772. 
Cedar Hill, 456. 
Cedar Street, M., 378. 
Center, John, 215. 
Central Avenue, E., 53. 
Central Square, M., 383. 



840 



INDEX. 



Centre Street, M., 71. 

Chadwick, Daniel, 744, 775, Sn ; James, 

319, 320, 324, 340, 367, 376, 604; Joan, 

146; John, 260, 324; Joseph, 510, 709, 

710. 
Chaises and Chairs, 666, 667. 
Chamberlain, Edmund, 318, 320, 324, 

606, 684, 685; John, 260, 319, 320, 324, 

378 ; Margaret, 6S4, 685 ; Mellen, 274, 

276; Uriah, 4S4, 678. 
Champney, Richard, 197. 
Chapeaurouge, Bay of, 6S7. 
Charity, The Irish, 328, 329. 
Charles River, 16, 18, 30, 31, 37, 56, 785. 
Charlestown, Mass., 20, 30, 34, 35, 37, 38, 

46, 51, 55, 56, 59, 65, 69, 80-82, 84, 85. 

9~> 93. 95- 9 s . i° J . 10 4. 105, 107-1 13, 
117, 118, 123-125, 135, [47, 149, 150, 
153, 154, 166-168, 172, 176, 181, 188, 
189, 194, 201, 202, 206, 210, 214, 216, 
238, 239, 245, 252, 260, 261, 264, 266, 
272, 288, 290, 300, 317, 327, 328, 331, 
333> 334, 362, 363, 370, 372-374, 377" 
3S1, 386-3S9, 395-397, 404, 406, 411. 
423, 42S, 430, 433, 434, 437, 440, 447, 
449- 45 -452, 454, 459, 477, 486-500, 
515, 5ig, 520, 533, 535, 562, 565, 5S0, 
601, 602, 604, 606, 609, 611, 613, 621, 
634, 635, 665, 667, 669, 677, 688, 697, 
700, 705, 710, 747, 74S. 750, 75 x -754, 
764, 766, 778, 785, 791, 807, 833 ; Book 
of Possessions, 69, 81 ; bounds, 55, 69, 
78-80 ; Mystic Side annexed to Maiden, 
494-49S ; northern limit, 79. 

Charlestown Battery, 109, 605. 

Charlestown Common, 747. 

Charlestown End [Stoneham], 632. 

Charlestown Ferry, 268, 670. 

Charlestown Neck, 746, Sn. 

Charlestown Neighbors, 113, «(6o, 210, 
212-215, 379, 483, 486, 494-496, 5°°. 
510, 621 ; annexed to Maiden, 494-49S ; 
encroach on commons, 364, 365. 

Charlestown Wood Lots, 49S, 499, 634. 

"Charming Sally," the, 798. 

Charter Officers to resume, 341 ; Mai- 
den's call compared with the instruc- 
tions of 1776, 342. 

Chase, William, 132. 

Cheak, James, 324. 

Checkley, Mary, 256; Samuel, 256. 

Cheeseborough, William, 78. 

Cheese Rock, 55. 

Cheever, ,53; Rev. Edward, 566; 

Ellen, 188, 257 ; Ezekiel, 150, 188, 224, 
257, 268, 269, 271, 291 ; Joseph, 273, 



811; Joshua, 277; Margaret, 188; 

Mary, 188; Nathan, 273; Sarah, 278 ; 

Thomas, 701, 704, 706, 707, 709, 710, 

712, 714, 716, 717. 
Cheever's Hill, 272. 
Cheever, Rev. Thomas, 199, 257-260, 

267, 280, 291,407, 410, 535, 642,811; 

called to Maiden, 257 ; his land here, 

260; charges against him, 267-272; 

removes to Rumney Marsh, 272; his 

life there, 273-277 ; his house and 

land there, 272-273; his death, 277 ; 

his writings, 277 ; autograph, 277. 
Chelmsford, Mass., 45, 46, 264, 477, 706, 

Soi. 
Chelsea, Mass., 23, 24, 30, 50, 53, 54, 62, 

92, 272, 276, 277, 401, 419, 426, 435, 

439^ 444- 446, 453- 455, 497, 5° 2 > 5 Sl , 
626, 642, 64S, 652, 657, 660, 666, 701, 

745-747, 749-75 1 , 753. 755- 779- 811, 

813,834. 
Chelsea, Battle of, 751. 
Chelsea Creek [Island End River], 37. 
Chelsea Street, E., 23, 62, 82, 84, 85, 360, 

387,49', 754, 785,801. 
Chenerv, John, 704, 720. 
Cherry Street, M., 373. 
Chester, Vt, 808. 
Chickering, Anne, 261. 
Child, Ephraim, 163,449. 
Children and Youth, 344. 
Children, mortality amongst, 114, 635— 

640. 
Chittenden, ,70; Isaac, 406, 724; 

Samuel, 406. 
Chittenden Farm, 70, 406. 
Christian Indians, see Indians, Pray- 
ing. 
Christy, John, Si 2. 
Church, Garret, 34 ; Richard, 337. 
Church and State, 126-131, 156-15S. 
Churches, see Maiden Church and South 

Church. 
City Hall, 90, 117, 348, 3S2, 456, 459, 

615,672. 
Clap [Clapp], Rev. Nathaniel, 465, 466; 

Timothy, 446. 
Clapp's Wharf, 446. 
Clark, Dr. Charles E., 587; David 

Oakes, 798, 799 ; Dr. William, 643. 
Clarke, Nathaniel, 612; Rose, 833; 

Samuel, 704, 715. 
Claverack, N. Y., 778. 
Clay Pits, 397, 433> 439, 44°, 446, 459- 
Cleaveland [Cleveland], Aaron, 515, 51 9— 

521, 526, 56S, 571 ; Rev. Aaron, 419, 



INDEX. 



841 



563. S 6 7-57i. 574, 5971 autograph, 
568; Rev. Charles, 571; George, 570; 
Grover, 571; Henry R., 571; Lucy, 
570; Margaret, 570; Richard J., 571; 
Stephen, 571; Susanna, 56S, 571; 
name changed to Cleveland, 570. 

C'eerke [Clarke], Rose, 833. 

Clements, Robert, 97. 

Clepston, Elizabeth, 711. 

Clerks, market, 353; town, 114, 348- 
350; writs, 114, 349. 

Clewly, Isaac, 704. 

Clifton Street, M., 20, 72, 167. 

" Close, Joey Oliver's," 360. 

Clothing for the army, 75S, 779. 

Clough, Rose, 41 1. 

Coats for the army, 75S. 

Cobb, Sabra, 650; Rev. Sylvanus, 201, 
484, 56S, 762. 

Coburn, Daniel J., 627 ; Ethan N., 565 ; 
Patrick, 704, 720. 

Cochrane Chemical Co., 490. 

Codman, John, 799; Richard, 799. 

Coggan, , 651 ; John, 43, 44, S7, 89, 

167 ; Martha, 87, 89. 

Cohasset 566. 

Colbuin [Colbran], William, 7S. 

Cold, extreme, 290, 59S. 

Cole, Isaac, 65, 76 ; John, 321, 322, 324 ; 
Rice, 60, 67 ; Samuel, 43, 44. 

Coles, Abraham, 336 ; Sarah, 336. 

Collier, George, 793, 794. 

Collins, Edward, 57, 120, 313, 449 ; 
Moses, 497, 663. 

Colman, Rev. Benjamin, 506; John, 510, 
624, 659, 690, 704, 720; Joseph, 67. 

Colson, Adam, 333; Elizabeth, 336; 
Mary, 333. 

Columbia Street, M., 628. 

Commissioners of Assessments, 35c 

Committee of Correspondence, Inspec- 
tion, and Safety, 729, 730, 736, 737, 741, 
743, 760, 772, 7S2. 

Common Drivers, 352. 

Commons and Commonage, 69, 71, 75, 
76, So, S4, SS, 90, 91, 94, 102, 108-111, 
167, 201, 239, 254, 2SS, 300, 352, 360, 
3 6 4-3S3> 397, 399, 434, 445- 460, 486- 
493> 53°, ^77 ! encroachments of 
Charlestown, 364, 365 ; lines run, 366- 
36S ; division, 364-37S ; Charlestown's 
claims, 37S-380 ; Charlestown's com- 
mons on Mystic Side divided, 4SS, 
4S9. 

Conant, Roger, 18. 

Concordance, first English, 2S1. 



Concord, Mass., 36, 113,308,313,316, 478, 

479, 61S, 645, 646, 649, 671, 736, 737, 

745, 746, 74S, 834. 
Concord, N. II., see Pennacook, 30, 3S, 

301. 
Conery, Daniel, 704. 

Confessions of Faith, 253, 573, 574, 599. 
Congress, Continental, 723, 733. 
Congress, Provincial, first, 741. 
Connecticut's, 236, 244,329, 398, 571, 

76S, 7SS, 7S9, 794. 
Connecticut River, 30, t,^, 39, 45, 236, 

t> r tot -j 1 c * , '»7 ~*or\ 

j- 1 , 3--- j-5' j-/, j-9- 
Connecticut Valley, 638,641. 
Connon, James, 411. 
Constables, 339,346-348,359; first, 114, 

346; refusals to serve, 346, 347, 396; 

their duties, 347, 34S. 
Continental Line, 756, 770. 
Constitution, State, 672, 773, 774, 7S0, 

7S1. 
Converse, Edward, 60, 64, 66, So, 90, 447, 

449; Elisha S., 5S0; Joshs, 100; 

Mary D., 5S0, 
Converse Avenue, M., 459. 
Converse Memorial Building, 674, 762. 
Conway, Mass., 6^0, 651. 
Cook, Hannah, 6S2 ; Israel, 354, 405, 

6S2, 747. 
Cooke, Elisha, 274, 505, 508 ; Frances, 

146 ; George, 172 ; Richard, 96, 406, 

489 ; Robert, 76, 77. 
Cooke's Mills, 34. 
Cooper, James Fenimore, 78S, 7S9 ; Rev. 

Samuel, 654, 752 ; William, 750. 
Copper, Christian, 62. 
Corbett Farm, 406. 
Corbett, Leavitt, 70, 406. 
Corey, Arthur D., 679; Solomon, 77, 

754- 
Corey Street, E., 65, 77. 
Cornwallis, Edward, 570. 
Corsairs, 250. 
Cottage Street, Mel, 44^. 
Cotton, Rev. John, 154, 342. 
Council for New England, established, 

14 ; its grants, 15-1S. 
Councils, Ecclesiastical, at Maiden, 154, 

253, 26S-272, 473, 53 r, 535; called but 

not held, 564. 
Country Rates, see 7\<if,-s. 
Courtenhall, England, lot;. 
Cousens, Nathan, 690; Nathaniel, 663, 

704. 
Covenants, Church, 253, 507. 
Cowdrey, Isaac, 346 ; William, 140, 449. 



.842 



INDEX. 



Cowen, James, 405 ; Fatrick, 405. 

Cow Pen, 97, 374. 

Cox, Elisha, 766 ; Unite, 346, 590, 663, 

719. 744, 75°> 8l -> 8 34- 
Coxe, Rev. Arthur Cleveland, 571. 
Coytmore, Katherine, 68 ; Martha, 87, 

89, 167 ; Thomas, 6S, 71-74, 87, 89, 

97, 99, 101, 102, 168, 374,672 ; grants 

to, 73, 86. 
Coytmore's Mill, 73, 86, S7, 94, 116. 
Cracker, Agnes, 410. 
Cradock, Matthew, 16, 34, 40, 54, 65, 79, 

So, 108,313,447. 
Cradock's Grant, see Medford Farm, 57, 

58,64, 215, 634. 
Cradock's House, 25, 34, 57; a tempor- 
ary one built, 54. 
Cram, John T., 675. 
Crawford, Jean, 405; Rebecca, 213, 370, 

620. 
Creek Head, 633. 
Crevay, Nicholas John, an Indian, killed 

at Spot Pond, 31. 
Crispe, Benjamin, 34. 
Crofts, William, 158. 
Crosby, David, 547, 586, 5S7. 
■Cross Street, M., 65, 70, 71, 74-76, 99, 

168, 239, 240, 374, 418, 433"43 8 > 5 22 > 

540, 624, 667, 675, 67S ; old houses on, 

illustration, 761. 
Crosswell, Thomas, 124. 
Croup, its first appearance, 234. 
Crow, John, 60, 66, 69. 
Crown Point, 699-702, 704, 706-717,767. 
Cullick, John, 4S7. 

Cummings, Elizabeth, 727 ; John, 781. 
Currell, Elias, 400. 

Currency Paper, see Paper Currency. 
Curwen [Corwin], Rev. George, 465, 

Jonathan, 331 ; Samuel, 465. 
Cushing, Thomas, 781. 
Cutler, John, 2or, 324-328, 379; Robert, 

68 ; Thomas, 663. 
Cuttyhimk, settlement at, 14. 
Cynobelin [Cymbeline], 1, 2. 

Dade [Dandy], William, 60, 67, 87,428, 

430- 
Damages during the siege, 760. 
Dame School, 439, 631, 64S. 
Damian. Peter, 232. 
Dana, Richard, 618 ; Stephen, 771, 775. 
Dane-geld. 5. 
Danforth, Rev. John. 294; Jonathan, 

183, 301 ; Rev. Samuel, 187, 238, 246; 

Thomas, 35, 47, 255, 302, 449. 



Danvers, Mass., 76, 595, 617,659. 

D'Arcy, Sir Robert, gives Moot Hall to 
Maldon, 10. 

Dark Day, 779, 780. 

Dartmouth, Mass., 574, 690. 

Dartmouth Street, M., 86. 

" Dartmouth," the, 733. 

Davenport, Addington, 505, 50S ; Rich- 
ard, 112, 302. 

Davis, Barnabas, 430; Israel, 707; 
Nicholas, 61, 67. 

Davison, Nicholas, 34, 40,447, 448, 449. 

Davy, Humphrey, 312, 313. 

Dawson, , 361. 

Daye, Stephen, 177. 

Day, Isaac, 690. 

"Day of Doom," the, 223-232 ; Wiggles- 
worth's dream, 192; facsimile of 
title-page, 223; Tyler on, 224, 225, 
231; Mather on, 224; popularity of, 
224, 225 ; Dean on, 225 ; Kettell on, 
231. 

Deacons, 659. 

Dean, John Ward, 192, 200, 217, 221, 
232, 245, 247, 250, 285, 2S8, 291. 

Dedham, Mass., 264, 281, 282, 285, 305, 
317, 320, 322, 324,480, 506, 620, 621. 

Deer, 24, 353, 354. 

Deerfield, Mass., 325, 327. 

Deer Island, 45-47, 50, 787. 

Deer-reeves, 24, 353, 354. 

" Defence," the, 7S8, 7S9. 

Degresha, Agnes, 410; Mary, 348, 410, 
413, 414; sold at auction, 413, 414; 
last to be whipped, 348, 414; Thomas, 

355- 35 6 - 35 8 > 400,405- 410, 413. 6o 7, 
623. 

Dekker, Thomas, 233. 

Deland, David, 769, 812. 

Denison, Daniel, 179. 

Derby, Arnold, 8 12. 

Deserters, British, 757. 

Deshon, Jean, 693. 

" Devonshire," the, 798. 

Devoreaux, John, testimony of, 33. 

Dewing, Benjamin H., 273. 

DeWitt, , 4'3- 

Dexter, Dr. Aaron, 629, 812; Bridget, 
146, 3S8; Elizabeth, 360; Esther, 99; 
Joanna, 660 ; John, 209, 303, 324, 354, 
371, 376, 378, 403, 409. 426, 427, 445, 
45f, 4 57. 472, 5 o6 > 546, 548, 55°, 565, 
575- 57 § , 5 88 > 5 8q > 59 1 . 6 °7. 6o8 > 6l 9. 
632, 633, 649, 659, 673, 696, 704, 706, 
707, 700. 711, 712-720, 724, 725, 729, 
730, 73^-734- 73 6 "73 8 > 74Q, 74'. 748. 



INDEX. 



84; 



753- 759, 76o, 79S, 813; Nathan, 99, 
579, 580, 663, 719; Rebecca, 629, 812; 
Richard, 72, 81, 95, 96, 98, III, 360, 
388, 4S9, 501, 504, 505, 512, 534, 576, 
579, 5 S °, 594, 59 6 , 6o 7, 629, 663, 709, 
713, 714, 744, 812, 813; Rev. Samuel, 
480,506, 619-622; falls out with Mr. 
Emerson, 480 ; Samuel G., 72 ; Sarah, 
663; Tabitha, 579; Thomas, 40; 
Timothy, 99, 206; gives a bell, 5S9 ; 
his bequest, 589; William, 730, 744, 
813; Winifred, 619, 620. 

Dexter Farm, 72. 

Dexter House, 72, 99. 

Dexter's Rocks, 36S, 372, ^j^, 460. 

Dexter Street, M., 72. 

Dexter [Washington] Elm, 72, 759. 

Diamond, John, 786. 

Dickenson, James, 775, 813. 

Dickerman, Anna, 367; Elizabeth, 122, 
123; John, 366, 367; Thomas, 122, 
364,367, 385,396. 

Dickerman's Hill, 364. 

Dickey, David, 588. 

Dickson, Davie, 232. 

Dieskau, Baron, 699. 

Digbv, Kenelm, 184. 

Dike, Nicholas, 769. 

Diphtheria, 637. 

Discipline, case of church, 673. 

Dodge, Benjamin W., 86 ; William E., 

571- 

Doe, Ebenezer, 663. 

Dollars, first mentioned, 748. 

" Dolphin," the, 250. 

Domier, Joseph, 424. 

Donnell, Oliver, 750. 

Doolittle, John, 366. 

Dorchester, Mass., 29, 30, 131, 135, 294, 
317, 465, 693, 694, 697, 698, 734, 747, 
760, 766, 769. 

Dorrell, John, 15. 

Doubt, Isaac, 41 1. 

Douglass, Dr. William, 637, 6S9. 

Dover, N. H., S03, S04. 

Dosv, Solomon, 813. 

Downe, John, 629. 

Downing, MacCallum More, 385 ; Su- 
sanna, 411. 

Dowse [Dows], Eleazer, 491 ; Lawrence, 
112, 430, 431; Nathaniel, 380, 430, 
491, 492. 

Dracut, Mass., 264, 610. 

Drafts for the army, 699, 767-771, 775, 

777- 
" Drake," the, 803. 



Drift -ways, see Cattle-ways. 

Drinker, Philip, 67, 85. 

Droughts, 233, 636. 

Drown, Leonard, 459, 607, 610 ; Mary, 

459- 
Drownings. 413, 427, 432, 601. 
Drunkenness, its causes and effects, 1 16— 
118, 122, 123, 405, 406, 668, 669, 671, 
681, 6S2. 
Dublin, Ireland, 32S. 
Dublin University, 236. 
Dudley, Deborah, 313; Joseph, 20S, 
3 l 3> 3 r 4, 34i, 343, 469; Thomas, 25, 
2S -37, *33> 3 l 3'> William, 509. 
Dummer, William, 495, 496, 502, 509. 
Duncan, Nathaniel, 172, 174, 176, 178. 
Dunnell, Thomas, 3-4,354~35 6 , 358. 37§, 

400, 607, 610. 
Dunstable, Mass., 183, 717. 
Dunster, Rev. Henry, 166, 1S4, 189,220; 

Rose, not Rose Hills, 166, S33. 
Dunton, John, 1S4. 
Durand [Durant], George, 72. - 
Dustin, Josiah, 332; Lydia, 332-334. 
Dutch, settle on the Hudson, 14. 
Dye House Lane, M., 167. 
Dye Houses, Baldwin's, 23 ; Barrett's, 

674 ; Dodge's, 86. 
Dyer, Charles, 786. 

Eager [Egar], Bezaleel, 706; William, 

601. 
Eames, Daniel, 332. 
"Early Piety Encouraged," facsimile of 

title-page, 639. 
Earthquakes, 253, 506, 508, 640. 
Earthworks and Defences, 755. 
East, William, 259. 
Eastern Avenue, M., 75, 672. 
Easton [Eason], Christian, 60, 62, 90; 

Nicholas, 60, 62. 
Eaton, Ebenezer, 813 ; Ezra, 813 ; Joshua, 

315 ; Nathan, 744, 750, 813. 
Edes, Martha, 406 ; Peter, 406, 663. 
Edgeworth Company, 59. 
Edgeworth [District], 58, 487, 633. 
Edmunds, Abigail, 660; John, 747, 814. 
Edwards, Benjamin, 707 ; Rev. Jonathan, 

641 ; Thomas, 791. 
Elders, see Ruling Elders. 
Eldred, Samuel, 71, 72. 
Election, first under the constitution, 781. 
Election Sermon, 266. 
Eliot, Rev. Andrew, 573, 654 ; Rev. John, 

47, 54. 250, 263, 268, 32S. 
Elisha, John, a rattlesnake hunter, 26. 



8 4 4 



INDEX. 



"Elizabeth," the, 791, 799. 

Elizabethtown, N. J., 25S. 

Ellery, William, 422. 

Ell Pond, 68, 89, 94,95, 97, 99, 101, 374, 
38 1, 462, 633, 667, 834. 

Elm Street, E., 70, 406. 

Emerson, Bulkley, 646; Edward, 477 
478, 646; Rev. John (Conway), 645 
64S-650, 651 ; Rev. John (Topsneld) 
622 ; Rev. Joseph, Jr., 478, 566, 567 
645; Mary, 481, 567, 645-649, 660 
769, 770, 779 ; Mary Moody, 649 
Ralph Waldo, 479,646; Rebecca, 406 
439, 647, 660 ; Ruth, 648, 649, 660, 827 
Samuel, 640 ; Rev. Samuel M., 649 
Sarah, 646 ; Thomas, 477 ; Waldo, 646 
648; Rev. William, 645, 646, 656 
814. 

Emerson, Rev. Joseph, 425, 426, 439 
477-485, 498, 516, 522, 526, 530, 531 

534-539, 54L 545. 547. 55 6 > 557, 559 
560, 567, 584, 5S6, 5S8, 591, 595, 598 
599, 620, 625, 635, 638, 643, 645-649 
654, 660, 666, 667,670, 770, 779, 814 
827 ; his lost diary, 407, 479, 507, 569 
643, 666, 667 ; autograph, 477 ; his 
" Meat Out of the Eater," 537-539 
his " Early Piety Encouraged," 638 
639 ; his " Word to those that are 
Afflicted," 638, 640; his death, 645. 

Emerson Estate, see Hill-Emerson. 

Emerson School, 648. 

Emery, Jonathan, 704. 

Endicott, John, iS, 19, 43, 92, 93, 134, 
342. 

Ennis, Ogilvie W., 98, 358. 

Essex Regiment, 679, 747. 

Essex Street, M., 648. 

"Essex, the Flower of," slain at Bloody 
Brook, 257. 

Evans, , 441 ; Daniel, 704 ; Henry, 

74, 373- 374 ; John, 501 ; Nathaniel, 376, 
501, 606 ; Samuel, 501. 

Everett Avenue, E., 53, 85, 446. 

Everett Crystal Spring Water Co., 387. 

Everett, Mass., 23, 34, 53, 62, 64, 65, 70, 
77, So, 82, 84, 85, 92, 103, 1 13, 290, 360, 
387, 406, 419, 429, 43°, 433, 435- 446, 
486, 490, 527, 542, 545, 596, 665, 754, 

755. 7S5- 
Everett Spring, 785. 
Everett Square, E., 78, 100. 
Ewer, Thomas, 60, 61, 68, 487. 
Exeter, N. II , 658. 
" Extract from a late Sermon," facsimile 

of title-page, 647. 



1 Fairfield, Conn., 768, 769. 
Fairweather, John, 80. 
"Faithful Man, a," 294; facsimile of 

title-page, 292. 
Falls Fight, 322, 325, 326. 
Fall Town, Mass., 322. 
Falmouth, Mass., 619. 
Falmouth, Me., 256, 689. 
Faneuil Hall, 725, 726, 728. 
" Fanny," the, 79S. 
Farnum, John, 211. 

Farrington, Huldah, 398 ; William, 814. 
Fasts, 253, 270, 506-50S, 566, 649, 654, 

662. 
Father Rasle's War, 685. 
Faulkner, Abigail, 332, 335; Anna, 768; 

Benjamin, 663, 674, 768; Uavid, 324, 

439, 4|o; John B., 3S3. 
Faulkner [District], 73, 75, 90, 168, 376. 
Faulkner House, 439, 440 ; illustration, 

761. 
" Favorite," the, 799, 800. 
Feake, Robert, 35. 
Febiger, Christian, 756, 811. 
Felt, Elizabeth, 386, 387, 3S9-391 ; 

George, 60, 62, 67, 81-S4, 95, 104, 

2 78, 385-39!, 4 8 9; Mary, 386, 389; 

Moses, 386, 389. 
Fences. 84, 88, 95, 114. 
Fence Viewers, 340, 360. 
Fenne, John, 6. 
Fenno Farm, Revere, 272. 
Fenno's Corner, Revere, 273, 274. 
Fenno Street, Revere, 273. 
Fensum, Hannah, 396 ; Isaac, 396. 
Ferry Island, 85, 490, 493. 
Ferry, Penny, see Poiny Ferry. 
Ferry Street, M., E., 23, 71, 82-84, 387, 

421, 434, 437-439, 49L 595. 672, 785. 

801, 834. 
Field, Alexander, 76. 
Held & Bradshaw, 400. 
Field Drivers, 352, 353. 
Firing the Woods, 22, 89. 
First Church, deacons, 659; members, 

1772, 659, 660 ; records, 65S. 

Fisk, , 371, 375- 

Fiske, Rev. Moses, 2S5. 

Fitch, Timothy, 412. 

Fitzgerald, Elizabeth, 674. 

Flag, first American, hoisted, 7S5 ; first 

British, struck, 7S5 ; Pine Tree, 7S5. 
Flagg, Benjamin, Jr., 5S7. 
Flagg House, 290, 755. 
Flaxing Places, 99, 462, 667, 675. 
Fletcher, Rev. Seth, 257, 25S. 



INDEX. 



845 



Flies, Plague of, 636. 

Flint, William, 701, 706, 707. 

" Flora," the, 793. 

Floyd, , 113; Daniel, 211, 323, 383, 

405,472, 504, 510, 521, 606, 690, 704; 

Elizabeth, 660 ; Ezekiel, 704, 705, 720 ; 

Hugh, 211, 37S; John, 323, 324, 332, 

366, 376; Joseph, 352, 366,367, 372- 

374. 376, 381. 3$3, 394. 395- 628 > 744. 

814; Margaret, 704, 705; Mary, 391, 

392 ; Noah, S14. 
Floyd-Fisher House, illustration, 784. 
Flucker, Thomas, 580. 
Forbes, Christopher, 663, 679, 6S9, 690, 

705, 8 14; encounter with a British 

officer, 814. 
Forest Dale Cemetery, 73, 98, 36S. 
Forest Street, M., 20, 56, 73, 99, 355, 

358. 373- 375. 4io, 443- 
Fort Cumberland, 701, 703, 704, 707, 710, 

716. 
Fort Edward, 398, 700-703, 706, 707. 
Fort Frontenac, 700. 
Fort Halifax, 703. 
Fort Western, 703. 

Fort William Henry, 699, 707, 714-716. 
Fort William Henry Alarm, 701, 707, 

708, 710-714, 716. 
Fosdick, Elizabeth, 331, 332 ; James, 

122 ; John, 331, 376, 469, 607 ; Stephen, 

62, 72, 10S. 
Foster, , 687 ; Ebenezer, 690 ; Isaac, 

250; Robert, 673, 674; Rose, 334, 

335 ; William, 250. 
Foster Street, Mel., 445. 
Foxcroft, Francis, 616. 
" Fox," the, 793. 
Framingham, Mass., 326. 
Franklin, Benjamin, 570, 722. 
"Franklin," the, 786-7S8, 790,791, 819. 

Frazer, , 790. 

Freemen, 'church members onlv, 106, 130. 
Frenchmen killed in Boston harbor, 31. 
French Neutrals, 404, 690-699. 
French, Thomas, 76. 
French War, 699-701 ; soldiers in, 701- 

717. 
Friend, Richard, 336. 
" Friendship," the, 797, 800. 
Frog Pond, 433. 
Frost, Edmund, 197 ; Joseph, 85 ; Simon, 

546, 54S, 550. 
Frothingham [Frothingale], William, 

61, 63, 67. 
Frye, Joseph, 699. 
Fuller, Abraham, 781 ; Edward, 663. 



Fullerton, Nathaniel, 705. 

Funeral Sermon, Emerson, facsimile of 

title-page, 647. 
" Funeral Song, a," Wigglesworth, 61 1- 

613. 

Gabarus Bay, 6S7. 

Gardner, Andrew, 801; Henry, 402; 

John, 5S0 ; Jonathan, 744, S05, 815; 

Thomas, 743, 744, 750, 752, 755, 756. 
Garland, Peter, 60, 66. 
Garrett, James, 68, 86, no. 
Gaspereaux River, 691. 
Gates across roads, 90, 115, 352, 383, 

397, 39 8 - 428, 43°. 43 6 > 43 8 . 44°, 44i, 

445, 446, 458-462. 
Gates, Horatio, 646. 
Gendall, Walter, 388, 389. 
" General Gates," the, 791, 793, 794, 

799- 

" General Leslie," the, 794. 

" General Putnam," the, 794, 809. 

George Hepburne's Island, 490. 

" George," the, 789, 790. 

Gerrish, Samuel, 756, 757. 

Gerry [Gary, Geary], John, 663 ; Joshua, 
815 ; Thomas, 380. 

Gibbons, Edward, 34, 56, 60, 66 ; 
Jotham, Indian deed to, 35, 36. 

Gibbons's River, 57. 

Gibion, Samuel, 332. 

Gilbert, Humphrey, 13. 

Gill, John, 7S6; Joshua, S04, 815; Wil- 
liam, 663, 705, 720, 744, 815. 

Glendale [District], 210. 

Gloucester, Mass., 786. 

Glover, John, 139, 144, 787 ; Jonathan, 
786. 

Gobe, John, 388. 

Goble, Thomas, 67. 

Goddard, Giles, 353. 

Godden, William, 600, 601, 627 ; auto- 
graph, 6co. 

Goldthwait, Benjamin, 690. 

Goodwill, Rebecca, 256; Thomas, 256. 

Goodwin, see Godden, Timothy, 501. 

Goodyear Avenue, Mel., 73. 

Gookin, Rev. Nathaniel, 466, 467; 
Daniel, 32, 50, 139, 308, 416; Samuel, 
332- 

Gordon, Rev. William, 752, 774. 

Gorges, Eerdinando, 15, 386; Robert, 
15, 16, 19. 

Gorham, John, 321. 

Gosnold, Bartholomew, 14. 

Goss, Elbridge H., 405. 



846 



INDEX. 



Gould, Abraham, 663 ; David, 663 ; 

John, 66, 408, 744, 815; autograph, 

408 ; Mr., dead in captivity, 361 ; 

Thomas, 76, 120, 211. 
Graham, John, 815. 
Granite Street, M., 680. 
Grant, Joseph, 412. 
Grant of 1000 acres, 302-304, 5S5 ; see 

Maiden Farm. 
Grasshoppers, 636. 
Grave-diggers, see Sex/cms. 
Graves, Samuel, 749, 750; Thomas, 21, 

24, 27, 76, 102; Dr. Thomas, 245, 

264, 609. 

Gray, Francis C., on the Massachusetts 
Laws, 170, 171. 

Great Awakening, the, 641, 642. 

Great Gove, Me., 390. 

Great Road, the [Ferry Street], 434; 
[Main Street], 97, 117, 397, 399, 633; 
[Salem Street] 400. 

Great Swamp, 64, 70, 71, 75, 83, 84, 168, 
386, 434, 623, S34. 

Green [Greene], 113, 502, 58 1, 614, 632 ; 
Rev. Aaron, 815; Benjamin, 570; 
Bernard, 399, 4 19, 423, 730, 740, 744- 
747, 752, 769, 778, 815; autograph, 
752; Daniel, 606, 816; Darius, 419, 
423, 595- 66 3, 7°4. 705, 719; David, 
501,632; Elizabeth, 146; Eunice, 803 ; 
Ezra, 406, 419-421, 425, 426, 484, 502, 
57^, 575. 576, 589, 649, 652, 663, 696, 
719, 720, 724, 725, 803,816; autograph, 
720; Dr. Ezra, 803, 804, 815; Gardi- 
ner, 360; Hannah, 753; Henry, 202, 

213. 255. 259, 3-M. 342, 344. 347, 35 1 - 
366, 367, 370-372, 376, 378, 3S0, 434, 
437, 450, 451, 467, 468,603-606,608; 
Isaac, 259, 347, 381, 510, 632, 633; 
Jacob, 633, 663, 706; James, 66, 76, 
94, 99, 100, 102, 107, 141, 160, 201, 239, 

265, 287, 344, 353, 541, 575 , 577,595, 
60 r, 663, 744, S16; James D., 402, 740, 
745, 815; Jemima, 704; John, 60, 66, 
68, 80, 201-203, 2oS-2ir, 213, 240, 

2 55- 259, 3 o8 » 324, 339. 342, 344. 35 1 - 
362, 365-367, 370, 376, 379, 381, 436, 
43 s , 44N 45', 462, 465, 467-469. 472, 
4-4, 49S, 500, 510, 512, 520, 528, 534, 
606, 607, 617, 632, 633, 663, 719, 730 ; 
Jonas, 412, 445, 502, 632, 633; Jona- 
than, 427, 663 ; Joseph, 395, 456, 470, 
510, 606, 633 ; Margaret, 146 ; Rebecca, 
16S, 368, 677; Samuel, 179, 203, 21 r, 
215, 259, 325, 334, 345, 346, 350, 353, 
354, 362, 364, 367, 371, 376, 397,441. 



460, 462, 465, 469, 470, 474, 4S2, 4S4, 
500, 505, 506, 510, 512, 542, 543, 572, 
575, 576, 595, 606, 607, 632, 633, 659, 
088, 697, 753; Dr. Samuel A, 221, 
224 ; Thomas, 116, 117, 204,368,372. 
376, 474, 500, 501, 606, 632, 633 ; Uriah, 
79S; Uzziah, 79S ; Widow, 362; 
William, 255, 259, 312-316, 325, 339, 
376, 394, 4io, 434, 501, 6c6, 607, 

Green Family Papers, 402. 

Green Farm, in the woods, 374, 499. 

Green Farm, on the hill, 76, 94, 45Q> 

595- 659. 

Greenfield, Mass., 322. 

Green House, 99, 102, 26S, 435, 595. 

Greenland, Daniel, 313, 325; John, 95, 
103, in, 202, 203, 208-210, 212, 213, 
256, 259, 310, 325, 345, 349-35 [ - 366, 
3<^>7, 370-372, 376, 379, 395, 417, 433. 
434,440,451, 465, 489, 566, 606, 608, 
610, 614-616, 685; builds on Mystic 
Side, S1-S3 ; autograph, 349; Lydia, 
S3, 146. 

Greenland Farm, 83. 

Greenock, Scotland, 788. 

Green's Hill, 94, 102. 

Green's Hole, 9r, 92. 

Green's Meadow, 675. 

Greens of the Woods, 101, 617, 632. 

Green Street, Mel., 99, 405, 682. 

Greenwood, Rev. Thomas J., 233. 

Greenwood [Wakefield], 79, 371, 374, 
499, 502. 

Griffin, John, 215. 

Groton, Mass., 323, 324, 327, 32S, 567, 
604, 610. 

Grover, Abigail, 660 ; Benjamin, 706, 
744, 750, 769, 816; Elizabeth, 146; 
John, 93, 446, 447, 628, 660, 720, 729, 
737, 744,8i6; Lazarus, 259, 304,352, 
371, 376, 606; Samuel, 442, 510, 572, 
660, 697, 720, 777, 816; Simon, 210, 

259, 3°4, 3*7, 3 lS ' 322, 325, 345- 376, 
378, 440, 534, 606, 663; Stephen, 304, 
318, 322, 325; Thomas, 304, 305, 31S, 
378, 400, 607. 

Grover Street, M., old house on, illustra- 
tion, 526. 

Grush, Moll, see Degrcsha, Mary. 

Grushy Pasture, 410. 

Guppy, John, 313, 325, 487, 4S8. 

Gyfford, Margaret, 105. 

Hackkk, Hoysted, 794. 
Haddam, Conn., 568, 569. 



INDEX. 



847 



Hadley, Anthony, 663 ; Moses, 777 ; 
Samuel, 777. 

Hadley, Mass., 321, 322, 324-327, 330. 

Haggett [Haggat], Moses, 335. 

Hale, George S., 762 ; Robert, 60, 68, 75, 
93, 94, 107, 109, no, 112. 

Halfway Covenant, 242, 641. 

Halifax, N. S., 706-708, 712, 791, 793; 
Rev. A. Cleaveland there, 570 ; 
Mather's Church, 570. 

Hall, , 756 ; John, 48, 60, 67 ; Ralph, 

406; Samuel, 60, 66 ; Stephen, 769. 

Hallowell, Benjamin, 690, 724; Calvin, 
706, 816; Edward, 398,706; Goodwife. 
39S, 400, 607; Hannah, 399; Huldah, 
398, 399, 660, 706 ; Joseph, 706, 744, 
817 ; .Mary, 398; Samuel, 744, 817. 

Hallowell House, 39S-400. 

Hamilton, Alexander, 796. 

Hamilton, Marquis of, grant to, 17. 

Hamilton, Mass., 264, 611. 

Hammersmith [Lynn], 373. 

Hancock, John, 7S1, 786, 812. 

Hancock Street, M., 53, 239. 

" Hancock," the, 786, 78S-793. 

Hanners, , 706, 707, 711. 

Hanover, Mass., 535. 

Harding, Seth, 7SS. 

Harnden, Ebenezer, 73, 211, 404, 409, 
445, 510, 606, 659, 681, 688, 694, 696, 
698, 720, 723-726, 72S-730, 732, 734, 
736-73S, 740, 74i. 748, 754, 759, 76o; 
autograph, 741 ; Esther, 660 ; John, 
659, 6SS, 720 ; Lydia, 660. 

Harrington, Edward, 767 ; Richard, 76. 

Harris, Amy, 119; Giles, 708; John, 85 ; 
Thomas, 799. 

" Harrison," the, 786. 

Hartford, Conn., 193, 194, 250. 

Hart, Moses, 701, 702, 704-708,7 10,7 1 2,71 5. 

Harvard College, 159, 184, 189, 220, 
23S, 250, 252, 257, 261, 264, 265, 273, 
277, 2S5, 2S6, 293, 406, 464-466, 471, 
476, 478, 493, 536, 566, 56S, 574, 609, 
612, 616-619, 621, 622, 629, 645, 650, 
652, 654,657, 658, 812, 813; students 
preach here, 1S7. 

Harvard [Harwode], Ann, 61, 6S ; Rev. 
John, 67, 75, 406. 

Harvard, Mass., 646, 690. 

Harvard Street, M., 439. 

Harvell, James, 438, 439, 607 ; Mary, 
439 ; Sarah, 439. 

Har veil's Brook, see Pembcrton s Brook, 
64, 69, 74,84, 117,434,439, 457, 530, 
540, 541, 648, 662, 667, 677, 834. 



Harvell's Brook Lane, 75, 418, 433, 435, 

438, 675. 
Harvey's Brook, see Harvell's Brook, 439. 
Hasey, , 47 5 ; Jacob, 440, S 1 7 ; Joseph, 

3 : 5> 3 6 9> 377, 378, 442; Sarah, 334; 

William, 311-314, 3'9- 323~3 2 5, 3 2 7> 

34<- 
Haskins, ,421 ; John, 682; William, 

672. 
Haskins's Lane, 423. 
Hastings, Edmund T., 33; Dr. Walter, 

801. 
Hatch, Crowell, 805 ; John, 817 ; Naler, 

70, 734, 744, 748, 7 5°, 75 2 , 755- 75 6 > 
766, 767, 805, 817 ; Phebe, 660. 

Hatch House, 70. 

Hatfield, Mass., 321. 

Haihoine, John, 115, 116, 137, 152; 
William, 139, 140, 144, 151. 

Hatkerson, John, 817. 

Haugh [Hough], Atherton, 60. 

Haunted House, 418. 

Haven, Sarah, 457, 670. 

Haverhill, Mass., 95, 97, 479, 708. 

Haward, see Howard. 

Hawkes, Adam, 60; Ezra, 744, 817. 

" Hawke," the, 798, 799, 813, 814, 828. 

Hawkins, Robert, 67. 

Hayden, James, 61, 68. 

Hayes [Hay], James, 420, 663 ; John, 
707 ; Peter, 420, 663. 

Hay-lands, 63. 

Haynes, David, 587 ; Peter, 817 

Hayward, see Howard. 

Haywards, 352, 353. 

" Hazard," the, 793, S26. 

Hazelton, Samuel, 817. 

Heath, William, 747, 776. 

Henchman, Daniel, 317, 323-32S, 393; 
Dr. Nathaniel, 702. 

Henderson Street, E., 429. 

Hendly, Mary, 412. 

Hepburne [Hepbourn], George, 61, 67. 

Ilepburne's Island, 490. 

Herring, Ebenezer, 672. 

Hett, Ann, 146; Thomas, 141, 162, 3S7. 

Hibbens, William, 174. 

Higginson, , 291 ; Ann, 60, 67 ; Theo- 

philus, 68; Thomas Wentworth, 571. 

Higginson, Rev. Francis, his farewell to 
England, 19; his observations, 20, 24, 
26, 27 ; early life, 27 ; death, 28; testi- 
mony about the Indians, 40. 

High School land, 73, 117, 168. 

High Street, E., 527. 

High Street, M., 76, 99, 239, 436, 522. 



848 



LYDEX. 



Highways, S9, 90, 109, no, 428-447 4S7, 
48S ; to Fenny Ferry, 78, 202, 240, 
428-430, 490, 595, 596; to Mystic 
[Medford], 78, 80 ; towards Sedg- 
wick's Meadow, 82 ; to the Mystic, 
S7 ; across Long Meadow, 90; to the 
commons, 90, 93 ; to Island End 
[South River], 92, 461 ; to the mill, 
86,94, 117; to the North Spring, 93 ; 
to Sandy Bank, 94, 99, 201, 399, 409, 
460, 462; to Ell Pond, 94 ; to Mr. 
Wiggles worth's, 239, 240 ; in the com- 
mons, 372, 373 ; to the meeting house, 
399. 434. 435; t0 L yn». 401, 628; 
principal early ways, 42S ; to Worm- 
wood Point, 429-433, 461. See Great 
Road, Salem Path, Reading Road, 
Winnisimmet Road, etc. 

Highways, Surveyors of, 93, 340, 360. 

Hildebert, 232. 

Hill, , 113 ; Abraham, 46, 67, 73 76, 

87, 107, 116, 117, 139, 141, 160, 2S7, 
3 OI > 377. 45 6 . 5 10 . 646, 648, 649; 
Benjamin G. 425, 484, 672 ; Charles, 

86, 357. 359. 3 s2 , 3 8 3. 4H, 424. 425, 
670-672, 744, 750, 778,818; autograph, 
670; Isaac, S7, 206, 267, 286, 314, 315, 

343. 354, 362, 365-367. 371-373. 377. 
382, 437, 451, 457, 459, 464, 465, 467, 
578, 585, 604, 606, 644, 669, 670, 672, 
673; Jacob, 117, 668; Mary, 649; 
Moses, 353, 501, 605, 606, 649, 669; 
Rev. Samuel, 646, 648; Sarah, 117, 
146, 457, 646, 668, 670; Zachariah,400, 
460, 607. 

Hill-Emerson Estate, 64S, 649. 

Hiller, Margaret, 571. 

Hills, ,414; Ann, 181; Benjamin, 

2", 215, 352, 440, 482, 504, 510, 54S, 

55°. 553. 555. 565. 572, 575. 576, 581, 
607,663, 694, 695, 702, 818 ; Ebenezer, 
377, 3S1, 394, 407, 460, 469 ; Gershom, 
205, 377, 606; Helen [Eleanor], 166, 
182; Nathan, 818; Rebecca, 146; 
Rose, not Rose Dunster, 166, 833; her 
death, 182 ; Thomas, 382, 418, 425-427, 
575, 628, 644, 663, 720, 729, 730, 734, 
736. 738, 810, 818 ; William S., 833. 
Hill's Bridge, 109, 117, 456, 457, 667, 

675- 

Hills Family Genealogical and Histori- 
cal Association, 833. 

Hills, Joseph, 9, 12. 34, 71-75. 9 r - 93' 9 6 , 
97, 101, 105, 107, 109, no, 114, 119, 

I2C, I40, I45, I4S, 150, 151, 153,156, 
l60, l6l, 163, 165-184, I96, 205, 206, 



218-220, 238, 299, 3OI, 307, 308, 3 6S, 

373. 374, 433-435. 449, 45 6 > 474. 615, 
673-675, 677, 718; marries Rose 
Clarke, 833 ; arrives in New England, 
9, 12, 166; Speaker of the House, 
148, 165, 168, 181 ; his house, 101, 16S, 
673,674,802; his well, 101, 166, 168, 
615, 674-677; ruling elder, 105, 119, 
186; marries himself, 182, 198; grants 
to, 74, 79, 10S, 119, 168, 182, 183; his 
errors about baptism, 199, 219, 220; 
his death, 184, 2S7 ; autograph, 168. 

Hills, Joseph and the Massachusetts 
Laws, 169-184; granted a gratuity, 
178; his first petition, 180, 181 ; his 
second petition, 183, 1S4. 

Hines, Ambrose, 355. 

Hingham, Mass., 30, 207, 317, 566, 714. 

Hitchcock, Rev. Enos, 651. 

Hitchings, Daniel, 51, 215 ; Samuel, 
S19. 

Hobart, see Hubbard, Rev. Nehemiah, 
294. 

Hobbs, Martha, 208. 

Hodges, John, 60, 66. 

Hogans, Mrs. William, 26. 

Hog-constables, see Hog-reeves. 

Hog Island, 273, 316, 751. 

Hog-reeves, 339, 340, 353. 

Holden, Daniel, 819; John, 818; Mary, 
818 ; Nathan, 659. 

Holden, Mass., 303, 5S6, 587; Maiden 
land at, see Maiden Farm. 

Holgrave, John, 78. 

Holliston, Mass., 690. 

Holmes, Fortune, 819; Lydia, 427. 

Holyoke, Edward, 293; Dr. Edward A., 
245. 

Holyoke Street, M., 433. 

Hookee, Nicholas, 489. 

Hooper, William, 333. 

" Hope," the, 7S7, 800. 

Hopkins, , 651. 

Hopkinton, Mass., 704. 

Horse Neck, Conn., 769. 

Horse Sheds, 210-212, 543. 

Hough [Haugh], Atherton, 60; Rev. 
Samuel, 449. 

Houses, number of, 664, 665, 834. 

Houses, old, Bailey, 400; Barnes-Pratt, 
illustration, 91 ; Barrett, 62, 70, 95, 
100, 103, 428, 486, 487, 508, 591 ; 
Blaney, 360; illustrations, 339, 361; 
Boardman, 368; illustration, 379; 
Bucknam, 77 ; Bryant, illustrations, 
561,761; Call, 62; Calley-Drown,459; 



INDEX. 



849 



Carrington-Paine, 103 ; illustration, 
ioi ; Cradock, 25, 34, 57 ; Cross Street, 
illustrations, 501,701 ; Dexter, 72, 99; 
Faulkner, 439> 440 ; illustration, 761 ; 
Flag", 290, 755; Floyd-Fisher, illustra- 
tion, 7S4; Grover Street, illustration, 
526; Green, 99, 102, 26S, 435, 595; 
Hallowell, 398-400; Hatch, 70; How- 
ard-Pratt, 358 ; illustration, 358; liut- 
chinson-Tufls, 240, 521, 522; Jenkins- 
Rand, 20; illustration, 630; Lynde, 
73> 9^' 755? illustration, 74; Manser, 
408-410; Maverick, 37, 56; Mayhew, 
34; Mmilton-Mitchell, 446; Nichols, 
53; Nichols [Nathaniel], 439 ; Paine, 
103; illustrations, 101, 103; Parker, 
437; Pratt [Lydia], illustration, 35S ; 
Pratt [Thomas], 73 ; Rand, 20; illus- 
tration, 630; Skinner, 791; Sprague- 
Flagg, 755; Swan, 77; Sweetser- 
Lynde, 755; Teele, 397-400; Tufts 
[Peter], 522; Tufts [Simon], 103: 
illustration, 103; Upham-Cook, 405, 
6S2 ; Upham, 405; Waite, 167, 672; 
illustrations, 165, 683, 721, 761 ; 
Waters, 387 ; Whitteinore, 85, 98, 100. 

Hovey, Rev. Ivory, 651 ; James, 381, 
421, 440-442, 460, 497, 504, 541, 606, 
663, 6S5 ; Josiah, 6S7. 

Howard. Abigail, 405, 660 ; Amos, 819; 
Anna, 35S, 660 ; Daniel, 690, 707, 744, 
819; Flizabeth, 638, 660; Ezra, 744, 
819; Hannah, 392, 660; Jabez, 689; 
James, 772; Jeremiah, 355; John, 
628, 659, 707, 719, 819; Jonathan, 211, 

3 6 7, 377, 4io, 444- 5 IO > 6o 7. 719; 
Joseph, 444, 659, 660, 729, 737, 741 ; 
Lydia, 660; Nathan, 719; Nathaniel, 
259, 444, 659; Phebe, 660; Samuel, 
92, 253, 259, 308, 325, 367, 373, 377, 
501, 510, 606, 638, 644, 659; Sarah, 
395 ; Thomas. 707 ; Winefred, 660. 
Howard- Pratt House, 35S; illustration, 

35S. 

Howard Street, Mel., 405, 6S2. 

How, John, S02. 

Hoy, an Ipswich, 9, 12, 166. 

Hubbard, , 6S7 ; Benjamin, 60, 67; 

Edmund, 63; James, 67; Jos[hua 
Hubbe], 60; Thomas, 59, 61. 

Hudson River, 699, 766, 778. 

Hulett, Lewis, 83-85. 

Hull, John, 261, 323, 636. 

Hull, Mass., 84, 132-134. 

Humphrey, John, 35. 

Hunt, , 651. 



-39; 



Hurd, Joseph, 406; William, 406. 
Hurd Street, Mel., 445. 
Hutchins, Daniel, 215; David, 

Samuel, 819. 
Hutchinson, Anne, 312; Edward, 

3 l 3> 3 21 > 3 2 3> Eliakim, 312, 

Elisha, So, 727; John, 240, 436,439- 

441, 501, 521, 522, 607, 063; his son 

knlcd, 521; his house burned, 521; 

George, 61, 66, 487; Mar)-, 240; 

Mehitable, 240; Thomas, 722, 724; 

William, 312. 
Hutchinson's Corner, M.,437. 
Hutchinson's Lane, M., 240, 433, 436, 

43S, 540, 624, 626. 
Hutchinson-Tufts House, 240, 521, 522; 

old house burned, 521 ; negro hanged 

for, 522. 
Hyde, Henry H., 346. 

Independence, instructions relating to, 
762-765 ; quoted by Chief Justice 
Marshall, 762 ; Maiden first to adopt, 
762 ; Mr. Thacher author of, 765. 

Indian burial places, and relics dis- 
covered, 33, 52, 53. 

Indian deeds, 34, 36, 40, 41, 4S, 50, 51 ; 
how valued by Andros, 52 ; of Mystic 
Side, 34, 51 ; their character, 51. 

Indian land titles, James Sullivan on, 
51 ; opinion of Andros, 52; set aside, 
388, 3S9 ; see Indian deeds. 

Indians, 20, 22, 30-53, 684, 6S5, 689, 
691; snake eaters, 26; around Boston, 
30; kill Frenchmen in Boston Harbor, 
31 ; one killed at Spot Pond, 31 ; pesti- 
lence among, 31 ; their barns of corn, 
34; Squa Sachem and others submit, 
35; attack Maverick's house, 37, 56; at 
Deer Island, 45-47 ; as scouts, 46, 49 ; 
out- killed at Nichols farm, 53; taken 
by Blakeman, 256; massacre at Bloody 
Brook, 257 ; executed at Boston, 49, 
261, 305, 320; slaves, 48, 416, 417. 

Indians, — , Abigail, 40 ; Ahawayet, 40, 
41, 4S ; Appooquahamock, 50 ; Awansa- 
mug, John [Oonsumug], 4S-50 ; Black 
William [Poquanum], 40 ; Canonicus, 
38; Cicely [Petagoonaquah], 41, 50; Co- 
manche Brown, 53; Crevay, Nicholas 
John, 31 ; Cutshamache, 35, 36; David 
[Kunkshamooshaw], 40, 50, 51 ; Ega- 
wam [Agawam, Mascononomo], 36; 
3S, 40, 42 ; George No Nose, see IVene- 
povkiu; George Rumney Marsh, see 
Wenepoykin ; George Sagamore, see 



54 



8 5 o 



INDEX. 



Wenepoykin ; Great David, 48 ; Great 
John, 48 ; Hawkins, 48 ; James Saga- 
mure [Montowampate], 23' 3$> 4°; 
Joan [Ahawayet] 40, 41, 48 ; John, 48 ; 
John of Packachooge, 417; John, 
Sagamore [Wonohaquahamj, 20, 33, 
37-40, 42 ; Know-God, 40 ; Knnk- 
shamooshaw, David [Nonupanohow], 
40, 50, 51 ; Magus, John [Waabaquin], 
48, 50; Mahanton, 50; Manatahqua 
[Manatooquis], 40; Manatooquis, 
Samuel [Manatahqua], 40 ; Mascano- 
mett [Mascononomo], 35, 36, 38, 40, 
42 ; Mascononomo [Mascanomett, 
Egawam], 35, 36, 38,40,42 ; Massasoit, 
36; Matoonas, 49, 305; Metacomet, 
see Philip ; Montowampate [Sagamore 
James], 23' 3 s . 40 ; Muminquash 
[Rumney Marsh, James], 46, 48 ; 
Nanepashemet, 30, 31-33, 48; Nas- 
howanon, 35, 36; Nonupanohow 
[Kunkshamooshaw], 40, 50, 51 ; Obba- 
tinewat of Shawmut, 23 '> Oonsumug, 
John [Awansamug], 4S-50 ; Passacon- 
away, 38; Petagoonaquah [Cicely, Su 
George, Susanna], 41, 50; Petagunsk, 
41 ; Peter Ephraim, 41, 48, 50; Philip 
[Metacomet, Pometacom], 36, 46, 49, 
306, 317, 328, 341 ; Piamboho, 47, 48 
Pittimee, Andrew, 48 ; Pometacom, see 
Philip ; Poquanum [Black William] 

40 ; Poquanum, Thomas, 41 ; Potock 
320; Quachamaquine, 42; Quanapo 
witt, Israel, 49 ; Quanapowitt, James 
see Rumney Marsh, James; Quanapo 
witt, Joanna, 48, 49; Quanapowitt 
John, 48; Quanapowitt, Thomas, 46 
Rouley, 48 ; Rumney Marsh, George 
see Wenepoykin; Rumney Marsh 
James [Quanapowitt, James ; Mumin 
quash], 46, 4S ; Rumney Marsh 
Thomas, 49; Rumney Marsh, Widow 
49 ; Sagamore George, see Wenepoy 
kin; Sagamore James [Montowam 
pate], 23' 38; 4°! Sagamore John, see 
Wonohaquaham ; Santisho of Packa- 
chooge, 417 ; Sarah [Wattaquatti- 
nusk], 41, 50; Shiner, Hannah, 413, 
426; Squa Sachem, 33-37, 40, 41, 45, 
51 ; Su George [Petagoonaquah], 41, 
50 ; Susanna, see Su George ; Tom, 417 ; 
Tommoquin, 48 ; Tontohquon, John, 

41 ; Tookuwompbait, Daniel, 48; 
Waabaquin [Magus, John], 48, 50; 
Waban, Old, 47-49 ; Waban, Thomas, 
49; Wanapanaquin, the, 41 ; \V anna- 



lancet, 45; Wattanoh, Samuel, 40; 
Wattaquattinusk, Sarah, 41, 50 ; 
Wattatinusk, 41; W'ebcowet, 33-35; 
Welcome, Ann, 400, 401 ; Wenepoy- 
kin [George No Nose; Rumney 
Marsh, George; Sagamore George], 
33- 35. 3 S » 40-46, 4S-51 ; Wenuchus,38; 
William, 48; Wonohaquaham [Sag- 
amore John], 20, 22< 37-40, 42 ; Wos- 
samegon, 35, 36 ; Yawata, 41, 48, 49. 

Indians, Christian, see Indians, Praying. 

Indians, Praying, 45, 46, 49. 

Indian trails, 19, 20, 71, 72, 89, 92, 125. 

Indian tribes, etc, Agamenticus [York], 
30 : Agawams [Ipswich], 30, 36 ; Abe- 
naquis, 30; Leominster, 53; Massa- 
chusetts, 30,36; Narragansetts, 37-39; 
3 I2 > 3 20 > 34' J Natick, 26, 45, 47, 49, 
50; Naumkeags [Salem], 30; Nip- 
mucks, 30, 36, 45, 49, 305, 312, 321, 
341; Pawtuckets, 30, 32, 23' 45,49 5 
Pennacooks [Concord, N. H.], 30; 
Pequots, 38 ; Piscataways, 30; Pokano- 
kets, 36; Tarratines, 30, 32, 33,38; 
Wamesit, 45, 46; Wampanoags, 36. 

Indian villages, 20, 90. 

Inhabitants, etc., Lists of, 59, 66, 76, 376, 
489, 497, 5 IO > 533- 534, 606, 607, 659, 
660, 663, 664; bayonet roll, 719,720; 
minute men, 744; negroes, 425; sol- 
diers, 323-328, 701-717- 

Inman, Sarah, 682. 

Inmates and new comers, cautions 
against, 410-412, 743. 

Innholders, Victuallers, etc., Bucknam, 
Jacob, 6S1 ; Bucknam, Joses, 6S0 : Call, 
Thomas, SS, 116; Foster, Robert, 673, 
674 ; Harnden, Ebenezer, 6S1 ; 
Hathome, John, 115, 116, 137, 152; 
Hill, Abraham, 116, 117, 456; Hill, 
Charles, 359, 383, 424, 670-672 ; Hill, 
Isaac, 206, 286, 343, 362, 457, 459, 465, 
467, 669, 670; Hill, Jacob, 117, 668; 
Hill, Sarah, 117, 668, 670; Kettell, 
James, 168, 457, 670, 672, 673 : New- 
hall, Daniel, 627, 677, 718; Newhall, 
John, 678, 709; Newhall, Sarah, 627, 
677, 678; Newhall, Thomas, 677; 
Parker, Samuel, 680 ; Porter, Jon- 
athan, 67S ; Rudge, John [Thomas], 
6S1 ; Rudge, Katherine, 681 ; Skinner, 
Thomas, 115, 116, 152; Sprague, 
Jonathan, 6S0 ; Sprague, Samuel, 1 18 ; 
Stower, John, 6S1 ; Stower, Richard, 
290, 365, 429; Stower, Samuel, 6S1 ; 
Sweetser, Benjamin, 6S1 ; Sweetser,. 



INDEX. 



8 5 I 



Samuel, 680; Waite, Samuel, 679; 
Waite, Stephen, 672 ; Waite, William, 
679. 
Instructions, 342, 723, 724, 726, 73 2 .73 8 > 

739- 
Instructions of 1776, compared with call 

of 1689, 342. 
Ipswich Hamlet, Mass., 264. 
Ipswich, Mass., 30, 167, 173, 18S, 196, 

245'-57.3°7>3 I 3-3 2 °>464.477,6o8-6u. 
Ireland, 328, 329, Soo, 802. 
Ireland, William, 272. 
Irish Charity, the, 32S-329. 
Irving Street, M., 117, 382, 649, 672. 
Island End [Moulton's Island], 56, 81, 

9 2 > 443- 445- 446. 
Island End River [Chelsea Creek], 37, 

55, 56,62,78. 
Island Hill, 56, 443. 
Isles of Shoals, 261. 
Ithancester, England, 3. 

Jackson, David, 707 ; Jonathan, 797 ; 

Manus, 76; William, 727. 
Jacob Pratt's Path, 91. 
James, Gaudy, 76, 387 ; Thomas, 60. 
" Jamestown," the, 329. 
Java, N. Y., 819. 
Jeffrey, William, 19. 
Jeffries, John, 559. 
Jenkins, Abigail, 660; Edward, 819; 

Enoch, 819; Ezekiel, 215, 366, 367, 

37 2 . 373. 377, 5 I0 > 6o2 > 6o 3- 6o6 > 628 > 
688, 705, 719, 729, 730, 734, 737, 739, 
744, 758, 820; Jemima, 707; Joel, 
260, 305, 318, 344; John, 357,628, 659, 
707, 730, 744, 820; Joseph, 510, 628, 
707, 719, 744, 820; Lemuel, 260, 365- 

3 6 7, 37 2 . 373. 377. 469. 5 ID , 6o 3- 606; 
Nathaniel, 354, 460, 510, 625, 626, 62S- 
630, 688, 741,743,762,819; autograph, 
625 ; Obadiah, 345, 352, 377, 37S, 436, 
443, 54:, 577, 607, 663, 680; Sarah, 
625 ; Thomas, 804, 820. 

Jenkins-Rand House, 20; illustration, 
630. 

Jennison, Nathaniel, 422. 

" Jenny,'' the, 422, 798, 799. 

" Joanna Oliver's Close," 493. 

John Pratt's Plain, 91. 

Johnson, Benjamin, 709, 713; Edward, 
39, 6S, 139, 144, 307 ; his notice of the 
church gathering, 104, 136 ; Isaac, 320, 
32r, 820; James, 820; John, 459; 
Rebecca, 335 ; Thomas, 707 ; William, 
60, 68, 77, 96, 98, 369, 370, 699. 



Johnson, Edward, and the Massachu- 
setts Laws, 169-177. 

Johnson's Plain, 77, 96, 102. 

Jones, Dudley, 820 ; Edward, 59, 61, 62, 
6S, 71, 86, 92; John Paul, 792, 803; 
John Coffin, 424 ; William, 704. 

Joseph Waite's Plain, 368. 

Josselyn, John, his observations, 25. 

Judson, Rev. Adoniram, 484. 

Jurymen, 360. 

" Katherine of Dublin," the, 328. 
Keayne, Anna, 20S ; Robert, 43, 44, 84, 

93, 178, 208. 
Keayne Farm, 47, 385. 
Kelly, Henry, 769, 820. 
Kendall, England, 182. 
Kenicott, Roger, 260, 317, 325. 
Kennebec River, 14, 17, 6S9, 703. 
Kennebunk, Me., 646. 
Kent, , 670 ; Agnes, 79S ; Benjamin, 

455. 59°; Sarah, 654; Smith, 79S, 

804. 
Kern wood Club, 378. 
Ketchering, Joseph, 66. 
Kettell, Elizabeth, 673 ; James, 168, 399, 

406, 409, 457, 660, 661, 670, 672, 673, 

724, 725, 729, 730, 734, 736, 73 8 -740, 

758, 760; John, 399, 757 ; Lydia, 660; 

Richard, 61, 67, 42S ; Sarah, 670. 
Key, John, 820. 
Killingly, Conn., 398. 
Kinderhook, N. Y., 713, 714. 
Kingston, Canada, 700. 
Kingston, N. H., 479, 637. 
King William's War, 6S4. 
Kinsale, Ireland, S02. 
Kissick, William, 786. 
Kittredge, Dr. John, 715, 716. 
Knight, Joseph, 663; Mary, 818; Philip, 

S5- 
Knights, Lydia, 423, 424 ; Simon, 419, 

423, 424. 
Knower, Abigail, 660 ; Daniel, 663, 707, 

708, 719, 805, 821; Edward, 708; 

Elizabeth, 146; George, 67, 83, 85, 

112, 122, 489; John, 70S, 713, 720; 

Jonathan, 259, 340, 377, 417, 44°. 44 2 . 

541, 606, 663, 708, 821; Mary, 663; 

Phebe, 663, 708; Sarah, 345, 392; 

Thomas. 61, 6S, 663. 
Knowles, Rev. John, 172. 
Knox, Adam, 534. 

" Lady Washington," the, S05. 
La Have, N. S., 7S6. 



8 5 : 



INDEX. 



Lahorne, Flora, 102, 387, 3S8 ; Rowland, 

69, 70, 88, 89, 102, 387, 388. 
Lake George, 706. 

Lake Ontario, 700. 

Lambert, John, 804. 

Lamson, David, 745, 746; Joseph, 213, 
3 2 5> 345- 35 2 > 360, 364, 377, 37$, 394. 
433- 440, 490, 49 2 > 6°7- 

Lancaster, Mass., 302, 323. 

Landing Places, Charlestown's at Sandy 
Bank, no, 201, 379, 380; Moulton's 
Island, 382, 432, 445, 446, 461 ; Sandy 
Bank, 94, 99, 102, 109, no, 382, 459, 
462; Sprague's Bank, 72 ; Wormwood 
Point, 3S2, 429-43- 445. 462. 

Lands given for north meeting house, 
512 ; south meetinghouse, 528 ; school 
at Scadan, 627, 628. 

Land Titles, obscurity in early, 254; 
Indian, 51, 52, 388, 389. 

Land-ways, 62, 9c, 97. 

Lane, Anna, 207 ; Edward, 72, 208; Job, 

70, 79, 87, 204, 205, 212, 215, 301, 377, 
380, 406, 416, 43S ; his farms, 70, 212, 
406. 

Larkin, Edward, 76, 491 ; John, 799. 
Larrabee, John, 317, 325 ; Stephen, 442, 

606; William, 325, 339, 346. 
Larry, Jerry, 821. 
Lathrop, Ellen, 188, 257; Thomas, 257, 

3 2 5>3 2 7- 
Latin Accidence, Cheever's, 189, 224. 
" Lawes and Libertyes of Massachusetts 

Bay," prepared, 171-176; printed, 

176-177; copies unknown, 177-178; 

supplements and later editions, 17S, 

179. 
Lawrence, Henry, 60, 61, 68. 
Laws, Massachusetts, of 164S, see 

Massachusetts Laws. 
Leach, Robert, 68, 76. 
Learned, Jane, 146; William, 59,68. 
Lebanon Street, M., Mel., 91, 99, 373, 

447. 754- 
Lechford, Thomas, 82, S3. 
Lee & Sewall, 795. 
Lee, Jesse, 589; Mercy, 489; Samuel, 

3°4- 
" Lee," the, 785-791. 
Leicester, Mass , 412, 473-476, 603, 677, 

709; Maiden families there, 474, 475. 
Lenthall, Mary, 16. 
Leominster Indians, see Indian tribes. 
Leonard, George, 583. 
Leverett, John, 48, 140, 151, 294, 416. 
Levett, , 16. 



Lewis, ,260; Alonzo, his errors in 

relation to Indians, 41, 48; Ezekiel, 
559; John, 60, 67, 76, 102, 107, 239, 
399, 600; Mary, 239; Mercy, 331; 
Samuel, 259, 318, 354, 358, 37S ; 
Thomas, 432. 

Lewis's Bridge, 94,98, 102, 103, 399, 433, 

435- 436, 455-457, 459, 5°°, 5°3- 5°5, 

5°6, 508, 512, 516, 530, 560, 623, 643, 

649, 675. 754. 766. 
Lewis's Creek, see HarvelVs Brook, 457. 
Lewis's Hill [Bailey's Hill], 99. 
Lexington, 775, S22 ; Alarm, 206, 316, 

405, 657, 679, 740, 743-749, 753- 766, 

775- 785. 
" Liberties, Body of," 167, 171. 
Liberty Hill, 437. 
Lillie, Abigail, 396; George, 333; Jane, 

333; Theophilus, 727. 
Lincoln, Benjamin, 766 ; William, 708, 

719. 
Lincoln, Mass., 412, 769. 
Linden [District], 64, 92. 
Lindsey, Eleazer, 702, 756-758. 
Linwood Avenue, Mel., 98. 
Little, Rev. Daniel, 647 ; George, 802 ; 

Moses, 743. 
Little Island, 85. 

Livingston, Agnes, 405 ; Robert, 406. 
Lockyer, Dr. , his pills, 243 ; his 

epitaph, 243. 
London Company, grant to, 14. 
Long Island [Boston], 789. 
Long Island, N. Y., 470. 
Long March, the, 321. 
Long Meadow, 69, 70, 74, 90. 
Long, Michael, 76; Robert, 60, 62, 68, 

112, 117. 
Long Pond, 36S, 443. 
Long Pond Meadow, 371, 3S0. 

Lord, , 708, 709, 711. 

" Lord Howe," the, 7S9. 
Lord's Supper, the, 597, 598. 
Louisburg, 406, 439, 686, 687, 690, 699, 

700. 
Louisburg Square, Mel., 98. 
Lovell, John, 655, 742; Solomon, 794, 

795- 
Lowden, Richard, 76. 
Low, John, 821 ; William, 744, S21. 
Luddington, Helen, 146; William, 87, 

92,94, 121. 
Lunt, Ann, 181, 182 ; Henry, 182. 
Lusher, Eleazer, 139, 144. 
Lyman, Phineas, 699; Theodore, 646. 
Lyme Street, M., 41S. 



INDEX. 



353 



" Lynch," the, 786, 7S8. 

Lynde, , 414. 4 l 7 J Benjamin, 505, 50S, 

515, 5SS, 677, 744, 821 ; Charlestown, 
821; Elizabeth, 377; Jabez, 649, 659, 
720, 744, 821; Jacob, 73, 427. 7° 8 ; 
John, 98, 209, 211, 213, 259, 303, 321, 

322, 325, 345, 352, 353, 359, 377, 394, 
399, 43S, 469, 474, 482, 510, 603, 606, 
718; Jonathan, 769, 821; Joseph, 73, 
203, 2ii, 347, 3 6 8. 372, 373- 375- 377. 
396, 399. 403. 4 11 , 425. 426, 434.443. 
452,473, 482, 502, 510, 521, 544, 565. 
589, 606, 608, 696, 743, 744, 748, 821 ; 
Judith, 394; Lydia, 660 ; Mary, 660; 
Nathan, 426, 708, 720, 740, 744, 760, 
775, 776,821 ; Nathaniel, 75S ; Rachel, 
660; Samuel, 821; Thomas, 61, 66, 
69. 73. s 9. 9°. 94. 9 6 . 97. 101, 119, 137, 
138,152-154, 202, 211, 241, 255, 259, 
308, 309, 31S, 339, 344, 368, 399, 428, 
504, 510, 512, 606, 688. 

Lynde Houses, 73, 98, 755 ; illustration, 

74- 
Lynde Street, Mel., 98. 
Lynnfield, Mass., 406, 709. 
Lynn, Mass., ^, 41, 47, 50, 51, 79, 92, 

93, 101, 115, 137, 147. i5 2 - r 54. 158. 

207,215, 240, 273, 274, 310, 311,314, 

323. 33 6 < 3 6 °. 385. 402, 405. 425. 426, 
43S, 459, 566, 5S7, 619, 637, 652, 654, 

657, 666, 701, 702, 705-707, 709, 715, 
718, 750, 751, 753, 759, S22. 

Lynn Street, M , 92. 
Lyon, Richard, 150. 

McClure, Rev. Alexander W., 221, 233, 
248, 286, 294, 479, 569, 667, 765 ; his 
estimate of Mr. Matthews, 142. 

Mackenzie [Menzies], ,790. 

McLane, John, 822. 

McLean, , 794. 

McMasters, James, 727 ; Patrick, 727. 

McNiel, Hector, 792, 793. 

McSparran, Rev. James, 27, 547, 557. 

McWater, John, 588. 

Mader, Samuel, 150. 

Madison Street, M., 99, 201, 399, 400, 409, 
4io, 433 

Magos, John, 4S, 50; Pompey, 426, 427, 
77S, 821 ; Sally, 426, 778. 

Maine, 671, 6S5. 

Main Street, E., M., Mel., 56, 73, 90, 94, 
98, 101, 103, 117, 167, 168,352,374, 
376, 382, 399, 429, 433, 443, 445, 456, 

457. 486, 490. 5°3> 540, 595, 59 6 , 6l 5- 

658, 672, 674, 675, 755, 802, 834. 



Maiticema, Patrick, 822. 

Maiden, incorrect form of Maldon, 12, 

in, 112; Johnson's notice of, 104; 

separation from Charlestown, 1 06-1 13; 

Maverick's notice of, 125 ; plan of, 

834- 
Maiden Bounds, with Rumney Marsh, 79; 
early northern limit, 79; eastern limit, 
80; with Charlestown, 10S, 113, 497; 
western limit, 108, 633 ; straitness of, 
300; greatest extent, 498,4995 plan, 

834- 

Maiden Bridge, 85, 399, 432, 457, 825. 

Maiden Church, first services, 104; 
Josselyn's notice, 104 ; Johnson's no- 
tice, 104, 136; gathering of, 105-107, 
131 ; ordains Mr. Matthews, 136 ; 
called to answer by the Court, 145; its 
answer. 148-151 ; fined, 151; petitions 
for relief, 161-163 ; a portion of the 
fine abated, 163. 

Maiden Farm (see Worcester and Shrews- 
bury), 212, 302-304, 361, 49S, 540, 585- 
5S9, 591, 592, 652 ; grant of 1,000 acres, 
302-304; plan mentioned, 302, 587; 
fac-simile of plan, 587. 

Maiden Mill Broojt, 49, 375, 376, 378, 
380. 

Maiden, N. V., 563. 

Maiden presented and fined, for bridges, 
456, 457 ; highways, 1 iS, ministry, 465- 
470, 472; scales and weights, 118; 
schools, 601, 602, 604-606, 617,618; 
stocks, 1 iS. 

Maiden Public Library, 5S0, 675, 812. 

Maiden River, see A T ort)i River. 

Maiden Turnpike, 26. 

Maldon, England, 1-12, 75, 166, 833; 
view of, frontispiece ; its early history, 
1 ; destroyed and rebuilt, 3 ; origin of 
its name, 3; battle of, 4; churches 
built, 6; free school and library, 8 ; its 
present condition, 10 ; town-hall, 10 
[illustration, 1] ; municipal history, 
10; its heraldry, 11 ; name brought to 
New England, 12. 

Maldon, Thomas, 8. 

Malony, James, 822. 

Manly, John, 785, 786, 792, 793, 795, 798, 
801. 

Manning's Moon Island, see Moon Island. 

Manser House, 40S-4 10. 

Manser, John, 708, 822; Martha, 404, 
Thomas, 356, 358, 359, 398, 408-410, 
659, 70S. 

Mansfield, Mass., 37S. 



8 5 4 



INDEX. 



Mantel], Robert, 8. 
Maplewood [District], 64. 
Maplewood Square, M., 92. 
Marblehead, Mass., 33, 41, 49, 50, 360, 

412, 641, 649, 679, 743, 786, 787, 788, 

790, 795- 797. 829. 
Marble [Mirable], Elizabeth, 146 ; John, 

S3. 21 4, 434.489. 5 4.533; William, 

119, 120, 15S. 
Marcharmes, Ellen, 105. 
March, John, 76, 78. 
Marean, John, 769. 
Marion, John, 274, 275. 
Marked Trees [Written Trees], 65, 78, 

80, 92, 93, 10S, 109, 385, 497, 502. 
Marlborough, Mass., 304, 318, 327, 809. 
Marrow, Dr. Ebenezer, 6S9, 696, 703-713, 

717, 71S. 

77 ; John, 



jj-' jjj> 3 



Marshall, Edward, 

762 ; Josiah, 618, 619 ; Mary, 332-334, 
362, 377 ; Thomas, 97. 

Marshall Street, M., 91. 

Marshfield, Mass., 649. 

Marsh Street, M., 99, 201. 

Martha's Vineyard, 193. 

Martin, Abigail, 334, 335 ; John, 66, 76, 
78, 123, 325, 357,. 358, 6S9, 690, 709; 
autograph, 357 ; Susanna, 326 ; 
Thomas, 75, 76. 

Martinique, 424, 507, 799. 

Mason, John, 17. 

Maspenock Pond, 4S. 

Massachusetts Archives, see Archives. 

Massachusetts Bay, lands granted to 
Oldham and Dorrell, 16; grant of 
1628, 16; grant to Marquis of Hamil- 
ton, 17 ; charter to Governor and 
Company of, 17; government a hier- 
archy, 18; the country, its climate and 
products, 20-29. 

Massachusetts Eaws of 164S, see Joseph 
Hills ; Edward Johnson ; Lawcs <5° 
Libertyes. 

" Massachusetts," the, 804, 815, 820, 822, 
828,829; loss of, 805. 

Master [Mister, Mr.], a title of honor, 

3°7- 
Mather, Rev. Cotton, 31, 126, 191, 196, 
198, 222, 237, 243, 244, 250, 260, 265, 
266, 268, 269, 274-276, 290, 292, 294, 
307, 337, 342 ; his sermon on Wiggles- 
worth, 292, 294 ; Rev. Increase, 189, 
244, 262-265, 268, 269, 271, 272, 287, 
294, 306, 328, 330, 337 ; Rev. Nathan- 
iel, 328; Rev. Richard, 131; Rev. 
Samuel, 56S, 573. 



Matthews, James, 67; Katherine, 131, 
158; Manasseh, 159; Matthew, 131 ; 
Michaiah, 158, 159; Mordecai, 159; 
William, 438. 

Matthews, Rev. Marmaduke, 131-164, 
199, 200, 220, 233, 23S, 257, 3S7 ; early 
life, 131-135; ordained at Maiden, 
136; accused of errors, 137; his an- 
swer, 138-144; fined for irregular 
ordination, 140; his confession of 
errors, 147; fine remitted, 155; re- 
turns to England, 158; his life there 
and death, 159, 160; Wigglesworth's 
estimate of, 163; evil effects of his 
pastorate, 187, 217, 219, 261, 266,287. 

Maverick, Elias, 18, 39, 55 ; Samuel, iS, 
55, 56; his fortified house, 37, 56; 
his notice of Maiden, 125; his notice 
of Rumney Marsh, 274. 

Maxwell, Rev. Samuel, 268. 

Mayhew, Thomas, 34. 

Mayhew's House, 34. 

Maynard, John, 184. 

May, Thomas, 319,325. 

Mears, Catherina, 620 ; Samuel, 620. 

" Meat out of the Eater," Emerson's, 
537-539 ; facsimile of title-page, 537. 

" Meat out of the Eater," Wigglesworth's, 
246-249 ; facsimile of title-page, 247 ; 
its popularity, 247. 

Medford Bridge, 447-455. 

Medford Farm, 10S, no. 

Medford House, 34. 

Medford, Mass., 20, 25, 33, 57, 58, 72, 
108, 112, 113, 214, 215, 268, 313, 318, 
404, 407, 411, 412, 424, 426, 439, 447- 
455. 459, 487, 488, 494. 496, 498, 499, 
568, 604, 620, 626, 628, 633, 634, 642, 
657, 662, 666, 667, 679, 688, 689, 693, 
697, 703. 7i5. 7i8, 720, 745. 748, 751, 
753, 755, 759- 769, 772, 801, S09, Sio, 
834 ; becomes a town, 57 ; origin of 
name, 57 ; lands between Maiden and, 
59; meetinghouse, 113; members of 
Maiden church, 113; straitness of, 
634; Charlestown lands annexed, 634. 

Medford River, 452. 

Medford Road, 71, 117, 382, 383, 456, 
459, 499, 6 r 5, 743, 745, 748. 

Medford Street, M., 58. 

Medway, Mass., 622. 

Meeting Houses, first, 94, 96, 97, 119, 
120, 137, 203, 204; second, 163, 204- 
216, 239, 240, 294, 3S7 ; illustration, 
186; first sermon in second, 521 ; 
third, 216, 3S2, 516-525, 610, 643-645; 



INDEX. 



855 



trouble over its location, 500-517; 

land given for, 512; plan of, 523; 

fourth [Old Brick] 357, 382, 433 ; on 

Sargeant's Hill, 356, 527, 528, 543; 

land given for, 528. 
Mein, John, 727. 
Mellens [Meylin], Deborah, 360 ; James, 

360, 377, 4S9; Simon, 304, 305, 601. 
Mellows, , 492; Abraham, 61, 68; 

Edward, 6r, 6S, 87, 93, 112, 1S2; 

Hannah, 182,238,679; William, in. 
Melrose Highlands, 499, 633, 746, S34. 
Melrose, Mass., 25, 34, 79, 80, 355, 364, 

36S, 373. 405, 443. 444, 5°°, 5°3, 62 4. 

633- 665,801. 
Mendon, Mass., 48, 305, 321,477, 619. 
Mendum, William, 822. 
Menotomy [West Cambridge], 63, 720, 

745, 746; capture of British there, 

745, 746. 

Menzies [Mackenzie], 789. 

Merrimac River, 16, 18, 48, 301. 

Merritt, Samuel, 408, 752, 762, 773, 779. 

Merry Mount, 19, 31. 

Metcalf, Rev. Joseph, 463. 

Methodists, 5S9, 642. 

Middlesex Court, M., 86. 

Middlesex Fells, 20, 25, 55, 64, 10S, 375, 
38c, 413. 

Middlesex Street, M., 71, 675. 

Miers, Francois, 69S; Jeanne, 698; Paul, 
69S. 

" Milford," the, 791. 

Military affairs, to the close of Philip's 
War, 307-330 ; to the Revolution, 
6S 3-720; town militia, 718-720; dur- 
ing the Revolution, 736, 739-761, 763- 
772. 774-779, 7S1-783, 806-S32. 

Mill Creek [South River], 94. 

Mill Dams, 375,438, 447, 675. 

Miller, Rev. John, 132, 150; Richard, 
66 ; Rev. William T., 757. 

Millinor, Hannah, 378; James, 71, 377, 
37S. 

Mills, 665; Barrett's, 675; Coggan's, 
87, 10S; Coytmore's, 73,86, 87, 94, 
116; Grover's, 446, 447; Harvell's, 
439; Lane's, 87; Long Pond, 371; 
Mathews's, 438 ; Odiorne's, 445 ; South 
River, 94 ; Sprague's, 87 ; Wheel- 
wright's, 6S1 ; Tufts 's, 830. 

Mill Street, M., 86, 445. 

Milton, Mass., 654, 655. 

Ministerial Fund, 585, 589, 590, 652; 
Dexter's bequest, 5S9; transferred to 
the First Parish, 59c. 



Ministry Lands, 302-304, 541, 543, 544- 
560, c;8i, 5S2, 584; Long Pond Mea- 
dow, 371 ; land at head line, 371, 372, 

502 ; see Maiden Farm. 
Minor, Thomas, 60. 
Minshall, Sarah, 105; William, 105. 
Minute Men, 740, 744 ; compensation of, 

744- 
Mirable, see Marble. 
Mishawum [Charlestown], 19, 38, S3, 

447- 
Mitchell, , 431 ; Donald G., 233; 

Elizabeth, 446 ; John, 214,446; Rev. 

Jonathan, 191, 197; Thomas, 56, 214, 

346, 3S6, 446, 4S9, 602. 
Mitchell's Island, 92, 446. 
Monadnock, 55. 
Monckton, Robert, 690. 
Montcalm, Marquis de, 699, 700. 
Montgomery, Richard, 759. 
Montreal, P. Q , 700, 711. 
Moody, Rev. Joshua, 268, 269; Mary, 

481, 567; Rev. Samuel, 479, 481, 635, 

636, 641. 
Moon Island, 47. 

Moore, ,710. 

Morley, John, 1 12. 
Morrell, Edward, 132. 
Morris, Rice, 61, 67. 

Morse, , 710. 

Mortimer, Mary, 798 ; Peter, 798. 
Morton, Thomas, 19, 31, 3S ; his observa- 
tions, 22. 
Mosely, Samuel, 317, 320, 324-330, 393. 
Mosquitoes, 26. 
Moulton, , 386; James, 360, 443, 

504, 534, 607; Jane, 345; John, 602; 

Mary, 446 ; Sarah, 345 ; Thomas, 56, 

59, 66, Si, 84, 103, 111,345, 3 6o > 433- 

602. 
Moulton's Island [Island End], 53, 56, 

Si, 92, 101, 103, 260, 346, 3S2, 432, 

445, 446, 540, 602, 750; wharf at, 

445- 
Moulton-Mitchell House, 446. 
Mountain Avenue, M., 72, 86, 167, 376, 

445- 
Mount Feake, 35. 
Mount Prospect [Wayte's Mount], 20, 63, 

73, 75, 89, 167, 16S, 368. 
Mount Vernon Street, M., 36S, 375. 
Mount Washington, see Sagamore Hill. 
Mount Wollaston, Wilson's grant there, 

58. 
Mousall, Elizabeth, 327 ; John, 61, 67 ; 
Ralph, 61, 66, 92, 109, 449. 



856 



INDEX. 



Mower, , 475; Ebenezer, 709, 713, 

714 ; Samuel, 510, 521. 

Mudge, , 70; George, 326; James, 

325; John, 212, 215,319,325, 362, 377, 
406, 436, 440, 49S, 504, 52S, 532, 533, 
606, 709; Martha, 264, 2S6, 406; .Mary, 
120,709; Samuel, 709; Thomas, 120, 
122, 264, 317, 325, 326,405; Widow, 

497- 

Mudge Farm, 70, 406. 

Mugford, James, 7S6, 787, 791. 

Munroe, Philemon, 775, 822. 

Murder Act, 736. 

Muster, inhabitants to, 739, 740, 742. 

Muzzey, Benjamin, 47, 313-315, 326, 385. 

Myles, Richard, 5S9. 

Mystic Bridge, 447-455. 

Mystic Field [Mystic Side], 59, 75, 42S. 

Mystic [Medford], 33, 40, 313, 44S, 450, 
488 ; ford at, 20, 447,448. 

Mystic Ponds, 32, 34, 35, 69, 7^ 3 S6 > 
6SS; lands at, divided, 65, 66. 

Mystic River, 19, 20, 22, 30-33, yj, 45> 
49, 54. 5 6 > 57, 62, 63, 78, So, Si, Ss, 
S7, 90, 101, 104, 113, 125, 268, 290, 
396, 447-455, 4S8, 490, 493, 494, 49 6 > 
634, 749> 753-757, 829, S30. 

Mystic Side, early, 12, 41, 42, 46, 55; 
grant to Oldham, 16; first explora- 
tion, 19; open and lea-lands, 22; first 
mentioned as, 59 ; Indian deed, 34, 
51 ; first allotment, 59-63 ; first land- 
owner, 62; first settlers, 56, Si ; bounds 
established, So; great allotment, 65- 
72; Domesday Book of, 69; early 
settlers, 101-104. 

Mystic Side, later, 113, 486-49S ; division 
of commons, 488, 489 ; inhabitants, 
1664, 4S9 ; families, 167S, 4S9 ; school, 
493-495 ; annexed to Maiden, 494-49S. 

Nahant, 40. 

Nanacanacus, grant to Joseph Hills at, 

182. 
" Nancy," the, 799. 
Nanepashemet, 30, 31, 33, 48 ; killed, 32 ; 

his burial place, 32. 
Nantasket, 19, 30, 787-790, 795; vessels 

captured at, 7S8-790. 
Narragansett, 547. 
Narragansett Bay, 771. 
Narragansett Fight, see Swamp Fight. 
Narragansett, No. 2, 323, 324, 326-32S. 
Nash, Robert, 76; William, 61,67. 
Nassau, Mary James Crane, 425; Peter, 

424, 425 ; Sally John Sprague, 425. 



Natick Indians, see Indian tribes. 

Natick [Nonantum], 41, 45, 47-50. 

Naumkeag [Salem], 18, 19, 40, 49, 447. 

Navy, Maiden in the, 784-S05. 

Neagles, Michael, 62S, 822. 

Needham, Mass., 406. 

Negroes, one killed, 41S; number in 
Maiden, 421 ; free blacks, 421; from 
Africa for sale, 422 ; one hanged for 
arson, 522 ; see Slaves. 

Negroes — Bacchus, 750; Barjina, Zip- 
orah, 426 ; Bassett, Sampson, 426 ; 
Brahma, 414, 425 ; Bristol, 426 ; Caesar, 
419, 425, 427; Cato, 414, 426, 427; 
Dick, 323 ; Dinah, 425, 427 ; Dover, 
426; Ebedmeleck, 416; Emerson, Bil- 
hah, 426 ; Fair, Mary, 412 ; Flora, 427 ; 
Fortune, 426; Freeman, Titus, 664; 
Grammer, 425 ; Hannah, 426 ; Harden 
[Harding], Samuel, 427, 817; Harry, 
323; Hills, Prince, 426, 427, 818; Jack, 

418, 427 ; James, 425 ; Jeffrey, 419-42 1 ; 
Jenny, 417,419, 425; John, 425 ; Jupi- 
ter, 412, 426 ; Knights, Lydia, 423, 424; 
Knights Simon, 419, 423, 424 ; Lydia, 
323 ; Lynde, Charlestown,S2i ; Lynde, 
Katie, 423 ; Magos, Pompey, 426, 427, 
77S, 821; Magos, Sally, 426, 77S; 
Mareri [Maria], 426; Margaret [Peg], 
419,425, 427; Mary, 412 ; Mercar, 425 ; 
Mercury, 416; Nassau, Mary Junes 
Crane, 425; Nassau, Peter, 424. 425; 
Nassau, Sally John Sprague, 425; 
Oliver, Aaron, 427; Perkins, Peter, 
425 ; Peter, 395, 417, 419, 423 ; Phebe, 
419; Phyllis, 412, 414, 425, 426; Pomp, 
419; Pomp, Ephraim, 422, 423; 
Quonso, Titus, 660, 664 ; Rebecca, 412; 
Roger, 427; Saco, Cuffe, 412; Saco, 
Deborah, 412, 413, 426 ; Sambo, 425 ; 
Samson, 378; Samuel, 426; Scipio, 
427; Tarmar, 426; Titus, 427, 708; 
Tobia, 425; Tom, 420, 421; Toney, 
413 ; Tower, 419; Turan, 417 : Violet, 

419, 425, 426; Walker, Quork, 422; 
Welcome, Jack, 400, 401 ; Welcome, 
Thankful, 400; Welcome, William, 
400, 401; Wheatley, Phyllis, 419; 
Worster, 412, 426; Ziporah, 425. 

Nelson, Rev. Ebenezer, 103. 
Nelson's Hill, 103, 527. 
Neponset, Mass., 19. 
Neutrals, French, see French A T entrals. 
New Bedford, Mass., 574. 
Newberry, Tryal, 210, 305, 322, 326, 370, 
377- 



INDEX. 



§57 



Newbury, Mass., 1S2, 1S4, 261, 307, 477, 

479, 710, 716, 750. 
Newburyport, Mass., 206, 285, 646, 6q6, 

753- 

Newcastle, Penn., 570. 

New Comers, cautions against, see 
Inmat&s. 

Newell, Timothy, 757. 

Newfoundland, 202. 

Newgate House, 273. 

Newgate, John, 43, 44. 

Newhall, Barnabas, 750; Bernard, 744, 
804, S22; Daniel, 460, 510, 546, 606, 
627, 670,677,678, 709, 718; Edward, 
167, 400, 484, 744, S22 ; Elizabeth, 
267 ; Esther, 267 ; Ezra, 709, 822 ; 
John, 678, 709, 823 ; Joseph, 709, 
710; Nehemiah, 823; Rebecca, 168; 
Samuel, 211, 215, 376, 460, 482, 505, 
510, 512, 709, 710; Sarah, 627, 677, 
67S ; Thomas, (68, 202, 267,303,326, 
340, 351, 365, 36S, 370-372, 376, 377. 
379, 3S1, 451, 469, 470, 472, 474, 475, 
606, 614, 616, 677, 718. 

Newhall Street, M., 76. 

New Hampshire, 637,794, 803 ; highway 
to, 95. 

New Haven, Conn., 188, 196, 236, 251, 
252, 269, 271. 

New Hockley Hole, 97. 

New Ipswich, N. H., 832. 

New London, Conn., 193, 243. 

Newman, Rev. Samuel, 2S1. 

Newport, R. I., 465, 771. 

Newton, Amos, 59. 

Newton, Mass., 651, 769. 

New York, 69, 571, 743, 765-768, 770, 

793.797.799- 

Niagara, 699. 

Nichols, , 475; Agnes, 401, 40=;, 

406, 6S7 ; Andrew D., 435; Benjamin, 
447: Dorcas, S3; Ebenezer, 435; 
James, 326, 344, 352, 377, 389-391, 
431, 823; Jemima, 439, 687; John, 
53, 405, 42 r, 439, 497, 534, 663, 6S7, 
68S, 719, 750, 775, 823; John Smith, 
83,800,801; Mary, 3S9 ; Nathan, ^^, 
360; Nathaniel, 345, 377, 406, 407, 
439, 504, 607, 610, 6S7 ; Samuel, 439, 
687,710; Sarah, 6S7. 

Nichols Farm, 754. 

Nichols's Hill, S3, 428. 

Nichols House, 83; Indian killed in, 
53 ; Nathaniel Nichols, 439. 

Nichols Land Association, 83. 

Nichols Street, E., 435. 



Noddle's Island, 19, 56, 312, 313, 316, 

751, 765 ; battle of, 751. 
Nonantum, see Naiick. 
Northampton, England, 105. 
Northampton, Mass., 1S3, 471. 
North Carolina, 619, 637. 
North [Maiden] River, 22, 54, 55, 57, 58, 

62-65, 69, 71, 90, 95, 102, 108, 113, 378, 

427, 429, 433. 4S7, 4S8, 49°. 595. 6 34, 

693, 830. 
Ninth Spring, 23, 102, 109, 382,429. 
North Yarmouth, Me., 3S6. 
Norton, Francis, 68, 71, 112, 3-7, 449. 
Norton, Mass., 317. 
Norwood, Peter, 823. 
Norwood .Street, E., 77, 100. 
Norwottocke [Nanotuck], grant to 

Joseph Hills at, 1S3. 
Nova Scotia, 684, 6S9-691, 693, 695, 

699-702, 704, 707, 786, 791, 793. 
Nowell, Increase, 34, 54, 59, 61, 65, 66, 

6S, 69, 71, 85, 93, 94, 96, 108, 112, 135, 

139, 172/ 178, 1S0; grant to, 57, 58, 

79, S5, 102, 108, 109, 215, 4S7 ; Parnell, 

58 ; Samuel, 263. 
Nowell's Creek, 487. 
Noyes, Thomas, 303, 587. 

Oakes, Deborah, 603; Edward, 163, 325, 
326, S23; Jonatl an, 534, 5S3, 5S5, 590, 
596, 663, 730, 79S-S00, S04. 823 ; auto- 
graph, 79S ; Nehemiah, 744, 775, 798, 
823; Thomas, 272, 371, 377, 410, 434, 
436, 469, 504, 512, 603, 607; Dr. 
Thomas, 275; Uriah, 411, 663, 674, 719, 
798. 

Oakes's Corner, E., 100. 

Oak Grove [District]. 64, 375, 378. 

Odlin, , 431. 

Old French War, 686. 

Oldham, John, 15, 16. 

Oliver, Aaron, S23 ; Andrew, 592, 724; 
Joanna T., 3C0, 493; John, 273, 274, 
497> 59°. 663; Nathaniel, 208, 540; 
Robert, 769, 823 ; Samuel, 823; Sarah, 
660; Thomas, 294, 470; William, 426, 
663. 

Oliver's Close, 493. 

Oliver's Farm, 455. 

O'Neal, John, 782, S23. 

Oneida, N. Y., 714. 

Ordinations, Bunker, 238 ; Cheever, 259; 
Cleaveland, 568; Emerson, 479; Mat- 
thews, 135, 136; Parsons, 471; Stimp- 
son, 535 ; Thacher, 653, 654; Wiggles- 
worth, 197; Willis, 573. 



8;8 



INDEX. 



Osborne, Sarah, 146; Thomas, 107, 141, 

162. 
Osgood, Rev. David, 662 ; Rev. James, 

425 ; John, 97. 
Oswego, N. Y., 699. 
Otisfield, Me., 818. 
Otis, Harrison Gray, 655. 
Otter Creek, Vt, 646. 
Overseers of the minister's wood, 359. 
Overseers of the Poor, 343, 361, 402. 
Owners' marks on cattle, 352, 353. 
Oxenbridge, Rev. John, 654. 
Oxford, Mass., 588. 
■Oxford University, England, 131. 

Page, Edward, 47. 

Paige, Anna, 209 ; Nicholas, 207-209, 
211, 215, 2S9, 377; autograph, 207; 
his gift to the church, 208. 

Paine, Abigail, 579 ; Ebenezer, 744, 
824; Edward, 166; Elizabeth, 331, 
332 ; James, 824 ; John, 407, 483, 497, 
504, 533, 546, 579, 594, 645, 663, 719, 
S24 ; Joseph, 663, 720; Josiah, S24; 
Mary, 405 ; Nathaniel, 447, 544, 580, 
663,710; Stephen, 103, no, 111,326, 
331, 402, 403, 42S, 454, 4S9, 490, 504, 
544-546, 549. 55 1 - 55 2 , 559. 5 6o > 565, 
575. 577, 659, 663, 688, 690, 744, 824; 
William, 210, 213, 214, 495, 504, 533, 

545- 546. 

Paine F'arm, 103. 

Paine Houses, 103; illustrations, 101, 103. 

Palfrey, Peter, iS. 

Palgrave, Richard, 60, 67, 96. 

Palmer, Abraham, 60, 64, 67, 75, 78, 81, 
90, 94, 595 ; John, 61, 67, 96 ; Walter, 
60, 67, 74, 81. 

Pan Handle of Boston, 51, 215. 

Paper Currency, evils of, 363, 6S3, 6S5, 
6S9, 779; value of, 363, 630, 696, 779. 

Parke, William, 182. 

Parker, , 435, 438; Benjamin, 16S ; 

Daniel, 79S, 824; David, 455, 580, 
663, 710; Elizabeth, 439; Ezra, 710 ; 
Isaac, 648; Jacob, 260, 267, 365, yjj, 
389, 439, 580, 628, 647, 648, 660, 663, 
687, 744, 769, 770, 779, 824; James, 
1S3; John, 660, 710, 775; Joshua, 
439; Mary, 335, 660; Moses, 706, 707, 
712; Nathan, 744, 824; Nathaniel, 
365; Nicholas, 43, 54, 70, 272, 273; 
Rebecca, 439, 631, 648, 779; Ruha- 
mah, 405; Samuel, 6S0 ; Tabitha, 
673; Thomas, 437, 439, 440, 501. 513, 
607, 775,798,799.8 2 4- 



Parker House, 437. 

Parker's Corner, M., 437. 

Parkman, Mehitable, 465. 

Parris, Rev. Samuel, 268. 

Parsonage, the, 197, 200-203, 212, 239, 
240, 253, 254, 255, 260, 469, 472, 4X1- 
485, 542, 547, 55°, 6 °4- 610, 645, 648, 
652; first house built, 197, 200, 203; 
burned, 4S2; new house built, 482- 
484; illustration, 463-, house and land 
sold, 484. 

Parsons, Rev. David, 203, 397, 469-477, 
606, 609, 615; autograph, 471: his 
burial place, 476; Rev. David [son], 
476, 477 ; Rev. David [grandson], 
477 ; Israel, 476; Joseph, 467, 471, 
474 ; Sarah, 412, 476. 

Pastorale, a long, 622. 

Patterson, John, 824. 

" Patty," the, 799. 

Paul, John, 260, 305, 340. 

Paupers, 378, 384-414, 607, 693; sold 
at auction, 414; living in the school 
house, 408, 627. 

Payson, Rev. Phillips, 657, 745, 746. 

Peabody, Hannah, 621; Rebecca, 629, 
812 ; William, 711, 712. 

Peace of Paris, 700. 

Peache, Bernard, 326. 

Peak's Island, Me., 388. 

Pearch, Bernard, 326. 

Peddock's Island, 31. 

Peirce [Pearce, Pierce], Benjamin, 679; 
Edward, 824 ; Ruth, 37S ; Thomas, 
61, 63, 67, 94, 486, 487 ; William, 689. 

Pelham, Herbert, 172, 180 ; Penelope, 
182. 

Pell, William, 663, 706, 710, 720. 

Pemaquid, 38, 602, 637. 

Pemberton, James, 60,66, 81, 83, 84, in, 
326; John, 84, 122, 317, 322, 325, 326, 
352, 377; Margaret, 84, 146; Mary, 
84. 

Pemberton's [Harvell's] Brook, 69,72, 
75. 04, 99, 16S, 347, 434, 530, 540, 623. 

Pemberton's Hill, 360. 

Pemberton's Island, 84. 

Pemberton's Pond, 260. 

Pembroke, Mass., 535. 

Pendleton, Bryan, 258; Mary, 258. 

Pennacook, 30, 38, 45, 300, 301 ; Mai- 
den's petition for, 300. 

" Pennacook, Bridal of," 38. 

Penn, James, 44. 

Pennsylvania, 722. 

Penny Ferry, 7S, 85, 88, 95, 96, 103, 



INDEX. 



8 59 



109, 290, 428, 429, 431, 457, 490, 493, 
496-49S, 669, 670, 677, 748, 750, 755 ; 
way to, 78, 202, 240, 428-430, 490, 
595, 596; British land at, 357, 756, 

757- 
Penobscot River, 31, 39, 794; expedition 

to, 794> 795- 

Pentecost, John, 76, 112. 

Pepperell, Mass., 478, 567, 645. 

Pepperell Mills, 255. 

Pepperrell, William, 686. 

Percy, Hugh, 745, 746. 

Perkins, , 573 ; Daniel A. 595 ; Jacob, 

595; Joseph, 76, 412, 595, 658, 659, 
737, 74S, 782, 824, 832 ; autograph, 
782; Judith, 411; Mary, 411, 660; 
Richard, 411. 

Perkins Farm, 76, 595, 659. 

Perkins House, 99, 268, 595, 

Perkins Papers, 630, 7S2. 

Perkins's Lane, 595. 

Perriwigs, 189, 291. 

Pest House, 91, 395. 

Pestilence and sickness, 114, 234, 330, 
635-640; among the Indians, 31, 39. 

Peter Tufts's Lane, 240, 436, 438, 484. 

Pews, 207-210, 543, 595, 643-645. 

Phelps, Sarah, 332. 

Philadelphia, 570. 

Philip's War, 45, 46, 49, 124, 20S, 300, 
306, 313, 316-330, 341, 6S4; portents 
preceding, 306. 

Phillips Academy, Exeter, 658. 

Phillips, Elizabeth, 711 ; James, 711 ; 
Francis, 414, 711, 730, 744, 752, 768, 
775, 824; John, 294, 3S6-3SS, 390; 
Samuel, 261 ; William, 76, 77. 

Phips [Phipps], Samuel, 11 1; Spencer, 
719; William, 683. 

Physicians of Maiden and of other towns 
practising here — Buck, Ephraim, 
404, 659; Burchsted, Henry, 620; 
Marrow, Ebenezer, 696, 703 ; Porter, 
Jonathan, 404, 678 ; Rand, Isaac, 404; 
Sprague, John, 629, 801-803; Tufts, 
Simon, 404, 693, 696, Soi ; Wheat, 
Samuel, 620; Wigglesworth, Michael, 
244, 245; Wigglesworth, Samuel, 609, 
610. 

Pickering, Timothy, 747. 

Pierpont, Rev. Jonathan, ^33- 

Pike, Sarah, 580. 

Pine Banks Park, 56. 

Pines River, 64, 93, 453, 455, 541. 

Pines River Bridge, 92, 93, 453, 455. 

Piscataqua River, 30, 323. 



1 Pitman, John, 402 ; Ruth, 402. 
Plastow, Josias, 307. 
Pleasant Street, M., 71, 72,86, 206, 457. 
Plume, Ur. Thomas, 8. 
Plymouth Colony, 105, 132, 306, 317, 

3 2 9- 
Plymouth Company, grant to, 14. 
Plymouth County, 547. 
Plymouth, England, 690, 709. 
Plymouth Harbor, 7S8. 
Plymouth, Mass., 701, 789. 
Plynipton, Thomas, 781. 
Point Shirley, 717, 787,801 ; expedition 

to, 766. 
Pokanoket, 317, 328. 
Political Affairs before the Revolution, 

721-742. 
Pollard, Jonathan, 776. 
Polly, John, 439. 
Pols, Thomas, 607, 608. 
Pond Field, 68. 
Poole [Pool], B , 454; Elizabeth, 

657; John, 314, 315; Jonathan, 100, 

312, 321, 326; William Frederick, 169; 

Zachariah, 426, 657. 
Poor House [Burying Ground] Lane, 

99, 399- 
Pope, Walter, 76. 
Popish Plot, 2S9. 
Popkin, Ebenezer Willis, 825; John, 

S24 ; John Snelling, 825. 
Population, 499, 664, 665, 761. 
Portents preceding Philip's War, 306. 
Porter, Miss , 642; Rev. Aaron, 

56S ; Dr. Jonathan, 404, 427, 627, 628, 

678, 724, 725, 730, 734, 738, 753, 754, 

762, 772, TJ3; Lydia, 660 ; Susanna, 

568. 
Porter Street, M., 627, 677 ; Mel., 444. 
Port Royal, 6S4. 

Portsmouth, N. H., 323, 406, 803, 804. 
Post, Susanna, 333. 
Potash Pasture, 682. 
Potter, Nathaniel, 365. 
Pounds, 382, 383, 430, 459, 505, 506, 508, 

512, 614, 615, 626. 
Powder Horn Creek, see South River, 

54- 
Powder Horn Hill, 37, 40, 52-54, 61, 64, 

65. 69, 90, 93- "3. 2I 5. 428, 446. 
Powder House Hill, 437, 649, 759. 
Powder, Town's stock of, 363, 724, 725, 

742,752,753. 
Powell, William, 66. 
Pownall, Thomas, 453, 591, 592, 695. 
Pratt, Abigail, 404; Abraham, 66; 



S6o 



INDEX. 



Amos, 711, 719; Brister, 825; Caleb, 
664; Charles, 355; Daniel, 664; 
Dorothy, 716; Ebenezer, 83, 411, 426, 
432, 445, 446, 461, 504, 512, 534, 571, 
596, 663, 719, 750; Edward, 825; 
Elizabeth, 498, 664 ; Ezra, 711 ; Floyd, 
S25; Jacob, 91, 357, 744, 825; John, 
7, 73, 99. i". 2II > 3 22 > 3 26 . 357, 358, 
368, 3S1, 417, 43 6 > 47°> 47 2 , 5 I0 > 5 2 3> 
606,607, 744, 825; Joseph, 406, 826; 
Mary, 146; Mercy, 624, 660; Philip, 
826; Phineas, 628, 659; Rebecca, 
663; Richard, 7, 12, 108, 377, 433, 
464, 510, 606, 720; Robert, 53 ; Sarah, 
357, 660 ; Sylvester, 777 ; Thomas, 

73- 2I 4, 304, 3 22 > 357, 419, 446, 484, 
504, 510, 534, 606, 659, 768; Timothy, 
712; Widow, 405 ; William, 460, 510, 
688-690, 712, 720. 
Pratt Family, MS. Genealogy of, quoted, 

357, 5 2 3- 
Pratt Farm, 36S ; illustrations, 369, 632. 
Pratt Houses, Lydia, 358; illustration, 

35S; Thomas, 73. 
Pratt's [Jacob] Path, 91. 
Pratt's [John] Plain, 91. 
Praying Indians, see Indians, Praying. 
Preble, Edward, 802. 
Prentice, , 650; Thomas, 313, 317, 

3 2 3. 3 2 5~3 2 7- 

Prescott, James, 78 1. 

Prescott Street, E., 596. 

Preshon, Catherine, 694, 697, 69S. 

Prices of commodities fixed, 671. 

Prince, Rev. Thomas, 506. 

Princeton, Battle of, 770,815. 

Prisoners, British and Indians, 758. 

Prisoners of War — Dexter, Aaron, 
813; Hovey, James, 685; Hutchins 
[Ditchings], Samuel, S19; Smith, 
Isaac, 800; Sprague, John, 802; Waite, 
Joseph, 831 ; Waters, Daniel, 793. 

Prospect Hill, 747, 755, 757, 775. 

Prout, Ebenezer, 310. 

Provender, John, 304, 305, 319, 326. 

Providence, R. I., 771, 777. 

" Providence," the, 803. 

Provident Institution for Savings, 658. 

Provincial Congress, first, 741. 

Pullen Point, 47, 54,272, 273. 

Pullen Point Gut, 787. 

Pump, Town, 615, 674-677. 

Puritan Polity, civil and ecclesiastical, 
126-131. 

Putnam, Daniel, 617, 618; Israel, 751; 
Nathaniel, 331. 



Pynchon, John. 318, 327. 

Quabauge [Brookfield], 312, 327. 
Quansigamug [Worcester], 304, 305,317, 

321. 
Quebec, 683, 700, 759. 
Queen Anne's War, 6S4. 
Queen Camel, England, 654. 
"Queen of France," the, 803, 804. 
Quick, William, 6S, 71, 86. 
Quincy, Edmund, 505, 508 ; John, 534, 

546, 548, 550 ; Josiah, 65S. 

Rainsborough, Martha, 89. 

Ralegh, Walter, 13. 

Ramsdell, John, 291, 402-404, 659, 660, 

662, 712, 744, 768, 826; Joseph, 401, 

402 ; Mary, 402 ; Nathan, 402 ; Rachel, 

402. 
Rand, Alice, 112; Edmund, 826; Dr. 

Isaac, 404, 664; Robert, 61, 66, 

490; Thomas, 429, 431. 
Rand House, see Jenki>is-Rand House. 
Randolph, Edward, 1S7, 266, 269, 2S0. 
Randolph, Mass., 221. 
Rand's Creek, 429, 490. 
Ranfree, John, S26. 
" Ranger," the, S03. 
Range-ways, 371, 374. 
Rates, country, etc., 318, 344, 361-364. 
Rattlesnakes, 26. 
Rawson, Edward, 146,154, 176, 178, 179, 

181, 183, 302, 308, 322. 
Raymond, Samuel, 812. 
Reading Church, members in Maiden, 

499. SCO- 
Reading, Mass., 41, 50. 51, 97, 101, 108, 
113, 140, 147,153, 154,203, 213, 215, 
274, 310, 312, 314, 318, 323, 33^-334, 
370-372, 374, 377, 396, 405, 407, 442, 
449-453, 487, 493, 498-502, 530, 597, 
618, 632, 633, 658, 666, 697, 698, 750, 
753, 834; ten families annexed to, 
500-502, 632. 
Reading Road, 62, 95-100, 167, 168, 203, 
2 39- 355- 3 6 4, 374, 383, 433~435> 44 2 " 
445, 456, 459. 615, 6 33> 6 73> s 34- 
Records, North [First] Church, 658; 
South Church. 563, 568, 569; South 
Precinct, 542 ; South School District, 
542; Town, first book lost, 114, 339; 
earliest entries in present, 253, 339, 340. 
Recruiting for the army, 766-772, 775- 

779- 781-783- 
Reed. Henry, 712; James, 803. 
Reedy Pond, 358, 368, 373, 375. 



INDEX. 



86 r 



Reedy Pond Pasture, 368, 376. 

Regulating Act, 735. 

Relioboth, Mass., 281. 

Relations of experience, 569. 

Religion, low state of, 638 ; revivals of, 

63S, 641, 642. 
Representatives, first, r r 4, 1S1 ; John 

Wayte's long term, 184, 799, 800; 

Jonathan Oakes's, long service, 799. 
Retailers, 6S1, 6S2. 

Revere, Mass.,30, 53,92, 272-274, 323, 378. 
Revivals of religion, 638, 641, 642. 
Reyner, Humphrey, 195, 200; Mary, 

195, 200, 261. 
Rhode Island, 62, 321, 731, 757, 771, 

775. 777, 7S2, 7S9- 

Rich, Henry, S3, 210; Robert, see War- 
wick, Earl of. 

Richards, John, 269. 

Richardson, ,475! Clarence D.,834; 

Ezekiel, 60, 63,66, 90, 387; Ichabod, 
664 ; John, 690 ; Josiah, 659 ; Ruth, 
498; Samuel, 59, 6S, 81, 82, 449; 
Thomas, 61, 67, 432, 534, 543, 546, 
551; Widow, 664; William, 679. 

Ridgeway, John, 83, 214, 434. 

Ripton, John, 385. 

Roanoke, colony at, 13. 

Robbins, Rev. Nathaniel, 654. 

Roberts, William, 69. 

Robinson, . 76; Ebenezer, 783, 826. 

Roby, Rev. Joseph, 652, 654. 

Rochester, N. H., 646, 648. 

Rockland Street, M., 72. 

Rockwell, Levi W., 679. 

Rockwell Street, M., 628. 

Rogers, ,200; Augustus D., 413, 

679; Rev. John, 265; Nathaniel, 727. 

Roinolston, Wales, 159. 

Ross, Hannah, 401 ; John, 70, 319, 326, 
330 ; Mary, 70, 330; Susanna, 401. 

Round World, the, 91, 92, 373. 

Rouse, Faithful, 112. 

Row, Elias, 377. 

Rowley, Mass., 132, 195, 200, 219, 261. 

Roxbury, Mass., 131, 135, 149, 150, 1S7, 
194, 238, 239, 246, 263, 317, 321, 329, 
620, 734, 773, 774. 

Ruck, Thomas, 12, 75. 

Rudge, John, 432, 681,682; Katharine, 
681 ; Thomas, 681, 682. 

Ruling Elders, 105, 112, 119, 1S6, 532, 
571 ; office of, 186. 

Rum and Beer, see Drunkenness. 

Rumbly, John, 411. 

Rumney Marsh, 30, 31, 23> 4 l > 44> 4S> 



47, 4S, 50, 51, 78, 84, 92, 113, 189, 20S, 
211, 215, 272-277, 310, 312-314, 319, 
323, 326, 332, 369, 377, 410, 433, 535, 
667 ; petition against Indians, 43 ; 
line between Maiden and, 79 ; school 
at, 273 ; meeting house built, 274 ; 
burying ground there, 277. 

Rumney Marsh, England, 30. 

Russell, Abigail, 267; Rev. John, 330; 
Richard, 76, 77, 109, 215, 448; 
Thomas, 797, Soo. 

Russell Farm, 102. 

Rust, Mary, 146. 

Rutland, Vt., 646. 

Ryan, John, 826. 

Ryswick, Peace of, 6S4. 

Sabbath breaking, Elizabeth Felt, 387 ; 
Flora Lahorne, 102, 387, 388; travel- 
ling- 759- 

Saco, Cuffe, 412 ; Deborah, 412,413, 426. 

Saco, Me., 255-25S. 

Saco River, 255, 256. 

Sagamore Hill [Lynn], 40. 

Sagamore Hill [Mount Washington], 52- 
54,69,8s, 93, 215, 377. 

St. Castine, Karon de, 256. 

St. John's River, 690. 

St. Mary's Isle, 803. 

St. Thomas, W. I., 794. 

Salem, Mass., 17, 19, 29, 30, 33, 34, 40, 
49. 5°, Ir 5> Il6 > 125,140, 157,173,245, 
267, 268, 274, 311,326, 330-336, 395, 
412, 413, 439, 465, 522, 571, 621, 651, 
670, 677, 679, 702, 741, 753, 799, 823. 

Salem Path, 19, 20, 58, 71, 72,79, 80, 89, 
91, 92, 98, 108, 168,630. 

Salem Road, 366, 373, 376, 428, 433, 
435' 437, 445, 597, 615, 624, 643, 673, 
674, 677, 678, 753, 814. 

Salem Street, M., 20, 73, 75, 90, 92, 99, 
101, 117, 168, 352,364, 383,408, 434, 
43S, 627, 628, 630, 672, 675, 677, 680, 
754,802,812. 

Salem Street Cemetery, 812, 822. 

Salisbury, England, 654. 

Salisbury, Mass., 651. 

Salisbury, Nicholas, 669. 

Saltonstall, Dudley, 794, 795; Richard, 

795- 
Sammet, George A., 83. 
Sands, Nathaniel, 69. 
Sandy Bank, 62, 94, 99, 102, 109, 113, 

158, 166, 206, 241, 254, 255, 378-380, 

397, 398, 43 8 > 445, 459, 462, 693. See 

also Burying Ground. 



862 



INDEX. 



Sandy Bank River, see North River, 
497, 540. 

Sandy Island, 490. 

Sargeant [Sargent], , 475; Albert 

• F., 755, 834; Amos, 755, 826; David, 
49S, 664, 719, 729, 730, 737, 741, 775- 
776, 826; Ebenezer, 352, 495, 52S ; 
Ezra, 583, 585, 590, 627, 659, 664, 671, 
719, 729, 730, 734, 73 6 -739. 74L 744- 
748, 749, 754, 763, 765, 769, 775. 776, 
779. 798. 826 ; Hannah, 105; Hugh, 
105; Jabez, 360, 462, 4S1, 534, 543, 
563, 583, 664 ; Jacob, 744, 826; James, 
432; John, 105, 260, 327, 340, 344, 

35 1 - 353. 3'V- 372, 377. 433. 497, 534, 
607,664,826; John S., 105; Jonathan, 
211,213, 353, 363, 462, 464, 472, 509, 

5". 5'3> 5' 5, 5'6, 5 2 7. 53 J -533. 539. 
542, 54S, 550, 607 ; Joseph, 209, 214, 
381, 434, 435, 497, 504, 533, 664; 
Marie, 105; Mary, 387, 435; Rev. 
Nahum, S25 ; Nathan, 387, 426, 628, 
64S-650, 776, 777, 826; Nathaniel, 
6S2 ; Phineas, 497, 533, 542, 576, 590, 
664, 827; Roger, 105; Samuel, 5S0, 
660, 75S, 80S ; Samuel G., 827 ; Sarah, 
105, 146, 825 ; Silas, 659, 664, 720, 744, 
827; Solomon, 827; Thomas, 497, 
664, 719, 827 ; William, 215, 440, 495, 
513, 515, 606, 617; Winslow, 743, 744, 
827. 

Sargeant's Hill, 78, 103, 428, 442, 527, 
566. 

Sargeant, William, 75-78, 103-105, 107- 
110, 299, 528; ancestry, 105; arrival 
in New England, 105; ruling elder, 
105, 106; autograph, 105; death, 105. 

Saugus, Mass., 19, 25, 30, 3S-40, 53, 79, 

36S, 753- 79i- 
Saugus River, see Abousett River. 
Saugus Road, 801. 
Saunders [Sanders], Elizabeth, 412; 

Margaret, 411; Mary, 411; Richard, 

412 ; Sarah, 396. 
Savage, Ebenezer, 273 ; Elizabeth, 256 ; 

Thomas, 48, 273, 327. 
Savage, " Genealogical Dictionary," its 

errors, 166, 197, 238, 252, 255. 
Sawyer, Amos, 649 ; Henry, 712. 
Say and Sele, Lord, 236. 
Saybrook, Conn., 236. 
Sayes, Christopher, 377, 378; Dorcas, 

7i, 377. 378; Hannah, 71, 377, 378, 

400, 607. 
Scadan [District], 20, 64. 69, 73, 75, 80, 

92, 125, 362, 365, 366, 372, 373, 375, 



383, 386, 396, 423, 434, 435, 437, 460, 
597, 627, 643, 678, 680, 753, 754, 812, 
814; origin of the name, 64. 

Scarborough, Me., 255. 

Schenectady, N. Y., 566, 714. 

Scholars, benefit of, 603-605, 608,648. 

School Committees, 361, 631. 

School District, South, 447 ; its records, 

542. 

School District System, its germ, 628: 
authorized, 631 ; abolished, 542. 

School Houses, 20.6, 3S2, 383, 40S, 423, 
543, 614, 615, 623, 624, 626-628; 
paupers living in, 408, 627 ; used as a 
watch house, 615; Emerson School, 
64S. 

Schoolmasters — Bishop, John, 617; 
Bucknam, Nathan, 493,621, 622 ; Dana, 
Richard, 618; Dexter, Aaron, 629; 
Dexter, Samuel, 619; Downe, John, 
629; Emerson, John, 622; Foxcroft, 
Francis, 616; Hill, Moses, 605; Jen- 
kins, Ezekiel, 602, 603 ; Jenkins, 
Nathaniel, 625, 626, 62S-630; Marshall, 
Josiah, 618, 619; Moulton, John, 602 ; 
Pols, Thomas, 607, 608 ; Putnam, 
Daniel, 617, 618 ; Sprague, John, 350, 
602-604, 608, 623 ; Sprague, Dr. John, 
629, 802; Vernon, Thomas. 616; 
Wayte, Nathaniel, 603-605, 607 ; 
Wigglesworth, Samuel, 609,610 ; Wil- 
son, Jacob, 605. 

Schoolmistress — Parker, Rebecca, 439, 
631, 648. 

Schools, 115, 600-631; at Mystic Side, 
493-495, 621; at north end, 607, 617, 
624, 628 ; at south end, 607, 624, 626- 
62S ; at Scadan, 627, 628 ; in the 
Watch House, 603; at Stoneham, 
493; dame school, 439, 631, 648; 
text books used, 631, 648. 

School Street, E., 62, 103, 486, 490, 754. 

Schweigham & Dobree, 802. 

Scituate, Mass., iS, 306, 535. 

Scolley, Hannah, 70 ; John, 70, 260, 340, 

389- 
Scotch House, 3S5. 
Scotchmen, 385, 601. 
Scott, George, 690. 
Scottow, Joshua, 253, 255, 256 ; Rebecca, 

253 ; Thomas, 256. 
Sealers of leather, 360. 
Sealers of weights and measures, 353. 
Sears [Seer], John, 76. 
Sedgwick, Robert, 61, 68, 82 ; grant to, 

89. 



INDEX. 



86$. 



Selectmen, early, 114-117, 201, 204, 339, 

343. 35 1- 

Selkirk, Countess of, S03. 

Sellack [Sallack, Select], James, 827. 

" Sermon, Extract from a Late," fac- 
simile of title-page, 647. 

Settlement, first, at Mystic Side, 81. 

Sewall, , 670, 795; Rev. Joseph, 

4S2 ; Samuel, 244, 261, 266-269, 2 7 ! > 
273-276, 290, 291, 294, 342, 393, 636, 
685 ; Stephen, 568. 

Sevvall's Point, 756. 

Sextons, bellmen, and grave-diggers, 

334-359. 378, 39§- 
Seymour, Thomas, 827. 
Sharp, John, 1S7. 

Shattuck, John, 799 ; William, 79S, 799. 
Shaw, Rev. , 573; John, 305; 

Nathaniel, 794. 
Shawmut [Boston], 19. 
Shedd, William B., 53, 708, 747. 
Sheep and rams, 88, 352, 366, 665. 
Sheep Pasture, 372, 375, 376, 383, 446, 

460. 
Sheffield, Mass., 710, 712. 
Sheldon, Walter P., 676. 
Shepard, Rev. Jeremiah, 275 ; Ralph, 

160, 240, 287, 399, 600, 601 ; Samuel, 

80 ; Thankslord, 146 ; Rev. Thomas, 

113, 172, 180; Thomas, 46, 47, 122, 

214, 396, 487-4S9. 
Shepherds and herdsmen, 88, 114, 352, 

3 65. 
Shepherdson, Daniel, 66 ; Lydia, 435. 
Sheppard, John H., 789-791. 
Sherborn, Mass., 48. 
Sherman, Mary, 717 ; Zibiah, 405, 406, 

693 
Shiner, Hannah, 413, 426. 
Shirley, William, 689, 690, 694,699. 
Shoals, Isles of. 261. 
Shopkeepers, 6S2, 770. 
Shorthus, Robert, 67. 
Shrewsbury, England, 166. 
Shrewsbury, Mass., 303, 498, 540, 547, 

557, 5 s 5-5 8 9. 59i> 652. See Maiden 

Farm and Ministry Lands. 
Shrimpton, Henry, 312 ; Sarah, 312. 
Shuker, Joseph, 7S2, 827. 
Shurte, Abraham, 38. 
Shute, Amos, 659, 664, 708/713 720, 730, 

744, 752, S27 ; Benjamin, 709, 713, 

714; Rev. Daniel, 566, 567,713, 714; 

hisdiarv, 714; Ebenezer, 827 ; Jacob, 
\i664; John, 83, IT2, 403,405, 411,417, 

427, 430, 504, 541, 566, 575, 577, 578, 



659, 664, 69S ; autograph, 723 ; Mary, 
427, 566, 660 ; Nathan, 660 ; Richard, 
2I0 > 377, 580,664, 719; Samuel, 410, 
62S, 659, 6S8 ; Sarah, 660 ; Solomon, 
6S8, 827 ; Thomas, 412. 

Shute's Meadow, 433. 

Sibbles, George, 796, 797. 

Sibley, John, 68 ; John Langdon, 192, 

193- 195, 2 5 2 - 
Sigourney, Daniel, 79S ; Joanna, 798 ; 

Sarah, 360, 798. 
Sill, Joseph, 323-325, 328. 
Simpson, Thomas, 803, 804. 
" Sir William Erskine," the, 796, 797. 
Skimmer, Jane, 791 ; John, 791, 793, 

799- 

Skinner, , 791 ; Abraham, 327, 374. 

375- 377, 435, 437-44°, 460, 607, 624; 
Hannah, 375, 435, 436, 43S, 441 ; 
Lydia, 7o,v 374, v 435; Mary, 600; 
Thomas, 70j v/i 15, ^16,^1 52,v 162; 259,,/ 
3°4-3°5,-3oS,/344, 34^, 347. 374,375, 
378, 435- 46o, 601, 607. 

Skinner House, 374, 435, 437. 

Skinner's Rock, 435. 

Slaves and Slavery, 25, 48, 323, 331, 
401, 414-427, 521, 610, 664, 665, 668, 
708 ; a slave rhyme, 419; church 
members, 417, 419, 423 ; Indian 
slaves, 416, 417 ; value of slaves, 416, 
417, 419; freedom sometimes given, 
418 ; bills of sale, 420, 421 ; decline of 
slavery, 422 ; value of children, 427, a 
slave hung for arson, 522. 

Slocomb, Simon, 711. 

Small-pox, 31, 33, 38, 83, 91, 202, 261, 
395, 422, 439, 648, 655, 685, 699, 703, 
714, 766, 779, S03. 

Smith, Abraham, 252; Agnes, 79S ; 
Dorcas, S3 ; Francis, 96, 97 ; George, 
828; Hannah, 1S2 ; Isaac, S3, 800- 
802, 828 ; John, 29, 79, 97, 260, 369, 
370, 664, 798, 828 ; Joseph, 4S ; 
Matthew, 6S, 367; Michael, 206; 
Pelatiah, 327 ; Richard, 384, 385 ; 
William, 66, 76; Rev. William, 547, 

557- 
Smith's Pond, 74, 79, 108, 374, 498, 

499, SO 1 - 
Snake eaters, 26. 
Snake Island, 751. 

Society in early New England, 296-300- 
Somerville, Mass., 57, 747. 
Southampton, Earl of, 14. 
Southampton, L. I., 258. 
Southborough, Mass., 708, 714. 



864 



INDEX. 



South Church, see Sotith Precinct, con- 
stituted, 531 ; its records, 563, 56S, 
569 ; Confession of Faith, 573, 574 ; 
reunited with the North Church, 598, 

599- 

South Meeting House, Jonathan Sar- 
geant gives land, 52S ; house built, 
527 ; its materials used in rebuilding, 
672. 

South Precinct, 356, 49S, 526-560, 561- 
599; petitions for division, 528-534, 
539, 540; constituted, 540-542; its 
records, 542; Paine's petitions, 540- 
560, 575, 577 ; ministerial lands 
claimed, 544-560, parsonage, 567, 572, 
595. 596,825 ; Green and Hills set off, 
576, 577 ; precinct dissolved, 598, 

599- 

South River, 12, 56, 62, 81, 87, 92, 94, 
125, 260, 443, 602. 

South School District, 447 ; its records, 
542. 

South [Waters's] Spring, 23, 53, 82, 83, 
85, 95, 98, 100, 360, 382, 386, 433, 434, 
437, 446, 490-492, 718, 785. 808. 

Sparhawk, Nathaniel, 281 ; Patience, 
281; Sybil, 281. 

" Sparlin," the, 797. 

Speakers of the House, 148, 165, 168, 
181, 1S5, 

Speakman, Thomas, 690. 

Spencer, Mass., 710, 823. 

Spencer, William, 78. 

Spot Pond, 31, 49, 635; seen by Win- 
throp, 55; illustration, 54. 

Spot Pond Brook, see Three Mile Brook, 
71, 10S, 379, 830. 

Sprague, , 20, 54, 37S, 447, 475; 

Alexander, S29 ; Anna, 768; Benja- 
min, 497, 579, 580, 664, 688, 697, 719, 
741. 828; Charles H., 802; Dorothy, 
512, 522; Edward, 19, 87, 211, 213, 

345, 350,377. 3So, 38 I >394, 395- 464, 
469,470,607,697, 718,719 ; Elizabeth, 
209, 290, 660; Jemima, 707; Joan, 
146; John, 80, 97, 116, 117, 160, 204, 
205, 209, 211, 213, 214, 241, 254, 259, 
278, 287, 290, 301, 303, 307-309, 31S, 
3 2 7, 339- 340, 342-344. 349, 35°> 35 2 > 
353. 365.377. 493. 5'°. 5 J 3. 602-604, 
608, 623, 804, 828 ; Dr. John, 629, 
673, 7S0, 801-803, 805, 828, 829; auto- 
graph, 801 /Jonathan, 211, 213, 260, 
3 J 4i 3*5. y-7, 345. 35 1 . 352,367,371, 
377, 378, 394, 433. 44i. 459, 464, 505. 
506, 510, 604, 606, 614, 615, 680, 730, 



769 ; Lydia, 83 ; Martha, 334"33 6 ; 
Mary, 660 ; Matthias, 777 ; Nathan, 
712, 719; Phebe, 579; Phineas, 21 1, 212, 
253, 254, 260, 309, 310, 327, 334, 377, 

444, 510, 606, 633, 688, 701, 707, 744, 
747, 7S0, 801, 805, 828, 834; Richard, 
19,61, 67-69, 72, 107, 109, 163, 352; 
Rebecca, 213, 370, 620; Ralph, 19, 37, 
60, 68, 78, 79, 90, 93, 95, 96, 107-1 10, 
447; Samuel, 118, 122, 203,209, 211, 
213, 214, 254, 259, 267, 2S0, 30S, 309, 
31S, 344,349. 35°, 35 r » 353, 367, 370, 
37i. 373,377. 444, 464,5 5, 5° s > 5'°> 
607, 60S, 616, 620, 659, 720, 729, 730, 
736, 73 8 > 746, 75°. 754, 760; Sandy, 
829; Sarah, 334; Stower, 431, 462, 
493- 5°4, 528, 534, 542; Timothy, 412, 

445, 454,461,462, 510, 54S, 550, 575, 
578, 588, 591,699, 707; William, 19, 
395- 5 IQ . 5 12 , 522, 546, 744, 769. S04, 
805, 829. 

Sprague-Flagg House, 755. 

Sprague's Bank, 72. 

Sprague's Ledge, 375, 376, 381. 

Sprague Street, M., 72, 168, 376, 408, 
624, 674. 

Springfield, Mass., 304, 321, 471. 

Spring Gutter, 360, 492. 

Spruce Street, M., 91. 

Spy Pond, 746. 

Squa Sachem, 33-37, 40, 41, 45- 5 1 5 
widow of Nanepashemet, 33 ; mar- 
ries Webcowet, 33; deeds lands to 
Charlestown, 34; submits, 35, 36; 
her death, 37. 

Squire, Bridget, 120, 146; John P., 47 ; 
Thomas, 59, 60, 63, 68, 86, 92, 107, 
114, 115, 119-121, 139, 141. 

Squire's Hill, 372. 

Squire's Meadow, 368. 

Stamp Act, 722-725, 735, 742. 

Standard of the Three County Troop, 
316. 

Stanley, Hannah, 329 ; John, 327, 329; 
Onesiphorus, 329. 

Stapleton, Patrick, 714. 

Starkey, John, 123, 304. 

Stearns, Phineas, 778; Thomas, 58S. 

Stebbins, George, 796 ; Sarah, 476. 

Stedman, Elizabeth, 187; John, 1S7. 

Steeple, 645. 

Steuben, Baron, and the boy soldier, 
819. 

Stiles, Isaac, 402. 

Stilson [Stitson], William, 76, 77, 92, 
107, 109, 1 12. 



INDEX. 



865 



Stimpson, Abigail, 535; Andrew, 535; 

Rev. Joseph, 535, 536, 539, 543, 552, 

556, 561-565, 569, 619. 
Stinted Pasture [Charlestown], 85. 

Stobo, Rev. , 275. 

Stocks, 118, 122, 348. 

Stoddard, , 426 ; John, 542, 546, 

55 2 , 553- 

Stone Brook, 438. 

Stoneham, Mass., 55, 411, 421, 425-427, 
444, 45 2 , 488, 493- 49 6 > 498, 499, 501, 
502, 632-634, 663, 666,688, 707, 711, 
746, 750, 809, 815, 818, 819, 834; 
school there, 493. 

Stoneham Road, M., 373 ; Mel., 444, 834. 

Stone, Josiah, 781 ; Rev. Samuel, 194. 

Stony Lane, 239, 435, 436, 440, 441. 

Stony Swamp, 9S, 99. 

Storer, William, 724. 

Story, Abiel, 743 ; Dr. Elisha, 730, 739- 
743, 750, 829; John, 743; Joseph, 
743; Ruth, 743; Tabitha, 743; Wil- 
liam, 742, 743. 

Stoughton, William, 279, 2S0. 

Stower [Stowers], ,430, 475; Abi- 
gail, 6S7 ; Amos, 497, 664 ; Anna, 273 ; 
Elizabeth, 290 ; Joanna, 290 ; John, 
6S1, 6S7 ; Joseph, 387 ; Nathan, 687 ; 
Nicholas, 60, 68; Richard, 290, 365, 
429, 430, 489; Samuel, 207, 209, 214, 
274, 387, 462, 490-49-, 5°4, 5 2I » 54-, 
681, 6S7 ; Sarah, 6S7. 

Stow, Mass., 689. 

Strangers' money, 288. 

Stratford, Conn., 251, 252. 

Strong waters, wine, etc., see Dnuikai- 
ness. 

Sturgis, Edward, 61, 67. 

Sugar Act, 722. 

Sullivan, James, 51, 658. 

Summer Street, M., 72. 

Sun-dial, 409. 

Surveyors of highways, 93, 340, 360. 

"Susan and Ellen," the, 166. 

Swain, Mary, 377. 

Swain's Pond, 372-375, 446, 460. 

Swain's Pond P.rook, 373, 446. 

Swain's Pond Meadow, 368. 

Swain's Pond Road [Avenue], M., 373, 
446, 447- 460. 

Swamp Fight, 320, 321, 324, 326, 684. 

Swampscott, Mass., 40. 

Swan House, 77. 

Swan, Joseph, 77, 419. 

Swansea, Mass., 317, 325. 

Swansea, Wales, 131, 159. 



Sweden, Me., 659. 

Sweet, Benjamin, 326. 

Sweetser, ,418, 432; Abigail, 211, 

535' 536; Benjamin, 188, 211, 212, 
430, 431, 483, 493, 504, 534, 536, 681; 
John, 687, 769, 829; Jonathan, 6S7 ; 
Joseph, 829; Martha, 687 ; Phillips, 
534, 543; Samuel, 211, 214, 353, 420, 
421, 43 1 , 493, 495, 49 s , 5°4, 5°5- 5 r 3. 
516, 534, 543, 664, 6S0; Seth, 60,66, 
104, 562, 564 ; Stephen, 546, 664, 714; 
W'igglesworth, 211. 

Sweetser-Lynde House, 755. 

Sweetser's Point, 37, 56, 81,87, 104, 125, 
268, 5S0. 

Swillaway, Henry, 120, 121, 201, 206, 

2 59, 3°4, 377-379- 
Swine, 34, 84, 88, 352. 
Sylvan Street, Mel., 98, 443. 
Symmes [Simms], , 291 ; Elizabeth, 

405 ; Rev. Zachariah, 60, 62, 66, 68, 

69, 119. 
Symonds, Samuel, 139, 144, 172, 179. 

Talbot, Lancelot, 48. 

" Talbot," the, 19. 

Tan-yards, 360, 446, 492. 

Tappan, Rev. David, 2S6. 

Tarbox, Ebenezer, 6S9; Samuel, 715. 

Taunton, Mass., 619. 

Taverns, Foster's, 673, 674, 802 ; Half 
Moon [Newhall'sJ, 677, 678, 710, 718 ; 
Hill's [Rising Eagle, Kettell's], 117, 
343- 348, 359- 361, 362, 3S2, 4M, 424, 
435, 45 6 , 457, 615, 649, 66S-672, 677, 
678, 778; illustration, 669; Kettell's 
[Hill's], 457, 661, 670, 724, 743,745, 
747, 75S, 766 ; Kettell's, 168, 673, 802 ; 
Newhall's [Half Moon], 361, 627, 670, 
677, 67S, 772; Porter's, 678, 753; Ris- 
ing Eagle [Hill's], 457, 670, 673; 
Waite's, 679, 680, 740, 758, 778, 814; 
illustration, 6S0; Waite's [Stephen], 
672; others, 6S0, 681. 

Taverns, fare at, 66S, 671. 

Tavern Keepers, see IiuiJiolders. 

Taverns, not in Maiden Fountain, 

71S; George, 620; Noah's Ark, 140; 
Norwood's, 670; Ship, 140. 

Taxation, 31S, 319, 361-364, 662-665, 
688; highway taxes worked out, 45S. 

Taylor, James, 500, 684,685; John, 727, 
829 ; Mary, 333 ; Seabred, y^. 

Tea Act, 733-735- 

Teachers, duties of, 199; not pastors, 
199. 



55 



866 



INDEX, 



Tea Party, Boston, 735, 742. 
Tea, use of, discouraged, 735. 
Teele, Abigail, 610; Mary, 397, 402, 
460; Rachel, 397, 401,402; William, 

259. 35 2 > 378, 396, 397. 399-402, 459- 
460, 607, 610. 

Teele House, 397-400. 

Temple, Isaac, 586 ; Robert, 664. 

Temple, Mass., 809. 

Temple's Point, 756. 

Tennant, Rev. Gilbert, 641, 642. 

Tewkesbury, Mass., 45, 715. 

Thacher, Rev. Anthony, 654 ; Charles, 
658 ; Mary Harvey, 65S ; Oxenbridge, 
654, 655 ; Rev. Peter, 276, 294, 465, 
654; Peter Oxenbridge, 658; Samuel, 
769 ; Rev. Samuel Cooper, 658 ; 
Sarah, 654 ; Rev. Thomas, 654 ; Rev- 
Thomas Cushing, 629, 657, 658. 

Thacher, Rev. Peter, 426, 4S4, 642, 648, 
651-661, 670, 671, 673, 728-730, 738- 
742, 748-750. 752, 759- 76o, 762, 765, 
767,768, 780; ordained, 653; his pa- 
triotism, 657 ; author of the Instruc- 
tions, 765. 

Thacher's Woe, 654. 

Thomas, John, 766; Mary, 649; Sarah, 
649; William, 649. 

"Thomas," the, 799, Soo, S02. 

Thompson, Charles, 722 ; David, 19 ; 
Edward, 750 ; Henry, 187 ; James, 6o, 
66. 

Thompson's Island, 19. 

" Thorn," the, 795-797. 

Three County Troop, 310-317, 319, 323- 
325, 327, 341 ; its standard, 316. 

Three Mile Brook, see Spot Pond Brook, 
20, 55-57, 64, 71-73, 75, 86,94, 113, 
117, 167, 378,382,456,457. 

Three Mile Brook Meadows, 372. 

Throat Distemper, 635-640. 

Thwing, Benjamin, 425. 

Tibodo, [Thibodot, Debuto], Antoine, 
698 ; Eleanor, 693, 694, 696, 697 ; Ger- 
main [Jeremiah], 404, 405, 693, 694, 
696-698; Gregoire, 697, 69S; Isaac, 
698 ; Madeleine, 693, 694 ; Marie, 698. 

Ticonderoga, 646, 699, 700, 703, 704, 
714, 767, 768, 803. 

Tidd [Tedd], John, 68; Joshua, 67, 
1 12. 

Timber, etc., measurers of, 360. 

Tithingmen, 344-346; last in Maiden, 
346. 

Toler. , 425. 

Topsfield, Mass., 622. 



Tories, 733, 772, 773. 

Torrey, Rev. Joseph, 547, 557 ; William, 
146, 155, 181, 184, 301, 308. 

Town charges, 362-364- roads and 
bridges, 457, 45S ; schools, 609, 630. 

Town House, proposed, 649. 

Town Meetings, time of holding an- 
nual, 340; one broken up, 521; for- 
bidden, 735, 736; long, 738-741, 748, 
75 1 - 

Town Officers, 114, 339-361. 

Town Pump, 615, 674-677. 

Townsend, Bernard, 643, 644; Isaac, 
681 ; John, 346, 497, 49S ; Joseph, 607 ; 
Penn, 494; Samuel, 214; Solomon, 
421, 534, 664, 687, 719; Thomas, 273. 

Townsend, Mass., 750. 

Training Fields, 112, 376, 38 1. 

Treadwell, Rev. John, 426. 

Treasurer, Town, 348, 350. 

Trees, marked, see Marked Trees. 

Trees, written, see Marked Trees. 

Trenton, Battle of, 743, 770, 812, 815. 

Trerice, Nicholas, 67. 

Trinitarian Congregational Church and 
Society, 658. 

Truro, Mass., 563, 800. 

" Tryon," the, 796, 797. 

Tucker, John, 829 ; Samuel, 786, 790- 
792, 797- 

Tuckerman, Rev. Joseph, 275, 277. 

Tufts, ,113, 430; Adam, 829; Asa, 

439, 440; Benjamin A., 521; James, 
327; John, 209, 213, 240, 482, 493, 
495, 624, 719, 730, 772, 829; Jonathan, 
215, 216; Joseph Warren, 59, 167; 
Mary, 120, 121, 214, 240; Otis, 167; 
Peter, 58, 85, 120, 121, 214, 215,301, 

3 2 7» 33 r > 346, 347, 377, 404- 433> 44o, 
469, 484, 4S9, 606, 834 ; Samuel, 347, 
510, 649, Simon, 103, 545: Dr. Simon, 
404, 454, 693, 696, Soi : Stephen, 59, 
693, 744, 830; Thomas, 467-470, 510; 
Timothy, 744, 769, 830. 

Tufts [Peter] House, see Hutchinson- 
Tnfts House. 

Tufts's [Peter] Lane, 240, 436, 43S, 484. 

Tufts [Simon] Farm, 103, 545. 

Tufts [Simon] House, 103 ; illustration, 
103. 

Turell, Rev. Ebenezer, 412, 426, 573, 
662. 

Turkey Hill, 70, S5, 260, 406. 

Turkey Swamp, 413. 

Turner, John, 505, 508; William, 211. 
322, 324-327, 329. 



INDEX. 



867 



Tuttle, John, 31 r, 312. 

Tyler, Moses, 334. 

Tyng, Rev., Stephen H., 571; William, 

34, 80, 175. 
Tyot [District], 64, 375, 378. 



Unitarian Church, 423. 
Unitarians, 643. 
Universalists, 571. 

Upham, , 113, 475; Abigail, 63S ; 

Amos, 650, 660, 719, 720, 737, 748; 
Rev. Caleb, 563 ; Daniel T., 563 ; 
David, 510; Dolly, 294; Ebenezer, 
460, 504. 512, 517, 52s, 532, 534, 543, 
546, 551, 5 6 3-5 6 5> 596; Elizabeth, 187, 
320, 500 ; Ezra, 744, 830 ; Hannah, 
405, 682 ; Isaac, 99, Jacob, 6S2 ; 
James, 211,360, 504, 512, 606; John, 
78, 98, no, 114-117, 123, 139, 141, 160, 
187, 201, 2ii, 303, 305, 320, 322, 327, 
339- 37i, 377, 442, 510, 607, 638; 
Mary, 638; Nathan, 402 ; Nathaniel, 
211,215, 216,352, 372, 37 3 , 377, 395, 
433, 43 6 , 441. 45 1 . 46o, 504, 534, 539, 
542, 563, 603, 606-608; Rev. Nath- 
aniel, 1S7 ; Phineas, 203,211-213, 216, 
259, 35°, 35', 353, 362, 367, 370, 378, 
381, 405, 431, 434, 436, 437, 469, 470, 
513, 606, 607, 616, 638, 6S2 ; Priscilla, 
123, 124, 328; Richard, 500, 501,606 ; 
Ruth, 321; Samuel, 510, 638, 688; 
Thomas, 372, 381, 499, 501, 606 ; 
Timothy, 353; William, 744, 769, 
830. 
Upham-Cook House, 405, 6S2. 
Upham House, 405. 

Upham, Lieut. Phineas, 124, 304, 305, 

320, 321, 327, 377; autograph, 320; 

his death, 320, 321 ; search for his 

grave, 321. 

Upham's Lane, Mel., 443, 447. 

Upham Street, Mel., 99, 405, 443, 801, 

834- 
Utrecht, Treaty of, 6S5. 



Valuation, 665. 

Vane, Henry, 272. 

Van Voorhis's Point, 37, 56, 268, 580. 

Vaudreuil, Marquis de, 685, 700. 

Veazie, John, 750. 

Vendue — .Mary Degresha, 413, 414 ; 

clothing, 674 ; collection of taxes 

674. 
Vermont, 571, 658. 
Vernon, Thomas, 616. 
Victuallers, see hmhohiers. 



Village Lane, M., 72. 

Vine Street, E., 446. 

Vines, Richard, 3S6. 

Vinton, Aaron, 444 ; Benoni, 444, 720, 
769, 830; Ezra, 682, 746; John, 3S1, 
73°. 744, 75$, 770, 77$, 831 ; Thomas, 
444, 746 ; Timothy, 746. 

Vinton Street, Mel., 444. 



Wachusett, 36, 55. 
Wade, Elizabeth, 267 ; James, 744, 831 ; 
Jonathan, 313-315; Lydia, 716; 
Nathaniel, 313; Samuel, 7 iS; Simon, 
699, 715. 7i6. 
Wading River [Norton], 317, 325, 326. 
Wadsvvorth, Rev. Benjamin, 291, 620. 

Waite [Wayte], , 113, 475 ; Aaron, 

439> 679; Abigail, 404; Alexander, 
3 2 7, 339, 346; Benjamin, 455, 510, 719, 
831; Daniel, 672; David, 744, 831; 
Deborah, 660, 6S7 ; Dorothy, 716; 
Ebenezer, 412, 62S, 6S7, 704, 744, 831 ; 
Edward, 167, 402-404, 454, 510, 565, 
575, 588, 659, 697, 699, 712 ; Elizabeth, 
775, 791 ; Ezra, 628; Hannah, 369, 
4°5> 476; Isaac, 412, 54r, 565, 660, 
664; Jabez, 167,510, 626; John, 327, 
382, 401, 459, 62S, 664, 737, 744, 75 8, 
772, 79 1 . 831, S33; Jonathan, 426; 
Joseph, 259, 340, 359, 365, 368, 377,' 
404, 460, 469, 510, 660, 6SS, S3 1, S33; 
Judith, 660; Mary, 146, 166, 167, 439, 
566, 660, 679, 709, 831, 833 ; Micah, 167, 
730, 744, 831 ; Nathan, 650, 710, 716, 
719; Nathaniel, 214, 353, 469, 510, 
603-607; Peter, 167, 404; Rebecca, 
215; Richard, 628; Ruth, 649, 660; 
Samuel, 83, 166, 167, 209, 213, 260, 345, 
436, 439> 443> 459, 46o, 464, 469, 504, 
5°5, 5°S, 510, 512, 513, 521, 527, 546, 
548, 550, 604, 606, 628, 635, 648, 660, 
67S, 679, 705, 718, 720, 729, 730, 744, 
779, 79i, 831, S33; Sarah, 660; 
Stephen, 672, 716, 719; Thomas, 70, 
21 '- 346, 378, 403, 442, 464, 504, 510, 
512. 534, 542, 546, 549, 551, 565, 580, 
606, 627, 628, 659, 660, 664, 687, 719, 
744, 748, 754. 775, 831 ; Timothv, 412, 
510,664, 720; William, 460,469,606, 
628,660, 678, 679, 719, 720, 730, 741, 
744- 75 s ' 772, 775- 776. 778, 826, 831. 
Waite [Wayte], Capt. John, 12, 79,80, 
89, 102, 107, no, 114-117, 119, 139, 
141, 145. x 48, 150, 151, 160, 163, 165- 
167, 184, 185, 201, 204, 205, 215, 241, 
259, 287, 299, 301, 303, 307, 308, 318, 



868 



INDEX. 



319, 321, 323, 327, 339, 341, 349, 369, 
377. 3^i> 443. 449. 465. 566, 601, 603, 
71S, 799; his marriage, 167, 833; 
arrives in New England, 166, 167 ; 
his house, 167; writes the book of 
laws, 175, 176; long term as represen- 
tative, 184,799,800; autograph, 1S4; 
nominated to the magistracy, 1S5 ; 
denounced by Randolph, 1S5, 341 ; 
Speaker of the House, 165, 185, 309; 
petitions for dismissal, 30S ; his 
death, 185. 

Waite Houses, Capt. John, 167; John, 
illustration, 761 ; Micah [Peter], 167 ; 
illustration, 165; Samuel, illustration, 
721; Stephen, 672; Waite-Ireson, 
illustration, 6S3. 

Waite's Mount, see Wayte's Mount. 

Waite's [Joseph] Plain, 368. 

Wakefield, Mass., 79, 374, 499, 502, 503. 

Waldo, , 479; Cornelius, 477; 

Rebecca, 477. 

Waldron, Dr. Isaac, 80. 

Walford, Thomas, 19, 20. 

Walker, Augustine, 76-78 ; Quork, 422. 

Walnut Street, M., 70, 374, 434~437> 
624. 

Walter, Rev. Nehemiah, 294. 

Waltham, Mass., 35. 

Walton, John, 501, 769; Samuel, 606. 

Wamesit Indians, see Indian tribes. 

Wamesit [Tewkesbury], 45. 

Wanapanaquin, " the plumed ones," an 
error of Mr. Lewis, 41. 

Wapping, England, 62. 

Ward, Artemas, 766, 781, 7S7, 795; 
Rev. Nathaniel, 167, 171, 172, 1S3. 

Wardwell, Samuel, 335 ; Sarah, 335. 

Warren, James, 661, 7S1 ; John, 534; 
Dr. Joseph, 751; Josiah, 767; Mary, 

33 1 , 333- 
Warren, R. I., 26S. 
" Warren," the, 7S6, 788, 804. 
Warwick, Earl of [Robert Rich], 14, 17, 

236. 
Washburne, Peter Thacher, 65S. 
Washington Avenue, Chelsea, 92, 435. 
Washington [Dexter] Elm, 72, 759. 
Washington, George, 757, 759. 7^5, 767, 

782, 785, 786, 791, 792, 804 ; the stone 

wall, 759. 
Washington Street, M., 72. 373. 
Watch House, 392, 603,614, 615 ; school 

in the, 60^;. 
Watering Piaces, 399 ; Central Square, 

383, 459, 675; Ell Pond, 99, 462; 



Green's Meadow, 675 ; Harvell's Brook 

Lane, 439, 675 ; Lewis's Bridge, 675 ; 

Mill Pond, 675; South Spring, 382. 
Waters, Daniel, 360, 387, 491, 744, 754, 

785-798, S02, S3 1 ; autograph, 785; 

Nancy [Ann], 798; Sarah, 360. 
Waters House, 3S7. 
Waters's Spring, see South Spring. 
Watertown, Mass., 35, 150, 172, 317, 

449, 661, 743, 744, 759, 760. 
Watts, Samuel, 664 ; William, 831. 
Waye, Aaron, 79, 272. 
Wayte, see Waite. 
Wayte's Mount, see Captain's Hill and 

Mount Prospect, 12, 20, 63, 64, 73, 75, 

94,95,9s, 101, 102, 167, i6S, 364, 36S, 

372, 375. 3 8l > 4oS, 443. 674. 753 ; illus - 

tration, 13; beacon on, 776, 777. 
Webb, Benjamin, 305, 310, 350, 378; 

Daniel, 699; Rev. John, 275, 276, 

568. 
Webcowet, marries the Squa Sachem, 

33; deeds lands to Charlestown, 34; 

and to Jotham Gibbons, 35. 

Webster, , 651 ; Joshua, 679. 

Webster Street, M., 6S0. 

Weeden, Joseph, 313; Samuel, 313. 

Welch, James, 319-322, 327, 716; 

Katherine, 681 ; Mary, 411 ; Thomas, 

112. 
Welcome, Ann, 400, 401 ; Jack, 400, 401 ; 

Thankful, 400 ; William, 400, 401. 
Wellington [Medford], 57, 5S, 214, 499, 

53°' 

Wells, Me., 25S, 646, 647. 

Well, the town, 615, 674-677. 

Wenepoykin [George NoNose ; Rum- 
ney Marsh, George ; Sagamore 
George], 33, 35, 38, 40-46, 48-51 ; his 
petition, 41 ; sold into slavery, 4S ; 
his death, 48 ; his lands claimed, 49. 

Wescustogo, Me., 386. 

Wessagusset [Weymouth], 15, 16, 19. 

Westborough, Mass., 620, 706. 

West Boylston, Mass., 303. 

Westfield, Mass., 717. 

Westford, Mass., 709. 

West Indies, 415, 507, 791, 799, 805. 

Westminster, Mass., 323. 

Weston, Thomas, 15. 

Wethersfield, England, 166. 

Weymouth, Mass., 15, 16, 19, 30, 187, 
317, 321, 547, 631, 654. 

Wharton, Richard, 279, 280. 

Wheat, Dr. Samuel, 620. 

Wheatley, Phyllis, 419. 



INDEX. 



869 



Wheeler, Benjamin, 687 ; Ephraim, 547, 
586-589, Frances, 95,96, 489; Isaac, 
84, 214, 411, 4S9, 5°4, 54'. 577. 694, 
696, 69S, 716, 717, 719; Mary, 497, 
664; Samuel, 399,689,690; Thomas, 
327, 489, 534, S32 ; Capt. Thomas, 
312, 324, 327. 

Wheelwright, Rev. John, 258. 

Wheldon [Welding], Gabriel, 158; John, 
15S; Margaret, 146, 158. 

Whipping Post, 348, 414. 

Whipping, punishment by, 123, 348; 
last person whipped here, 348. 

Whipple, Joseph, 331. 

Whitaker, James H., 437. 

White, , 667 ; Benjamin, 754. 

Whitechurch, England, 105. 

Whitefield, Rev. George, 641, 642, 656. 

Whitehand, George, 59, 68. 

Whitehand's Island, 92, 93. 

Whitehaven, England, S03. 

White Island, 85, 429, 431, 493,497, 69S. 

White Plains, Battle of, 743, 769, 815. 

Whiting, Leonard, 709; Ur. William, 

754- 

Whitman, John, 76. 

Whitmore, Francis, 454 ; William H., 
176, 177. 

Whitney, Josiah,77i. 

Whittemore, , 475 ; Benjamin, 213, 

2 59> 3 l8 > 377, 437, 4^9, 607; Daniel, 
214, 304, 489, 497, 504, 534, 590, 664; 
Elias, 534; Hannah, 146; James, 440, 
504, 607, 6S7, 717, 720 ; Joel, 6S7, 782, 
832; John, 214, 504; Jonathan, 534; 
Joseph, 85, 49 2 > 497, 664, 717, 719; 
Joshua, 534; Mary, 405, 687, 717; 
Pelatiah, 304, 534, 565, 717, 832; 
Thomas, 62, 69, 83, 85, 98, 100, 108, 
4S9. 

Whittemore Farm, 62, 69. 

Whittemore House, 85, 98, 100. 

Whittier, John G., 38. 

Whittridge, Thomas J., 346. 

Wiar, Edward, 601. 

Wickabaug Pond, 321. 

Wickes, Thomas, 66. 

Wigglesworth, Abigail, 18S, 211, 286, 
536; Edward, 188, 189, 285, 286, 293, 
294; Esther, 18S ; Martha, 264, 281, 
2S6, 609; Mary, 200, 221, 261 ; Mercy, 
250, 261, 264; Sybil, 203, 215, 264, 
285, 294, 464, 604, 609; Rev. Samuel, 
239, 245, 264, 60S-613, 616; his ac- 
count book, 610; his " Funeral Song," 
611-613. 



Wigglesworth, Rev. Michael, 105, 123. 
132, 163, 18S-203, 206, 211, 217-251, 
253, 257, 259, 260-267, 269, 272, 278— 

295, 3°5. 307, 337, 33S, 377, 393, 4<H, 
440, 463, 464, 469,471, 477, 479, 484, 
506, 536, 599, 600, 609, 621 ; his birth, 
1S8 ; early life, iSS, 189; at college, 
1S9-194 ; his diaries, 191, 193 ; his 
dream of the Last Day, 192; call to 
Maiden and settlement, 194-199; au- 
tograph, 199 ; marries Mary Reyner, 
200; his disease, 218, 221; charges 
against Joseph Hills, 220 ; death of 
his wife, 221 ; " Day of Doom," 223- 
232 ; his library, 232 ; " God's con- 
troversy," 233-236; goes to Bermuda, 
237 ; his house and land, 76, 239, 240 ; 
elegy on Bunker, 241, 242 ; a physi- 
cian, 244 ; his Balsam of Fennel, 244, 
245 ; " Meat out of the Eater," 246- 
249; "Song of Praise," 250; his re- 
covery, 260; marries Martha Mudge,- 
261-265 ; offer from Harvard College, 
265; death of his second wife, 281; 
marries Sybil Avery, 281-2S5 ; regains 
the confidence of his people, 286, 287 ; 
letter on witchcraft, 337 ; his death, 
293 ; Mather's sermon, 292, 294. „ 

Wilcox, Mary, 798. 

Wilder [Weilder], Robert, 88; Thomas, 
76, 120. 

Wilkinson, Bethiah, 395, 396 ; Elizabeth, 
386; Isaac, 207, 368, 377, 3S0, 396; 
John, 336, 377, 433, 442, 443, 464, 
606; Prudence, 61, 67, 81, 83, 3S6, 
39 2 . 393; Susan, 146. 

Wilkinson's Creek, Si. 

Willard, Abijah, 690; Josiah, 508, 534; 
Rev. Samuel, 26S, 338; Simon, 323- 
328. 

Williams, , 687; Gideon, 744, 832; 

John Foster, 793 ; Joseph, 566. 

Willis, , 414; Rev. Eliakim, 412, 

423,426, 4S4, 49S, 571-575. 579, 581. 
591-599,661, 741, 742, 763, 765, 825, 
832; autograph, 574; threatened, 591 ; 
William, 323. 

Willoughby, Francis, 76-78, 102, 109,44s. 

Willow Avenue, M., 433. 

Wilson, Elizabeth, 168, 399, 445, 672; 
George W., 202, 482, 484, 56S ; Jacob, 
395, 401, 464, 496, 605, 607, 614, 615 ; 
Rev. John, 34, 35, 39, 58, 131, 154; 
grant to, 57-59, 79, 102, 109, 487, 488, 
498; Rev. John, Jr., 131, 135, 150; 
John, 215, 397, 39S, 403, 456, 459, 472, 



8;o 



INDEX. 



482, 501, 506, 510, 521, 529, 531, 606, 
614-616, 626, 699; Joseph, 168, 309, 
3 2 «> 342, 350, 352, 370, 372, 373, 277 , 
379. 399. 40i, 403. 405, 425, 430, 43 r > 
433. 46i, 539. 542, 5S0, 615, 617, 683, 
689; Maria P., 568; Nathaniel, 607; 
Paul, 85, 123, 124, 239, 328, 600; 
Samuel, 605 ; Tabitha, 168, 445. 

Wilson's Corner, M., 435. 

Wilson's Hill, 672. 

Wilson's Point, see Blanchard's Point, 
54. 57,214. 324,396,487, 48S, 530, 600, 
623 ; early house there, 57 ; highways 
there, 4S8. 

Window Blinds, 672. 

Wines, Faintnot, 68, 71. 

Winnisimmet, 19, 37,39, 53, 55, 79, 92, 
93. 95-97, "3, 125, 203, 215, 260, 273, 
274, 43 2 > 442, 447, 455- 610, 681, 749, 
75I.756, 757, 834. 

Winnisimmet Ferry, 316. 

Winnisimmet Road, east, 79, 90. 92, 93, 
442, 455, 834 ! west, 203, 239, 428, 435, 
436,487, 595, 772. 

Winship, Edward, 120. 

Winslad [Winslow], Elizabeth, 346; 
James, 328; Jacob, 259, 32S, 345, 346, 
35 2 > 3 62 > 377, 47i, 534, 607 ; autograph, 
345 ; John, 259, 319, 328, 345, 534, 542, 
543, 664; Jonathan, 345, 346; Joseph, 
345; Thomas, 345. 

Winslow, see Winslad ; Edward, 31 ; 
his voyage to the Massachusetts, 32 ; 
George, 484. 

Winter Hill, 743, 746. 

Winthrop, John, 34, 35, 39, 40, 54, 55, 
79,89, 92,93, 113, 132, 134, 167, 174, 
178, 183, 342; Dr. John, 200, 236, 243; 
Col. John, 689-691,699; Martha, 87, 
89, 167; Wait-still, 279. 

Winthrop, Mass., 53. 

Winthrop Street, E., 103. 

" Winthrop," the, 802. 

Wise, Rev. Jeremiah, 464; Rev. John, 
464. 

Witchcraft, 268, 323, 330-338, 377 ; 
Wigglesworth on, 337. 

Witherall, William, 67. 

Witter, WMlliam, 40. 



Woburn, Mass., 65, 108, 113, 157, 169, 
172, 315, 322, 370, 407, 413, 449, 450- 

453, 487, 49S, 709, 713, 756- 

Wolfe, James, 700. 

Wolves, 25, 88, 112. 

Women, petition of, in favor of Mat- 
thews, 146. 

Wonohaquaham [Sagamore John], 20, 
33- 37-40. 42 ; his death, 39, 42 ; his 
children, 39. 

Wood, Edward, 76; Ruth, 124, 321; 
William, his observations, 20, 21, 24- 
26. 

Woodbury, John, 18. 

Woodlawn Cemetery, 70, 212, 37S, 406, 
442. 

Woodstock, Vt , 424. 

Woorie, Ralph, 76. 

Woolrych, John, 60, 67. 

Worcester, Mass., 212,361, 498, 540,547, 
584-588, 591, 592,700,701, 773; grant 
of land at, 302-304 ; first settlement, 
304; burned, 305; second settlement, 
305 ; Free Public Library, 474 ; see 
A/a Men Farm and Ministry Lands. 

" Word to those that are Afflicted," 638 ; 
facsimile of title-page, 640. 

Workhouse, 407, 408, 725. 

Wormall's Point, see Wormwood Point, 

37- 
Wormore Point, see Wormwood Point. 
Wormwood Point, 37, 56, 62, 104, 382, 

429-432, 445, 461, 462, 540, 580 ; wharf 

at, 432. 
Worth, Judith, 394. 
Wright, Rev. Samuel Osgood, 749, 755, 

800, 828 ; Timothy, 664. 
Written Trees, see A/arked Trees. 
Wyeth, Rev. John, 651. 
Wyeth Street, M., 433. 
Wyman, Isaac, 649. 
Wyoming Avenue, Mel., 445. 
Wyoming Cemetery, 98, 355, 443. 

Yarmouth, Mass., 132, 158, 620. 
Yellow Day, 73o. 

York, Me., 30, 255, 479, 481, 635, 646, 
666,687. 



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